Missouri Police Shoot Black Man After He Charged at Them With Knife and Bible
Police in Jennings, Missouri, shot and killed on Friday a black man who charged at them carrying a knife and a Bible.
The victim was identified by the police as Thaddeus McCarroll, 23, of Riverwood Drive.
According to the St. Louis County Police Department, McCarroll's mom earlier called the police to say that her son locked her out of the house and was not behaving normally.
She wanted the police to remove McCarroll from the house due to his erratic behavior, saying that he was talking about going on a "journey" and a "mission" and mentioned a "black revolution."
Police responded at about 9:21 p.m. and saw the man through the house's front window walking around the house with several knives and a Samurai sword.
The police said they attempted to talk to the man but failed to convince him.
An hour later, a police supervisor declared that the situation was an armed barricaded subject and requested assistance from the Tactical Operations Unit.
The unit came and began negotiating with McCarroll to surrender.
After one hour, the suspect came out of the house armed with a knife and a Bible on the other.
The tactical officers on scene began giving verbal commands for him to drop the weapon.
A video was uploaded by the police on YouTube to show how they responded to the situation as the man came out of the house.
McCarroll was asked to drop the knife but he started walking towards the officers. The police said tactical officers fired a less lethal round to disarm him.
"The less lethal round struck the subject. However, it had no effect in causing the subject to comply and drop the knife. The subject immediately charged the officers at a full run with the knife still in hand," the police said in a statement.
Two officers then shot him several times. McCarroll died at the scene.
"This is another tragic situation where police officers had no other option than to use deadly force against an armed subject," said Chief of Police Jon Belmar stated. "A family lost a loved one tonight and that is tragic, there is no understating that. My officers took every precaution to safely resolve this situation, starting with over an hour long attempt at negotiations with the subject."
"The officers resorted to less lethal force to try and bring the incident to a safe conclusion with no loss of life, but this individual made the decision to refuse these attempts, and charge at officers with a deadly weapon," he added.
The St. Louis County Police Department's Crimes Against Persons Unit is investigating the incident.