Chicago, Illinois — Police Accountability Private Office Released Body Camera Video of a Chicago police officer fatally shooting 28-year-old Turell Brown who was armed with a knife. Police responded to a domestic incident at an apartment in Block 6500 on South Harvard Avenue after 11:00 am on September 19.
Footage shows two officers entering the apartment Brown and his girlfriend shared, and questioning Brown’s girlfriend, who told police he had punched her several times after they got into a fight about laundry. Brown’s girlfriend then told police Brown was in the back room of the apartment and had a knife.
As the cop began to move towards the back room, he heard Brown yelling at them, and the cop returned from the apartment, pulling his gun. After a while, Brown appears from the back room, holding a knife and waving to the cops, telling them to leave. Brown is obscured by a wall for a brief moment, and when he reemerges he doesn’t appear to be holding anything in his right hand, but his left hand is obscured, the video shows.
Brown slowly steps closer to the officers and appears to extend his right arm toward the door of the apartment to try to close it. An officer again tells him to put the knife down before firing three shots, striking him. A knife appears to fall from his left hand, according to the video. A second officer begins several minutes of chest compressions.
Brown was later pronounced dead.
