[Illusion]

Bellingham Police have released the name of the suspect who died at the scene of a police shooting. In a BPD press release, the suspect has been identified as Manuel Gonzalez, 28. On Sunday, March 12, Gonzalez stabbed a man, age 20, in the neck during an altercation in the 100 block of E. Holly Street. Gonzalez then fled the scene on foot, while witnesses gave chase. Gonzalez ran to the 1400 block of Railroad Avenue where a second confrontation between witnesses and Gonzalez was ongoing.

Police said that officer Jeremiah Leland came to the scene and ordered Gonzalez to drop his knife. Police said Gonzalez failed to drop the knife and advanced toward Leland, prompting Leland to shoot him. Gonzalez was pronounced dead at the scene. An initial autopsy of Gonzalez determined he bled to death from a gunshot wound to the neck. Police said Gonzalez had a history of minor criminal offenses. The 20-year-old man who was stabbed remains in serious condition at a local hospital. Leland has been an officer with the Bellingham Police Department for three years, police said. The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Department is leading the investigation into the shooting.

[GOD's SADNESS]

Result of to much drugs on that person, can't think appropriately/ the other one knowing that job involves that you have to kill at one point, didn't care, so that makes him a murderer too.

[kellyhound]

n Thursday the department released four videos of the incident: two from citizens, one from a traffic camera, and one from Leland’s body-worn camera.

Several angles show Leland stopping his patrol vehicle right in front of Gonzalez and others who had been fighting him.

On the body camera, the officer opens his driver’s side door at the 25-second mark. He draws his gun within two seconds. Gonzalez flails his arms, and moves closer to the officer.

“Don’t step any closer, I’ll kill you!” Leland shouts. “Drop the knife!”

A citizen’s video captures Gonzalez’s answer clearly. He yells at the officer to shoot him.

Ten seconds after arriving, Leland fires four shots from his department-issued handgun. No other officers fired.

The traffic camera shows Leland backing away, but Gonzalez rushes at him, and in that split-second he’s shot. They’re about the width of a parking space apart.

“Code 3, shots fired, Code 3,” Leland says.

One backup officer arrives in five seconds. Another runs into view 10 seconds later. Officers tell Gonzalez to put his hands out, “like an airplane,” so that they can be sure he’s not armed. Gonzalez groans.

“Put your hands out like an airplane, bud!” Leland says. “We want to help you, but you need to put your hands out before we can come up!”

Police wait about a minute, and then an officer runs up to handcuff him.

Bellingham patrol officers wear Taser-brand cameras that capture audio and video when police hit “record,” and silent video of the preceding 30 seconds.

Dr. Gary Goldfogel, the Whatcom County medical examiner, said an autopsy showed three out of four rounds struck Gonzalez, in the neck and chest.

The lethal round traveled downward through the neck, into the chest, causing massive internal and external bleeding.

Three bullets were recovered from the body. Goldfogel said the shots were fired from a distance, “over several feet.”

Gonzalez bled to death at the scene.

“Although this is a tragic incident for our community and everyone involved, we are grateful that Officer Leland was not injured during the attack,” Bellingham Police Chief Cliff Cook said in a statement. “While we are still trying to locate Mr. Gonzalez’s next of kin, we will extend our condolences to his family.”

Officer Leland joined the Bellingham Police Department three years ago. Police identified him when they released the videos Thursday.

The 20-year-old man who was stabbed continued to recover at St. Joseph hospital this week. His condition improved from serious to satisfactory by Tuesday, when a detective was able to interview him. On Thursday police said “his prognosis is good.”

Gonzalez :

Gonzalez’s recent history with local police is well documented in public records. Last year he threatened a Bellingham traffic cop with a folding knife when he was detained for shoplifting coconut water from Grocery Outlet, 1600 Ellis St.

Officer Henry Ortega had pulled over his police motorcycle around 9:50 a.m. March 3, 2016, when he saw Gonzalez leaning against a building a block from the grocery store. He fit the shoplifter’s description. Once Ortega got close, Gonzalez reacted as if he might fight or run, police said at the time.

So Ortega ordered him to face away with his hands behind his back. Gonzalez faced away, and moved his hand to the buckle of his pants.

He pulled out a black-and-camouflage knife, and spun around in an “attack position,” charging papers say.

Ortega held Gonzalez at gunpoint and ordered him to drop the knife. He did, eventually, tossing it into the street.

Gonzalez pleaded guilty to second-degree assault. Charges of possessing meth were dropped. Court records say he had no known prior record. At a sentencing hearing, a judge told him because of the felony, he could no longer have guns.

“Yeah, but everybody has knives,” Gonzalez told Judge Ira Uhrig.

The judge reiterated that it was a ban on guns, not knives.

Gonzalez was released from jail Sept. 20. Court documents list his address as a Canadian-owned farm northeast of Lynden. More recent police records say he lived at the Lighthouse Mission on Holly.

Over a three-day period in early November, Bellingham police cited Gonzalez for misdemeanors in four separate cases: thefts, criminal trespassing, and assault.

Officers took him to jail a few weeks later on warrants for missing court dates, outside of the Community Food Co-op on East Holly Street.

Gonzalez had no photo identification on him Sunday. The medical examiner verified his identity through fingerprints.

A sheriff’s detective traveled to Texas in search of a family member to notify, but could not find next of kin this week. Gonzalez’s body was released to a local funeral home.

Police didn’t confirm his name to the media until late Thursday afternoon.

The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office is leading the investigation of the shooting. All public information, however, has been released through the Bellingham Police Department, an arrangement that’s within the guidelines of the county’s Law Enforcement Multi-Agency Response Team, or LEMART, said Sheriff Bill Elfo.

City police are in charge of investigating the stabbing. A citizen video released by police shows someone in a blue coat shouting at Gonzalez on Holly Street.

A man with a skateboard walks up to Gonzalez from behind. Almost face-to-face, he says something to Gonzalez, who reacts by swinging at his neck.

The man grabs his throat. He remains standing. Gonzalez runs off.

Police haven’t explained what led up to that incident.

Good riddance of that mental knife wielding idiot.

I post the bodycam footage as one vid below

[docfr8]

Good shit

[Vince the prince]

.... so was this a suicide by cop.

[flyflicker123]

" They should have used a tazer", will be heard soon...

[gimlet]

Scratch one *******...

[Oswald2001]

Originally Posted by flyflicker123 ↗

" They should have used a tazer", will be heard soon...

Or the famous, "Should shot the knife out of his hand like in the movies.".

[Necrotic Bowel]

One less scumbag roaming the streets. Well done officers. Thank you.

[kellyhound]

Originally Posted by redeyedkiwi ↗

Did anyone else notice that freaky as fuck streak of light right at the 56 second mark? If you pause it right there, well, that shit is strange!

yup and just before that the same when you look just above the hood of that pick-up truck not to mention the strange flip that whatever it is laying on the street makes at 1.16 when i hardly see any branches moving on those trees.