The Baltimore Sun
SILVER SPRING, Md. — Video released Friday from a Maryland police officer’s body camera shows him warning the man to drop a knife and get down on the ground before he fatally shot the man as he charged at the officer.
Montgomery County Police Sgt. David Cohen fired the first of at least five shots about one minute after he exited his patrol vehicle and confronted Finan H. Berhe, 30, in a residential parking lot on Thursday afternoon.
“Put the knife down!” Cohen shouted as Berhe ran toward him and then stopped, momentarily backing away from the officer, who was pointing a gun at him.
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“Get on the ground! I don’t want to shoot you!” Cohen shouted just before Berhe started running at the officer again.
As the officer opened fire, Berhe collapsed and dropped an object he was holding.
“Man down!” a man shouted after the shooting stopped.
Police said investigators recovered a knife that Berhe was brandishing when Cohen shot him. Berhe died at a hospital, police said. No officers were injured.
Cohen was the first officer to respond to a call about a man who threw a rock at a neighbor’s window and yelled for them to call police, according to police Chief Marcus Jones and a police department news release.
The officer performed first aid on the man before he was taken to the hospital, according to Jones.
The chief said there also is eyewitness video of the incident, but that wasn’t immediately released.
Cohen, a 17-year veteran of the department, has been placed on paid administrative leave, a standard procedure after a police shooting.