Akron, Ohio — A police officer in Akron, Ohio, is under investigation after firing more than a dozen shots last week at a man he suspected of having a gun, officials say.
The city’s mayor said this week that it appears the man, who has not been publicly identified, was not armed at the time of the shooting.
According to Akron police, the incident unfolded a little after 9 p.m. local time on Nov. 11, when officers were dispatched to 911 calls about a fight outside an Akron bar.
In one 911 call released by police, the caller tells a dispatcher that a man who had been kicked out of the bar was in a parking lot pointing what appeared to be a gun at the bar.
“It is like a black 9mm it looks like,” the caller said. “He aimed it through the window and tried to shoot, and it didn’t shoot. I don’t know if he has the safety on, but we all ran.”
On Tuesday, Akron police released body camera footage showing an officer arriving at the scene. The officer spots the suspect and shouts at him to get his hands out of his pockets.
In the video, the officer threatens to shoot the suspect if he doesn’t get down on the ground.
“Get on the ground or you’re gonna get shot,” the officer can be heard saying in the body camera video.
Then, within 25 seconds of exiting his patrol vehicle, the officer fires more than a dozen times at the man, the police body camera footage appears to show.
The suspect was struck multiple times and was severely injured, police said. As he was handcuffed, he pleaded with officers that he was not armed.
“I never had a gun, I never had a gun,” the man repeats as he lies on the ground with officers attempting first aid, the video shows.
The man’s family told CBS News on Wednesday that he remains hospitalized and is unconscious.
The officer, whose name has not been released, had four years of law enforcement experience, but had been with Akron police for about one year, police said. He has been placed on paid administrative leave, per department policy.
In a statement Tuesday, Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation “will investigate to determine whether the suspect had a gun prior to the officer involved shooting, but it is our current understanding that he did not have a gun on his person at the time he encountered our officers, even though callers reported he was armed.”
Malik added that the “incident underscores why we are undertaking a comprehensive review of APD’s use-of-force policies, practices, and procedures.”
Akron police said in a statement that the department’s Office of Professional Standards and Accountability will conduct its own “separate internal investigation.”
