Thanks to a tip from commenter Gremlin1974 right here on Legal Insurrection I was directed to this relatively high-quality body camera footage of a police officer engaging a suspect with gunfire, following the suspect pointing a pistol at the officer.
Further details of the event were reported by local news station Fox 23 and by Chuck Ross at the Daily Caller.
The shooting took place on January 16, 2015 in Muskogee, OK. The ex-girlfriend of 21-year-old Terence Walker, black, was getting married, an event to which he took umbrage. His solution was to threaten to shoot her on her wedding day, including such details as noting that he had a particular bullet selected just for her.
When the bride approached her pastor in tears and shared these threats, he immediately called 911, saying of Walker: “He’s here with a gun,” Jones said of Walker on the 911 call. “I need a police officer because I got to stop this. I got a whole bunch of people here, and I don’t need nobody hurt.”
Police Officer Chansey McMillin, white, was dispatched to the scene. The body camera released begins as his vehicle is pulling into the church parking lot, captures the shooting itself, and continues for several more minutes until the crime scene has been secured and McMillin is on his way to the police station for debriefing.
The video shows Officer McMillin approaching Walker, asking whether he is armed, and beginning to frisk him. Walker is clearly very nervous, and McMillin asks him why he’s shaking. Walker bolts, and McMillin pursues him on foot.
At one point Walker appears to drop something, bend over and pick it up, turning towards McMillin in the process, and that’s when McMillin engages Walker with five fast shots fired from his Glock service pistol.
Walker falls to the ground and slides into a drainage ditch beside the road. He never moves again, suggesting that shot placement was adequate to immediately neutralize the threat.
A close examination of the video suggests that McMillin drew his pistol and fired the first shot when Walker was turned towards him, but that successive shots fired by McMillin occurred when Walker had again turned away to flee. Walker was, of course, still armed at this point as a silver pistol, reportedly with the hammer cocked, was ultimately recovered immediately beside his body.
Nevertheless, I would not be surprised if the autopsy were to disclose that some or all of the bullet wounds to Walker entered the posterior of his body. This is not uncommon in dynamic interactions like shootings, but naturally could potentially provide fodder for the Sharpton’s of the world.
Also notable about the video is McMillin’s physiological response to the stress of the engagement, this response continuing for many minutes after the shooting is finished.
It appears from the video that the lens of the body camera is located on McMillin’s weak-side shoulder (meaning, for the left-handed McMillin, his right shoulder). Any body camera location has advantages and disadvantages, as can be seen here where much of the left-hand side of the video is obscured by McMillin’s left arm gripping his pistol.
The ultimate take-home, of course, is always the same in these events: non-compliance and pointing guns at the police is very likely to get you shot.
–-Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
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Andrew F. Branca is an MA lawyer and the author of the seminal book “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition,” available at the Law of Self Defense blog (autographed copies available) and Amazon.com (paperback and Kindle). He also holds Law of Self Defense Seminars around the country, and provides free online self-defense law video lectures at the Law of Self Defense Institute and podcasts through iTunes, Stitcher, and elsewhere.
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