Sandy MalonePhoenix, AZ – Police have released bodycam video from the fatal officer-involved shootings of a man who rushed at officers with a samurai sword earlier this month (video below).
The incident occurred on Sept. 10 after Phoenix police officers responded to a 911 call about a man brandishing a samurai sword near a Phoenix police precinct at 39th Avenue and Cactus Road, KTVK reported.
“There’s a guy. There’s a guy with a samurai sword,” the 911 caller told the dispatcher.
The caller explained the man was hitting the police station fence near the employee gate with the sword, KTVK reported.
“He’s not really damaging it, but he’s trying to,” he explained.
“He’s swinging a samurai sword?” the dispatcher asked in the recording of the 911 call. “That’s wild.”
Then another 911 call came in about the same suspect, KTVK reported.
“There’s a guy outside with a samurai sword hitting the fence and stabbing through the fence where the police pull into park their vehicles,” the caller said. “I just drove by there and I honked at the guy, and he was stabbing through the fence.”
When officers arrived on the scene outside the police precinct, the suspect was still there attacking the fence with a long sword, KTVK reported.
Bodycam video from the scene did not have audio but showed that as soon as officers pulled up in their patrol vehicle, the suspect – later identified as 40-year-old Aaron Baughman – started walking toward them with a katana in his hand.
Phoenix police said the officers ordered Baughman repeatedly to drop the sword, but he ignored them, KTVK reported.
When he ran at them waving the samurai sword, one of the officers opened fire on Baughman, the video showed.
Seconds after the shooting, a man pulled up at the scene and approached the fallen suspect, KTVK reported.
“What are you doing? Get away!” an officer yelled at the man.
The man stopped and was detained by police, KTVK reported.
It turned out he was Baughman’s father.
Baughman was transported to the hospital by ambulance but later died from his gunshot wounds, KTVK reported.
None of the police officers were injured during the incident.
Phoenix police have launched an internal investigation to determine whether the officers followed policy and procedures properly during the officer-involved shooting, FOX News reported.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below. WARNING – Graphic Content:
*Viewer discretion*#PHOENIX: Police have just released body camera footage from the fatal officer involved shooting where a man with a samurai sword charged at police near the Cactus Park precinct. #News #AZ #Shooting pic.twitter.com/Y79gO20gwj
— Jack | Phoenix Metro (@LLN_Jack) September 23, 2022
Holly Matkin
