DAYTON — Police have released body camera video showing the moments officers tried to wrestle a gun away from a man before shooting and killing him.
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News Center 7’s Mike Campbell will break down the new information and video on the officer-involved shooting tonight on News Center 7 at 5:00 and 6:00.
The man was identified as Reginald Thomas, 44, according to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office and Dayton Police Department.
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As News Center 7 previously reported, the shooting happened just before 9:30 p.m. in the area of N. St. Clair and E. Third Streets.
Police Chief Kamran Afzal said on Wednesday that this started after an officer was on routine patrol and saw Thomas on a bike commit a traffic violation and stopped him.
Police said Thomas kept trying to show the officer his ID even though they hadn’t asked for it. That led the officer to ask him if he had a weapon. In the newly-released body camera video, Thomas can be heard denying having one.
Thomas jumped off his bike and took off running right after that. The officer caught up with him and took him to the ground.
At that point, the body camera video shows Thomas appears to have a gun in his hand.
After a struggle, the officer pulls out their gun and orders Thomas to drop his weapon. He does, and the officer re-holsters his gun.
When the officer tried to handcuff Thomas, he fought them. The struggle started at a grate and moved four to six feet back to the gun.
Slo-motion picture form of the video appeared to show Thomas again reach for and grip the weapon. That’s when a second officer who arrived for back-up fired one shot, hitting Thomas.
Officers began to render aid to Thomas before he was taken to Miami Valley Hospital, where he later died.
Both the officer who initiated the stop and the one who fired the shot have three years of service with accommodations and no discipline.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office will conduct a criminal investigation and present the facts to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office.
An internal administrative investigation will be conducted by the Dayton Police Department’s Professional Standards Bureau.
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