D.C. police released officer body camera footage on Thursday that was taken as an officer shot and wounded a man last week in Northeast D.C.
Jaron Wimbish, 25, was shot by a Metropolitan Police Department officer on Oct. 5 after an hourslong standoff in the unit block of McDonald Place NE.
MPD released a seven-minute portion of footage on which a man can be heard trying to negotiate with Wimbish. Crisis intervention officers and members of the Department of Behavioral Health responded to the home after Wimbish’s mother, Denise Calloway, called for help, she told News4. Wimbish had shot a relative with a BB gun, Calloway said.
The man heard speaking to Wimbish evokes Islam and Wimbish’s family.
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“I think if your imam were here, he’d agree that we need to be able to do this peacefully. In order to do this peacefully, we need you to come up here and do this face to face, so you can see your sons again. So you can see your grandmother again,” the man says.
Suddenly an officer asks for a police shield and repeatedly orders Wimbish to get on the ground. The picture is shaky.
Then several shots can be heard.
“Shots fired! Shots fired!” an officer says.
Officers can be seen beginning to offer medical treatment to Wimbish.
Police said in a statement that the shooting is under investigation and the officers involved were placed on routine administrative leave.
Officers were dispatched to the home at about 12:10 p.m. in response to a report of an aggravated assault by a person suffering a mental health crisis.
Wimbish was found with “a large knife and what appeared to be a handgun.” He retreated to the basement and refused to leave. Crisis intervention officers and members of the Department of Behavioral Health spoke to Wimbish for hours, police said.
At about 5 p.m., officers smelled smoke, Executive Assistant Chief of Police Ashan Benedict said.
“During the negotiations, the subject lit an accelerant on fire on the basement steps, prompting members of the Emergency Response Team to enter the basement. Upon entering, the suspect brandished a handgun and fired it at the officers,” the statement from police said.
An officer fired and hit Wimbish. D.C. Fire and EMS responded and took him to a hospital for treatment of serious injuries.
Police then recovered a large knife and a paintball gun from the basement. Benedict initially called the knife a machete.
Wimbish was charged with assault on an officer while armed, assault with a dangerous weapon and arson.
Wimbish’s mother’s disputed elements of what police say happened.
“It was a knife, and he was not holding it when the police came,” she said.
She also said there was no smoke or fire in the home.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact police.
Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.
