Arlington police release bodycam video from fatal officer-involved shooting
Arlington PD releases video of officer-involved shooting | FULL
Arlington Police Chief Al Jones gave an update and released body camera video of a deadly shooting that involved four police officers. The man who was killed was reportedly suicidal and lunged at officers with a large know. Plus, the chief shared more information about the overnight arrest of an Arlington man who allegedly confessed to stabbing his two young boys, leaving a 5-year-old dead and a 2-year-old hospitalized.
ARLINGTON, Texas - Arlington police released body camera video and provided an update on an officer-involved shooting that ended with a man’s death.
The 56-year-old man was suffering a mental health crisis and reportedly lunged at officers with a large knife.
Body camera video released
What's new:
Chief Al Jones identified the deceased man as 56-year-old David Eversole, who had been making suicidal comments and had access to knives. Four officers responded to the 911 call from another person in his home.
"When officers entered the room, Mr. Eversole became very upset and pulled out a large knife. The officers gave him multiple verbal commands to drop the knife, but he did not comply. In an attempt to de-escalate the situation, you can see the officer start backing out of the room. He lowered his weapon, but at that moment, Mr. Eversole came towards the officer still holding the knife. The officer then fired multiple shots at Mr. Everson, striking him," Chief Jones said.
Dig deeper:
The chief also shared more context on the person seen in the body camera video greeting officers at the front door. Although he mentioned working in law enforcement, he does not have an active peace officer license with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.
"I can tell you, we had a separate encounter with him in May of this year where he claimed to be working as a bounty hunter. I bring this up to say he is not a police officer, and we have no evidence that he received any form of law enforcement or use of force training," Chief Jones said.
The man can be heard in the video yelling "less lethal" at officers. But Jones said that at the point that Eversole pulled out a knife, it became a deadly force situation.
The chief also said police have responded to the home four times in the past, although none of them involved Eversole. Two of the calls were related to medical emergencies. One was a 911 hang-up and the fourth was an emergency mental health detention on another individual who lived in the home.
What they're saying:
The body camera video showed a tense interaction. Chief Jones called it a tough situation for his officers.
"This is very difficult. These calls are very unpredictable, especially when someone introduces a weapon to it. You know, and our heart rates go up. And unfortunately, this had a negative outcome," he said. "But as I said before, we want to have positive outcomes on every mental health call that we respond to."
The chief reiterated that all officers go through crisis intervention training to help them recognize when someone is in crisis and also try to mitigate that situation.
"And as you can see in the video, our officers clearly started trying to back out of the room to try to de-escalate the situation. Unfortunately, Mr. Eversole took a step at our officers still holding the knife, and we had to take appropriate action," he said.
What's next:
All four officers involved in the shooting were placed on routine administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.
Chief Jones confirmed there are two independent investigations ongoing – a criminal investigation to determine whether a criminal offense occurred and an administrative investigation to determine whether all department policies were followed.
The officer who fired the deadly shot has been with the department for 15 years, the chief said.
Deadly Arlington police shooting
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Arlington police fatally shoot man in mental crisis
Arlington police officers shot and killed a man while responding to a home for a mental health call. The man was reportedly threatening to take his own life and charged at officers with a knife.
The backstory:
The deadly shooting happened on Sept. 17 around 10:45 p.m. at a home in the 1700 block of West Lovers Lane. That’s just south of Interstate 30, north of West Pioneer Parkway.
Witnesses told police the 56-year-old man was in a state of emotional distress and threatening to take his own life.
Police said the responding officers heard the man yelling and learned that a family member was in the room with him. They immediately got the family member out, but then the man got upset and pulled out a large knife.
Arlington police shoot, kill man with knife during mental health call
Arlington police officers shot and killed a man who lunged at officers with a knife while suffering a mental health crisis.
"The officer gave the man multiple verbal commands to drop the knife, but he did not comply. The man then moved towards the officer, still holding the knife. The officer fired his service weapon multiple times, striking the man," Arlington police said in a statement.
The man was taken to the hospital, but he did not survive.
No officers were hurt.
The Source: The information in this story comes from the Arlington Police Department and past news coverage.