By Rosalio Ahumada
The Sacramento Bee
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento Police Department on Monday released video of an officer shooting a man holding two kitchen knives as he assaulted his 84-year-old wife on July 2 inside their South Land Park home.
The suspect, 75-year-old Michael Moore, was shot during the encounter and later died at a hospital. His wife was not seriously injured, police said in a news release.
The department released an edited video with a police narration of what occurred leading up to the fatal shooting. Police also released unedited video from two body-worn cameras, a dashboard camera and audio recordings of dispatch calls.
The police shooting occurred at the home in the 5600 block of Gilgunn Way, just south of Fruitridge Road. At 12:15 a.m., officers were called to the home for a report of a man threatening to kill his partner, police said.
“Now my husband is threatening to kill me. He’s having hallucinations, he’s had this before,” Moore’s partner said in a recorded 911 call. “I am locked in the bathroom, and I have a feeling he may try to break in here any second.”
During the 911 call, she explained she and Moore have been together for 35 years but were not married. When the 911 call taker asked her if there were any weapons in the house, she said “Uh, yes, but he doesn’t know where they are. Well, there are knives.”
Moore’s partner said there was one gun in the house. She also told the dispatcher Moore was upset and had returned home that night after being taken June 26 by police to Methodist Hospital. Police did not release information about the week-old incident.
Officers arrived and foundMoore standing at the home’s front entrance; the door was open. The officers stood near the sidewalk as one of the officers spoke to Moore from the edge of the front lawn.
The officer introduced himself and asked Moore “Can you just put the knives down? And we’ll figure it all out, we’ll get you some help.”
Officers repeatedly asked him to drop the knives
The video shows officers repeatedly asked Moore to put down the knives. The officers remained near the sidewalk for about 10 minutes, trying to de-escalate the situation.
“I’m willing to talk to you, sir, as much as you want,” the officer told Moore.
The officer was later heard in the video, forming a strategy with the officers to prepare to use less-than-lethal weapons, including a Taser and a bean-bag shotgun.
The officers also brought out a ballistic shield in case they need to approach Moore, who continued to hold the knives in his hand. At one point in the video, it appears Moore is smacking the knife blades together. He also smashed a glass bottle on the cement walkway leading to his front door.
“If you want to come here and kill me, that’s fine,” Moore is heard in the video telling officers.
The officer told Moore: “I don’t want to hurt you, sir. That’s absolutely the last thing I want to happen.”
The victim’s daughter was outside the house, and she told officers her 84-year-old mother had locked herself inside the bathroom. The officers are heard in the video deciding they will haveto move in if Moore attempts to break into the bathroom.
“As long as he keeps talking to us, we can try to de-escalate,” the officer is heard in the video telling the other officers.
At 12:34 a.m., Moore had walked away from the front entrance into the house and can be heard screaming. At that point, the officers headed toward the front door. Moore then walked back to the front doorway with the knives in his hands.
Woman was heard screaming inside house
The video shows the officers asking Moore to drop the knives as they prepared to use the less-than-lethal weapons. About a minute later, Moore again walked away from the front entrance into the house. The victim is then heard from the body-worn cameras screaming. The officers rushed into the house; one of them holding the ballistic shield.
Police said Moore forced his way into the bathroom and assaulted his partner. The officers confronted Moore as he was assaulting the woman, and one of the officers shot him, according to the department.
Three rapid gunshots are heard followed by one more shot. The video shows Moore standing in front of his wife in the bathroom as officers approached him. He is shot by police, and he falls to the floor.
Two body-worn camera videos show the knives in the bathroom. One camera angle shows Moore holding one of the knives in his hand as the officers reached the bathroom. The other camera angle shows a second knife hitting the bathroom floor as Moore is struck by gunfire.
Moore was on the floor bleeding as officers ushered his wife out of the house. The video shows the officers then prepared to handcuff Moore.
Police said the officers provided medical aid to Moore until medics from the Sacramento Fire Department arrived. The medics took Moore to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The officers were not injured during the encounter.
The Police Department released the video and audio of the incident as part of its protocol to release such material within 30 days of a police shooting. Police said detectives were in the process of identifying and retrieving other videos associated with this incident.
The fatal shooting was being investigated by the Police Department’s Homicide Unit, Internal Affairs Division and Professional Standards Unit, along with the Force Investigation Team to focus on policy, tactics and training in use of force. The city’s Office of Public Safety Accountability and the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office are providing oversight by monitoring the investigation.
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