*Philadelphia police officers fatally shot a 27-year-old Black man armed with a knife during an incident Monday afternoon that quickly raised tensions in the neighborhood and sparked a standoff that lasted deep into the night.
Disturbing video of the confrontation in West Philadelphia shows Walter Wallace Jr. being shot more than 10 times as his mother watched.
The shooting occurred before 4 p.m. as officers responded to a report of a person with a weapon in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood. Officers ordered Wallace to drop a knife he was holding, but a police spokeswoman said Wallace instead “advanced towards” them. Both officers then fired “several times.”
Wallace was hit in the shoulder and chest. One of the officers then put him in a police vehicle and drove him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later, police said.
Video of the fatal confrontation recorded by a bystander and posted on social media shows officers pointing their guns at Wallace as he walks in the street and around a car. He walks toward the officers as they back away from him in the street, guns still aimed at him. They yell at him to put his knife down.
Both then fire several shots and Wallace collapses in the street. A woman runs up to him screaming. Several bystanders then approach him.
It’s unclear in the video if he had a knife, although witnesses said that he did.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family of George Floyd, tweeted the video late Monday night.
Watch below or view here on Twitter:
Philadelphia cops fatally shot Walter Wallace Jr. today, firing 10+ times at him while he stood at least 10ft away. He allegedly had a knife but cops made NO attempts at de-escalating the situation in this video. They went straight to killing Wallace in front of his loved ones! pic.twitter.com/U2zYGqK7Ag
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) October 27, 2020
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