Officer-involved Shooting That Killed a Homeless Man

[kellyhound]

The Evansville Police Department released the body camera footage on Friday from a March officer-involved shooting that killed a homeless man.

Daniel Wooters, 38, was shot and killed by three Evansville Police officers in March after he stole a police cruiser, led them on a chase, crashed the car and then "advanced" toward officers with a knife.

The body camera footage of Officer Jonathan Helm shows that Wooters gets out of the cruiser while holding a knife. He then begins walking toward officers.

Police Sgt. Jason Cullum said officers told Wooters to drop the knife. He didn't.

"With the totality of the circumstances, he just carjacked a marked police car at knifepoint," Cullum said.

"We do try to do things to de-escalate the situation. This is not a situation where we walked up to a guy holding a knife."

Cullum said nothing in the video shows that Wooters was following officers' commands.

After Wooters was shot, officers handcuff him and then performed CPR about a minute after he was shot.

Three officers fired 11 shots at Wooters. He was hit seven times. The officers who discharged their weapons were Jason Thomas, 16 years of service; Zach Elfreich, 10 years of service; and Dexter Wolf, two years of service.

"The video verifies the information we put out initially," Cullum said.

[Susan]

I didn't see him advancing towards the officers. Yeah he had a knife, or what I'm taking to be the knife they're talking about, and held it out, but he didn't go towards them. Why don't they just state the truth, we can see it with our own eyes?

[mfedkiw]

I didn't see anything that I'd call advancing towards anyone with that knife.

What do you suppose the best course of action is if the police know you have a weapon, I'd be making sure it was visible when I exited the vehicle just like he did.

Btw, what ever happened to using tazers?

[Tslice]

THIS is the kind of police brutality I think these fucking pigs should be hung for! Dude is THIRTY FUCKING FEET AWAY FROM YOU, yet you pop a cap like your starring for a role in a 50 cent movie. Wtf is wrong with these badge wearing, power hungy, dipshit "cops". And not to fucking mention, YOU HAVE TAZERS FOR A REASON!

On a side note: I bet Black Lives Matter won't be the least upset about this vid. No whiny baby syndrome.

[11B2P]

Unjustified

[cortdb]

at the 9minute mark the officer says he should have tased him ...... i dunno but dude shouldve did what they said....

[eyeful_hound]

nothing in the video shows that Wooters was following officers' commands

Really? He was supposed to hear over the sirens?
You could see it was a knife not a gun, and yes he was pointing it at them. Standing and pointing a knife.

I didn't see an immediate threat requiring deadly force; but I didn't just chase after a guy and pumped up on adrenaline either.

[nastyg]

Yup, that was murder

[flyflicker123]

Who cars Hes trash with a rap sheet im sure...goo enough for me to unplug him.

[rob666]

Borderline.

He did take a few steps forward, he did have some knife.

But, he was far away, not moving either.

Tough call. I'd chalk it up to don't fuck with the cops while holding a weapon, unless you're looking to get shot.