Newly released video showing a police officer repeatedly shooting a man who was likely unarmed 25 seconds after he arrived on the scene has sparked an investigation.
The man was shot after 9 p.m. on Nov. 11, following reports about a fight in a parking lot outside a bar in Akron, Ohio.
Despite reports that the man had a gun, Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said in a statement Wednesday, “It is our current understanding he did not have a gun on his person at the time.”
Body-worn camera footage released Wednesday shows the as-yet unidentified officer shouting and swearing at the man, and commanding him to show his hands and get on the floor. “Get the f–k on the ground now or you’re gonna get shot,” the officer says.
Less than 25 seconds after his arrival the officer fires more than a dozen shots at the man, who falls the floor. The officer continues to demand the man removes his hands from his pockets “or you’re gonna get shot again.”
Asked where the gun is, as he is being handcuffed the man tells the officer: “I never had a gun.”
Officers then remove the man’s shirt, revealing multiple gunshot wounds.
NBC affiliate WKYC of Cleveland reported that the man is Corey Phillips, 36, citing a family member, and that as of Sunday night he was alive but in critical condition in a hospital ICU.
Signal Akron, a media partner of WKYC, said Phillips had undergone several surgeries, citing an occasional employer.
The Akron Police Department released a recording of a 911 call before the shooting in which bartender said they and several others had locked themselves inside the bar and a man was armed with a “black 9mm” gun and had tried to shoot through a window. The caller said the man came into the bar earlier and was “acting very strange” and was asked to leave.
Mayor Malik said in a statement that while an investigation will determine whether the man did have a gun, it appears he did not at the time of the shooting. “I recognize how difficult and confusing this could be for many in our community, and I feel the weight of those concerns,” he said.
