Warning: The above video contains graphic language.
The Baltimore Police Department released intense body cam footage showing one of its officers getting shot in the hand during a struggle with an armed suspect who was eventually brought down with a Taser.
The incident, which went down last Wednesday, began when two officers patrolling South Baltimore noticed a man behaving in a suspicious manner and “exhibiting characteristics of an armed gunman,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said.
The video starts with the officers approaching the suspect—later identified as 35-year-old Allen Hosea Johnson Jr.—on the street.
“Show me your hands. Show me your hands,” one of the officers says as he shines a flashlight on Johnson.
“What’d I do?” Johnson says.
“You got a gun on you, man?” the officer asks.
“No,” Johnson replies. “I don’t have s**t.”
“Don’t reach for anything,” the officer says as he starts to move Johnson’s shirt at the waist, presumably looking for a gun.
Things escalate from there as Johnson physically attacks the officer. During the struggle, a gun goes off, shooting the officer in the palm of his hand. He steps back, and the second officer then uses a Taser to subdue Johnson, who screams.
“They’re literally wrestling over the gun, and then the gun is discharged by our bad guy and it strikes our 30-year-old police officer in the hand,” Davis said Thursday, according to the Baltimore Sun. “These things happen very, very quickly. It’s a matter of seconds. It’s a violent struggle. And thank God we’re not talking about planning another police funeral.”
Police recovered a .40-caliber handgun at the scene belonging to Johnson.
The injured officer, a three-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, was transported to a local hospital and has since been released.
Johnson, meanwhile, was treated for non-life-threatening injuries at another hospital. He has been charged with attempted first and second degree murder, illegal possession of a firearm, felony assault second degree of a law enforcement officer, and other firearm and drug offenses, ABC 2 reported. CBS Baltimore says Johnson was in possession of crack and heroin at the time of his arrest.
As it turns out, prior convictions barred Johnson from legally owning a gun.
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