Flagstaff police release video of fatal officer-involved shooting
Feb 13, 2018, 5:05 AM | Updated: 8:31 am
(Facebook Photo)
(Facebook Photo)
PHOENIX – The body camera footage of the officer-involved shooting that resulted in the death of an elderly man has been released by the Flagstaff Police Department.
Flagstaff police responded to a report of an armed man confronting a woman in the downtown Flagstaff area on Friday night. When officers arrived, 78-year-old John Hamilton ignored repeated commands from officers to put down the gun he was waiving around in his hand.
The nearly 10-minute-long video (WARNING: LINK CONTAINS DISTURBING CONTENT AND FOUL LANGUAGE) from Officer Daniel Beckwith’s body camera showed the officer arriving on scene and grabbing an assault rifle out of his police cruiser before making contact with Hamilton.
Beckwith gave Hamilton multiple commands for several minutes to show him his hands and to drop the weapon.
Another officer on scene with Beckwith is heard saying that Hamilton was waiving the gun around in the air and pointing it at officers.
“Drop the gun,” Beckwith said to Hamilton. “I will shoot you!”
When his commands were further ignored, Beckwith fired.
Body camera footage from Officer Travis Rowden, who was on the other side of the complex closer to Hamilton, showed Rowden also fired within a split second of Beckwith.
Authorities released five perspectives of the incident, as well as the original call to 911 and patrol reports.
Beckwith and Rowden were the only officers who fired at Hamilton. They have since been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation from the Northern Arizona Officer Involved Shoot Team, per department policy.
No officers were injured in the incident.
