By Joanna Putman
Police1
COVINGTON, Ky. — The Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney has released body camera footage of an officer-involved shooting of a man who held a knife to his wife’s chest and threatened to kill her, WCPO reported.
Officers from Taylor Mill, Covington, Fort Wright and the Kentucky County Police Department responded to the call on June 30, according to the report. 911 callers reported that a woman was being assaulted by her husband inside the home, with the man threatening to shoot and “gut her.”
The man involved had a previous standoff with police days earlier, according to officials. Video footage released on July 11 shows Covington SWAT members entering the home, where a woman’s cries for help can be heard.
An officer found the man standing over the woman with a knife to her chest. The officer can be heard yelling, “Get off her!” and “Drop it!” before firing one round, killing the man.
The officer has been found to be justified in using deadly force, Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders announced in a statement. Sanders called the officer’s actions “heroic” and said he saved the woman’s life.
Sanders also criticized the release of the man from Eastern State Hospital, a long-term mental health treatment facility, where he had been ordered after being deemed a threat to himself and others, according to the report.
“This case is a sad, but all too common example of how Kentucky fails to protect the public from the mentally ill, and if this isn’t addressed, it will not be the last time police have to shoot someone to save an innocent victim,” Sanders said.