WASHINGTON — DC Police have released body-worn camera footage of a shooting that put a 31-year-old man in the hospital last week. Police say the shooting happened after members of the department's robbery suppression unit tried to break up a fight on Bladensburg Road in Northeast on Monday, April 1.
According to police, it happened just before 9 p.m. in the 2100 block of Bladensburg Road NE. The officers observed some kind of altercation between a group of people. While trying to break up the group, one man took off running. Officers said the man was armed with a handgun.
According to their preliminary investigation, an officer chased after the man, who was later identified as 31-year-old Deion Hinnant of Northeast D.C. The police department initially said Hinnant turned toward officers at one point, and that's when shots were fired.
Body camera footage released on Monday shows the officer getting out of his cruiser and chasing after Hinnant, shouting at him several times to show his hands. "Show me your hands. I will shoot you," the officer says in the recording. Hinnant ignores the officer and keeps running.
Police say at one point Hinnant bent over at the waist and retrieved an object from the ground. In the video the officer fires at least five shots toward Hinnant as he runs around the corner of a building. That's when police say Hinnant raises his right arm over his head. The officer comes around the corner and shoots at Hinnant several more times, striking him. He falls to the ground and the officer radios a call of "shots fired." The man is seen being arrested on the ground by another officer and the video ends.
In total, the body-worn camera footage lasts 34 seconds.
Police say a loaded handgun was found at the scene of the shooting. Hinnant did not fire at the officer chasing him. The officer who shot Hinnant has yet to be identified, but police say he is on administrative leave pending the results of an internal investigation. No officers were hurt.
Hinnant was charged with assault on a police officer and several firearm-related offenses.
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