Sandy MaloneRocky River, OH – Officials have released bodycam video of the officer-involved shooting of a woman who rushed at officers with a knife on Monday morning (video below).
The incident occurred at about 1:45 a.m. on Nov. 8 when officers responded to the Linden House West Apartments after receiving a call from the U.S. Secret Service about a woman who had threated to harm herself, police, and former President Donald Trump, WJW reported.
Secret Service agents told Rocky River police that 42-year-old Sarah Ziccardi claimed that she was armed with a gun and a knife.
A Secret Service agent stayed on the phone with Ziccardi while police responded to her apartment, WJW reported.
“Officers saw that she had a large knife in her hand, they told her several times to drop it and she charged at the officers,” Rocky River Police Chief George Lichman said, according to WOIO.
Bodycam video showed that when officers arrived at Ziccardi’s apartment building, she was waiting for them.
An officer called on the woman to come out of her apartment, the video showed.
Ziccardi came out of her residence with a butcher knife in one hand and her cell phone in the other.
“Put the knife down. Drop the knife,” the officer told the woman in a calm tone of voice.
He continued yelling at her to drop her weapon as she charged down the hallway at the officers with her butcher knife, the bodycam showed.
Chief Lichman said one of the officers deployed a Taser at Ziccardi as she charged at them, according to WJW.
The police chief said a second officer opened fire with his duty weapon and fired two shots at the knife-wielding women rushing at him.
Ziccardi was struck one time in her upper chest, WJW reported.
Officers approached the woman where she fell and kicked the knife away from her.
Then they immediately began to perform life-saving measures until the ambulance arrived, the video showed.
She can be heard in the video telling officers that she wanted to kill former President Trump, WJW reported.
Ziccardi was transported to MetroHealth Medical Center for treatment of her wounds, WOIO reported.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) is heading up the investigation into the officer-involved shooting, WJW reported.
The three officers involved in the shooting have been placed on paid administrative leave while the incident is investigated, as is protocol for all officer-involved shootings.
Chief Lichman said that Ziccardi was well-known to the Rocky River Police Department, WOIO reported.
“In 2018, she smashed a car into three or four of our police cars, one of which was occupied by a police officer,” he explained.
The police chief said that the officer who shot Ziccardi is an 11-year veteran of the police force, WOIO reported.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below. WARNING – Graphic Content:
Holly Matkin
