Body camera footage from an April encounter between police in an Atlanta suburb and a 35-year-old Black man shows that officers warned each other about the need to provide aid to the man they’d just shot inside his own home but failed to do so for over an hour.
Matthew Zadok Williams died at the end of the April 12 encounter with police inside his condo in DeKalb County, Georgia, after a neighbor who had mistaken him for a prowler called 911. The caller said that a “seemingly homeless” man was outside with a knife.
A woman told police she saw Williams lurking outside her home with a knife and Williams had stepped toward her with the weapon when she startled him.
Transgender Woman Wants to Pursue an Olympic Dream
“I guess I startled him, and he pulled a knife out, and he tried to like cover it, like, because I guess, I don’t know — because I’m a small woman, and he didn’t find me a threat or something,” she said. “But he pulled a knife out, and there’s just like a man outside my house, and I need somebody to take him away.”
At the scene, an officer told the woman he thought Williams lives in the home, but she said no one lived there. Williams’ family would later confirm that not only did he live in the home but he may have locked himself out.
Previously released footage of the shooting showed officers outside of Williams’ home. The officers instructed Williams repeatedly to drop the knife in his hand, but he failed to comply. When Williams ran close to another officer with the knife, the first shot was fired and Williams fell down but was able to run back inside his home. According to Williams’ family, he was suffering a mental health crisis at the time.
Recent Comments