An Atlanta-area police department on Friday released bodycam videos from an April 12 officer-involved shooting during which a Black man was killed.
The footage, obtained by Atlanta Black Star, showed 35-year-old Matthew Zadok Williams holding a knife as he rushed a DeKalb County police officer during an encounter outside his Decatur home. He was still wielding the knife and told police he was “defending his property” when officers pleaded for him to drop the weapon minutes later.
The videos indicate police opened fire on Williams on three separate occasions after he lunged at officers during the fatal incident, which lasted about 20 minutes. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is now investigating the shooting.
Williams’ family members spent much of the week calling for the release of the footage and reviewed it Thursday, according to CBS 2. They said it showed that the man was in the midst of a mental health crisis and believe police should have backed off and called a crisis negotiator, who could’ve possibly averted tragedy.
“He retreated in his own home. He was in his sanctuary. He was behind closed doors. He was no longer a threat,” Williams’ sister Hannah Williams told the Atlanta news station.
DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond agreed that officers should have called in negotiators, as did the family’s Atlanta-based civil rights attorney Mawuli Davis.
“What we saw was a young man who was having a mental health crisis. And we believe that when he was having that crisis outside of his home, that the officers acted in self-preservation mode,” Davis told CBS. “But once he entered his home, and his home was his sanctuary, we believe that at that point, knowing that he was having a mental health crisis, that they should have brought out negotiators and mental health experts, and even contacted his loving family in order to get him to come out.”
The bodycam footage showed officers make desperate attempts to convince Williams to drop his knife after he barricaded himself behind an ottoman chair near the front entrance of his house.
“I don’t want to hurt you, sir. Please don’t give us a reason to,” said one officer who identified himself as Sgt. Perry. Perry spent about six minutes trying to coax Williams out of the house as he and three other Black officers demanded him to drop the knife.
