Middletown police release body cam video from deadly Christmas Eve shooting
By: Police have released body cam video from the deadly Christmas Eve shooting involving officers.
It all unfolded after someone called 911 to report two men arguing and assaulting each other.
When officers arrived at the apartment on Park Lane, they knocked on the door and announced themselves. When no one answered, they knocked and announced themselves several more times.
Fifty-year-old Christopher Gorak eventually opens the door holding a gun in his right hand.
That's when the officer closest to the door immediately reacts, firing four shots and hitting Gorak.
He then falls to the floor of the apartment.
A few seconds later officers begin CPR And try to stop the bleeding from the gunshots.
But Gorak died from his injuries.
Late last month, a Butler County Grand Jury cleared the Middletown police officer who fired the four shots.
Prosecutors say the officer had three-tenths of a second to respond to a "threat of deadly harm."
"When you come out of an aggressive situation with a firearm in your hand, under circumstances where the police have been announced, you're probably going to be confronted with a lethal response, as was here, which is going to result in a justifiable shooting incident," Butler County prosecutor Michael Gmoser said.