Footage of a San Diego police shooting that killed a 26-year-old man armed with a knife earlier this month was released Monday showing the sudden encounter.
San Diego police officers fatally shot Andrew Christian Engel on Jan. 13 after responding to an E Street apartment regarding a man who was reportedly suicidal and in possession of a knife.
A video, released by the San Diego Police Department on its YouTube page, begins with audio from a 911 call in which a man can be heard requesting police and an ambulance for his roommate who had harmed himself.
According to the department, Officers Gavin Isa and Eric Moreno responded to the East Village apartment, which was occupied by Engel and five others.
Footage from Moreno and Isa’s body-worn cameras show the officers exiting an elevator, met by a man who can be heard saying, “It’s pretty bad. He’s, like, trying to kill himself.”
“Ok, you guys get out,” one of the officers can be heard saying.
After evacuating the apartment, the officers stand in a doorway.
“All right, just get your gun,” Isa tells Moreno.
Moreno draws his firearm and can be seen aiming it at an empty doorway as Isa searches a bathroom.
“I got a bathroom, I’m just not sure … We’ll wait for more units,” Isa says.
Isa moves back to the entrance of the apartment and asks the former occupants who are standing in the hallway about the layout of the apartment.
In footage from Moreno’s camera, Engel appears in a doorway and begins to approach Moreno with his right arm raised above his head, his hand grasping a knife.
Engel can be seen with blood on his neck, torso and wrists.
“Hey Andrew, hey, hey, hey, San Diego police, stop,” Moreno yells as he moves backward. He fires his weapon multiple times.
Footage from Isa’s camera shows the officer speaking with the occupants before Moreno can be heard reacting to Engel. Isa can be seen holding his stun gun in his right hand before shooting his firearm with his left hand around a corner.
Isa reports shots fired as Moreno commands Engel to drop the knife.
“He still has the knife in his right hand,” an officer can be heard saying.
Segments of the video posted on YouTube show slowed or paused segments of the body-camera footage focusing on the knife Engel was holding.
Engel was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The video shows a photo of the knife police say Engel was holding at the time of the incident.
According to the footage, approximately 80 seconds passed between when the officers exited the elevator to the end of the shooting.
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