LAPD body cam shows man being fatally shot inside the kitchen during domestic violence call
By: 0:00 - Intro
0:10 - Police radio
5:57 - Body cam 1
26:34 - Action to shooting
32:00 - Body cam 2
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Smith’s death happened on the 200 block of South Witmer Street after a woman called 911 to report that Smith was violating a restraining order and in her home. On the call, the woman said Smith was “acting crazy” and that he was off his medication for schizophrenia. She told the dispatcher that Smith had likely grabbed a knife and said he wasn’t going back to jail.
She later told responding officers outside the residence that Smith refused to leave and that she feared he would “put his hands” on her. The woman said there was a knife inside and that Smith had already threatened to fight the police.
After a supervisor arrived, officers initiated contact with Smith. Body camera video from one officer shows Smith answering the door and one officer asking him to step outside to talk. Smith steps back into the apartment while saying that he’s getting his shoes. Still standing at the door, the officer asks Smith to relax and step outside. Smith quickly begins shouting at officers to not “do all that.”
Another officer tells Smith that if he hurts police, he will be Tased. The interaction with police lasts several minutes, with officers trying to calm Smith down and him at times growing agitated. Throughout, the officer who first entered the apartment attempts to talk Smith down.
At one point, things escalate as the man grabs a chair and refuses to put it down, even after being threatened with getting hit by a rubber bullet. After Smith puts down the chair near the entrance to the kitchen, the officer continues attempting to coax Smith outside.
The dialogue continues in the kitchen, with Smith shouting at police, at times unintelligibly. He eventually makes his way back to the entrance of the kitchen, only to go back in and briefly grab what the LAPD said was a 10-inch “butcher style” knife from the counter, prompting one officer to raise his stun gun and another to point what appears to be his service weapon.
Smith quickly puts the knife back down, and the officer holding the Taser tells him that if he grabs it again, he will be stunned. “We’re going to be here all day,” Smith says. Another officer tells Smith he needs to come out and “stop playing childish games,” which angers him.
At this point, Smith has placed two bicycles between himself and the police. He grabs one bike and picks it up, prompting an officer to deploy the stun gun. The tactic does not appear to phase Smith much, prompting the officer to call for a “second Taser.”
It’s at that point that Smith again grabs the knife. Officers stun Smith again and deploy pepper spray as he falls to his knees. They continue shouting at him to drop the knife, and he says that he doesn’t have anything.
The officers briefly stop shocking Smith, at which point he grabs the knife again. Police continue telling him to drop it, but he briefly raises it above his head. At that point, two officers fired their guns for a total of seven shots, LAPD Chief Moore said.
The LAPD said officers rendered aid for around eight minutes, until Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics arrived. Smith, however, died at the scene.
Moore said he had "concerns" neither the police dispatcher nor the officers or on-scene supervisor ever contacted the department's mental evaluation units or mental assessment response team for help.