Body Camera Footage Released in Illinois Police Shooting That Killed Man and 4-year-old Hostage
This week, body camera footage from a March 16 police shooting that killed an Illinois man and the 4-year-old boy he was holding hostage was released.
Macomb police released the edited footage on Monday after a special prosecutor determined there was no basis to arrest the officers involved, whom the police department named as Lt. Nick Goc and Officer Korri Cameron.
The policemen were placed on leave, which is a regular procedure.
The shooting was the result of a domestic violence episode that occurred on March 16 in an apartment in Macomb. Terrell Marshawn Miller, the youngster who died, was identified by family members.
His mother, Keianna Miller, remembers him as a “smart” and “amazing” child who enjoyed Spider-Man.
“He was my pride and joy,” she explained. “I know if he would have had a chance to grow up, he would have changed this world.” According to the police department, Goc and Cameron arrived at the apartment shortly after 10 p.m. in response to multiple 911 calls. According to the report, one caller claimed to have heard gunfire.
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The police discovered blood smeared on the wall of the building’s stairs, according to body camera footage. Police said they knocked on the apartment door, declared their presence, and forced the residents to open it.
Officers forced their way inside the apartment after hearing a lady scream for help and say, “He’s stabbing me,” police said.
The video shows the woman sprinting into a living room area. The video shows her telling officers that her son is in another room. The child can be heard screaming.
“The officer orders the female with injuries out of the home to safety,” police say in the narrated body camera video. “What happens next transpires in a matter of seconds.”
The attacker, who is naked and brandishing a knife in his left hand, rushes into a room and reemerges seconds later, clutching a second knife and holding the youngster prisoner.
According to police, the man held one knife at the child’s throat and another near the child’s waist.
The footage shows that one of the officers fired a single shot, striking both the dad and the youngster. authorities provided aid and summoned medical professionals, but the dad and child died on the site, according to authorities.
Miller claimed she returned home from a family vacation to find her boyfriend, Anthony George, inebriated, according to officials. She claimed she put her son to bed and tried to convince George to go to bed so he could “sleep it off,” according to reports.
“He comes into the room… and he leans in like he’s going to kiss me, and he says, ‘If I can’t have you, nobody can,'” the woman added, according to investigators. “And then he pulled the knife out and put it to my throat.”
According to authorities, Miller stated that she attempted to talk to George to calm him down, but it was ineffective. She claimed he raped her before taking the knife and “cutting my back,” according to investigators.
Terrell heard the disturbance in his mother’s room and knocked on the bedroom door, they said, adding that Miller told them. George urged her to put Terrell back in bed.
Miller told officers that she took her son and fled the apartment through a back door. She claimed George heard her attempting to run when Terrell tripped down the stairs, according to police.
Miller claimed George chased them down and began stabbing her in the building’s corridor while she shouted for help. She claimed he then dragged her back into the flat, according to investigators.
Police came shortly afterward.
According to a March 18 news release, the individual refused to drop his firearm despite several demands, and officers were “fearing for their safety” when the officer fired.
Miller’s attorney, Marleen Suarez, questioned why the cops did not try to de-escalate the situation.
“There was no de-escalation, no negotiations,” she stated at a press conference on Monday. “I find it difficult to imagine that in the heat of the moment, he did not pause and consider. “I’m not sure what made him believe he could make that shot.”
Suarez stated that the incident occurred around 16 seconds after cops forced entry into the apartment. She said the officer’s round wounded Terrell in the head and George in the neck.
Keianna Miller “told them, she was adamant as she was being taken out of the apartment, her baby, her son was back there,” said Suarez to reporters. “So they were well aware there was a child back there in his bedroom.”
The Illinois State Police investigated the incident and turned it over to the McDonough County State’s Attorney’s Office. The state’s attorney’s appellate prosecutor concluded that the officers would not face charges.
In a letter to the county state’s attorney on July 8, Special Prosecutor Jonathan H. Barnard stated that after reviewing evidence, he determined “that there is no basis for any criminal action or prosecution that is supportable under the facts of this case against any of the officers involved in this tragic accident,” according to NBC affiliate WGEM of Quincy.
Illinois State Police sent queries to the county state’s attorney’s office and the appellate prosecutor, who did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Miller, who received several stab wounds, stated that the cop who discharged the weapon “needs to go to jail.”
An internal police probe is ongoing. The officers could not be reached for comment using the phone numbers supplied.
Suarez stated that she intends to sue because the family believes “the police officer acted recklessly.”