ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A witness to Sunday's police-involved shooting in Alexandria backs up what police are say, that the suspect refused to put his gun down.
"I saw it. It certainly looked justified to me," he said. The witness spoke exclusively to WUSA9 and provided a video he took immediately after the shooting.
The eyewitness asked WUSA9 not to reveal his name, but he did provide an account of what he saw and heard before he took the video. He said the officer was shouting at the suspect to put to put his gun down. He took the video from his apartment window across the street from where the shooting happened near the intersection of Patrick and Montgomery Streets in Alexandria.
In the video, a man is lying with his back on the curb and his head in the gutter.
Police officers are pointing their weapons at him from behind a building and a car.
The man on the ground slowly raises his arms. Two police officers, one coming from behind the corner of a building and the other from behind his cruiser, emerge into the open, guns drawn, pointed at the suspect on the ground.
All this while cars are driving by on Patrick Street.
As the officers get closer to the suspect, one kicks an object, apparently the suspect's handgun, out of the way.
Moments earlier, the man heard what sounded like gunfire around 4:20 p.m. He looked outside and didn't see anything.
A few minutes later, he heard loud shouting outside. He looked out the window and saw a police officer pointing a gun at a man and shouting for him to put the gun down.
"Within ten seconds he started firing...He fired, I think, counted at least five, but it took him a few minutes to go down, and maybe the fourth or fifth one I think he fell," said the man.
"I could see very clearly from my apartment and he definitely did not put it down," said the man. "They were facing each other. Each had a gun," and it appeared the suspect was pointing the gun at the officer, he said.
Alexandria Police said officers were called to the scene by several 911 calls for shots fired.
Two witnesses say that they heard three shots. One looked out the window and saw the suspect firing indiscriminately toward the road.
Resident Shaquana Talbert said the gunman "...was yelling, making a lot of noise, taking to himself. When I finally came outside, out front, I seen police over here pointing a gun."
And that's about the time when the man who took the video looked out his window and saw the police officer shoot the man several times.
"Certainly looked justified to me. I'm certainly not an expert, I don't have an agenda or anything like that but certainly, it appeared justified to me," said the man who took the video.
"If they told him to put his gun down and he didn't do it, then they had a right to do what they had to do to protect themselves," said Talbert.
That's exactly what several other residents said.
Alexandria police brought in Virginia State Police to investigate. WUSA9 has asked VSP for information about the incident, the suspect and the officer they have not responded at this time.
Sunday night, Alexandria Police said the suspect had serious injuries and that the officer who fired was placed on administrative, per policy.
