Bodycam Shows DeKalb Police Beg Man To Drop Knife Before Shooting

DEKALB COUNTY, GA — Body camera footage released Thursday shows DeKalb County police begging a man to drop the knife he was wielding before fatally shooting him.

Officers arrived at a home on the 2500 block of Terrace Trail around 6 p.m. Monday after receiving reports of a man "aggressively wielding a knife" there, according to DeKalb police spokesperson Michaela Vincent in a statement Tuesday. The man was later identified as 35-year-old Matthew Williams.

Once officers approached Williams, he lunged at them with the knife, "causing one of them to discharge their firearm," Vincent said in a statement Tuesday morning. Police said it was not clear if he was hit at that time.

"Attempts to make contact with him were made resulting in him lunging at the officers with the knife again, causing an officer to discharge his firearm," Vincent said in the statement.

• Related: Man With Knife Lunges At Officers, Killed By DeKalb Police

Williams' family questioned the police's account of the shooting and asked investigators to release the body camera footage so they — and the public — could see what really happened, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported.

The family's attorney, Mawuli Davis, said it was clear Williams was experiencing a "mental health crisis" during the incident, he told the AJC and WSB-TV.

WSB-TV aired the body camera footage Thursday night, and DeKalb County police posted the segment on Facebook. At the 1:14 minute mark, Williams is seen walking down a set of stairs toward a police officer. Ten seconds later, he lunges at the officer and starts chasing after him.

A second officer drew their gun and can be heard shouting at him to stop multiple times, but he continued to chase the other officer, then retreated into a house. The second officer told Williams to drop the weapon.

Officers can then be seen kicking open the front door of the house at the 2:19 mark, and Williams is shown flipping up an ottoman in the doorway to block himself from officers' view. He then tried to push the front door closed.

At the 2:44 minute mark, officers can be seen kicking the door open again. One gunshot was fired, and at 2:51, officers used a stun gun on him.

Around the 3:04 minute mark, an officer can be heard pleading with Williams to put the knife down.

"Please sir, I'm begging you. You're a Black man, I'm a Black man. You don't have to die today. I don't want you to die today. Put the knife down," the officer can be heard saying to Williams.

Three gunshots were fired at Williams at the 3:17 minute mark of the segment.

"It's a sad day when we have to end our day this way, but we also know that it's a sad day for Mr. Williams' family and we will do all we can to do a thorough, clear and fair investigation," DeKalb Police Chief Mirtha Ramos told WSB-TV.

Davis told WSB-TV that he and the family believe Williams was having a mental health crisis during this encounter, and they believe mental health negotiators could have saved his life.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and DeKalb police are still investigating the shooting.