Bodycam Shows Police Successfully Disarm Knife Wielding Man

The body camera of a Miami-Dade Police officer captured a tense standoff in November that could have turned deadly for one knife-wielding man. Several officers responded to a residential area of Southwest Miami-Dade, Nov. 15, after a man called 911 threatening to kill police officers. “He’s reaching for something, put it down,” one officer is heard saying as he spots the man from his car. “Put it down. Put it down. You don’t what to get hurt.” The dramatic video released on Wednesday shows officers pleading with a man, who, police believe, was trying to commit suicide by cop. The video shows the man — who will not be identified due to the fact that he suffers from mental issues — standing in the middle of a road holding a knife.

Officers surrounded the man, pleading with him to put the knife down. “Put it down, put it down,” the officer wearing the body camera repeatedly said. “You don’t want to get hurt.” He pleaded again with the man, “Sir, listen to me. Put the knife down. We don’t want to hurt you.” Police tried to end the situation without taking the man’s life. The video shows the first-person perspective of the officer pointing his Taser at the man and continue to plead with him. Another officer across the street, with a gun pointed at the suspect, tells bystanders to move away. “Crossfire — get out of the way,” he said. The officers told the man to relax and asked him to talk to them.

The suspect, who police believe is an ex-Marine, then tells the officers, “Shoot, shoot.” He told them that he is a father, and then threatened the officer who had a Taser. “I’m a father,” he says, before threatening the officer. “If you keep coming closer you’ll get it. I got a second when it hits me to come back to you. I’ve been shot before.” The officer wearing the body camera then takes a step forward and shoots the man with his Taser. “Check him, check him,” the officer said, after the man fell to the ground. Police took the man into custody and transported him to a hospital for mental health treatment. In his initial call to 911, he told police he was depressed. MDPD officers began wearing the body cameras in May. Now, more than 1,000 officers wear them.