Sandy MalonePhoenix, AZ – Phoenix police released bodycam video on Monday of an officer shooting an armed man holding a baby that he had just torn away from his mother (video below).
The incident began at about 3:15 p.m. on Jan. 9 when police received a 911 call from a hotel manager that reported a couple fighting in the parking lot near 7th Avenue and Van Buren Street, KTVK reported.
Surveillance video from the hotel parking lot showed 37-year-old Paul Bolden waving a gun around and throwing a woman to the ground before he grabbed a baby and ran off.
The mother of the baby called 911 and told police what had happened, KTVK reported.
“My husband just took my baby,” she told the dispatcher. “He has a gun. He’s loaded. He took the baby. He is trying to kill him. He’s fired. He’s shooting…he’s going to kill people.”
Video showed Bolden took off from the hotel parking lot running and fled down the street with the baby.
Police said the armed man ran into the street and stopped a random car, KTVK reported.
“I’m at the McDonald’s drive thru and there’s this black man that stopped a white car and he has a gun and has a baby in his arms,” a caller told 911. “He stopped the white car in the street and he has a baby in his arms and he has a gun.”
Four officers arrived on the scene within a minute and saw Bolden fire his gun with his baby in his arms, according to KNXV.
Bodycam video showed the officers repeatedly told Bolden to put the gun and the baby down.
“He has a kid hostage right now. He has a gun. One gunshot already,” an officer said in the video.
One of the officers on the scene squeezed off a single rifle round and shot Bolden in the head as he held the baby, causing him to drop to the ground, the video showed.
Police on the scene rushed to aid the baby without regard for their safety and without waiting for an all-clear, KTVK reported.
The video showed an officer grabbed the baby out of Bolden’s arms and pulled him to safety.
“Hi buddy, hey buddy, are you okay?” the officer asked the toddler as he carried him away from the scene.
Police reunited the mother – later identified as Priscilla Chavez – with her son just a few minutes later, KNXV reported.
Bolden was transported to the hospital and pronounced dead.
Officials said nobody else was injured but that several buildings had sustained damage Bolden’s gunfire, KTVK reported.
Chavez told police that Bolden had been awake for four days using drugs at the time of the incident, KNXV reported.
She said that Bolden was the love of her life and had been a doting father to one-year-old Casino, the baby he was holding when he was shot.
Chavez told KNXV that she didn’t think officers should have shot Bolden in the head.
Phoenix police have not identified the officer who shot Bolden but said that he was a four-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Department, according to KTVK.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below. WARNING – Graphic Content:
Holly Matkin
