*The City of Philadelphia has identified the officers involved in the fatal shooting of Walter Wallace Jr., the 27-year-old Black man who killed last month during a confrontation with law enforcement.
During a press conference Wednesday, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw named Sean Matarazzo, 25, and Thomas Munz, 26, as the officers involved in the deadly incident, ABC News reports. Officials also released audio and bodycam footage of the officers’ interaction with Wallace in the moments leading up to his death.
We previously reported… the shooting occurred on Oct. 26 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.”
READ MORE: Fatal Shooting of Walter Wallace Prompts Rioting in Philly – 30 Cops Injured, 1 Hit by Truck
The Philadelphia police officers who killed #WalterWallaceJr while he was having a mental health crisis did not have Tasers.
They shot him at least 14 times.
His mother said family had told the officers Wallace was having a crisis: “They stood there and laughed at us.” pic.twitter.com/WgGUkrhZE7
— AJ+ (@ajplus) October 29, 2020
Wallace was hit in the shoulder and chest. One of the officers 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. They yelled at him to put his knife down, but Wallace ignored the demands and began moving toward Matarazzo and Munz, according to police officials. Seconds later, each of the officers fired seven shots at Wallace.
“I understand he had a knife, but that does not give you carte blanche to execute a man, quite frankly,” family attorney Shaka Johnson told reporters at a news conference. “What other than death did you intend when you shoot a man — each officer — seven times apiece?”
The killing of Wallace and graphic cellphone video of the deadly encounter sparked protests, rioting and looting in Philadelphia.
Despite claims from the local police union president that Wallace was seen “lunging” at officers in the video, Johnson said the bodycam footage shows that that’s simply not true.
“What you will not see…and mark my words on this, you will not see a man with a knife lunging at police,” she said.
“The city has failed, not only the Wallace family, not only the other members of that community, who will be scarred and traumatized for the remainder of their days, but the city has also failed those police officers, it failed them tremendously,” Johnson said. “The only remedy the police had, in that moment per their thinking, was their service weapon. There was no less lethal action available. And that has been our war cry.”
City officials (and the Wallace family) released a joint statement on Friday, noting that the release of the body camera footage and 911 audio “is in the best interest of our city and its residents.”
“Philadelphians are experiencing an immense amount of pain, and significant unrest persists throughout the entire city,” the statement said. “The collective hope of our local government and the Wallace family is that releasing the recordings on November 4 will provide enough time to calm tensions and for the recordings to be released in the most constructive manner possible.”
The police shooting of Wallace is still under investigation.
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