D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has released police body camera footage of a fatal police-involved shooting on Christmas Day in Northeast.
On Christmas Day, Metropolitan Police officer responded to domestic dispute in the 3200 block of Walnut Street NE.
The video footage shows two police officers arriving to find Javon Hall, 29, holding with a knife while standing in a doorway of the home. His girlfriend was inside the house with him.
The footage shows the officer staying just outside the back door, Hall and his unnamed girlfriend on the other side of the door in the kitchen.
At one point an officer yells three times at Hall to “drop the knife.” The girlfriend then exits the house, and the door shuts behind her.
Seconds later the door opens and one of the officers fires four into Hall’s chest. Hall later was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Hall’s family, who saw the video not long after the incident, have said he did not have any weapons on him at the time of the shooting. His mother told Fox News 5 last week that her son wasn’t waving a knife and that he did not deserve to be shot.
But stills from the body camera footage, which Miss Bowser said she released because of the great public interest in the case, show Hall holding a knife pointed downward until just a few seconds before the officer fired.
Footage at the actual moment of the shooting is partially obscured by the police officer’s arm, but seconds later the officer can be seen taking the knife from Hall’s right hand and tossing it into the kitchen area of the house.
Miss Bowser has not yet released the name of the officer who fired, who remains on administrative leave.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case.
• Ryan M. McDermott can be reached at rmcdermott@washingtontimes.com.
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