PEORIA, Ill. — Illinois State Police have released body camera footage from a fatal police encounter that occurred after a man hit an officer with a wooden bat while he was being detained, the Peoria Journal Star reported.
According to authorities, Peoria police were responding to a report of a man publicly urinating on Aug. 5. Two officers approached the man, who was sitting on a curb holding a wooden bat in his lap.
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In the bodycam video released on Sept. 5 by Illinois State Police, one officer questions the man about the public urination report. The man can be heard repeatedly asking what he did wrong. The officer explained that a witness reported him urinating in public and that she saw him with his pants down when she arrived on the scene.
She repeatedly asked the man for the bat and his personal information, informing him that he was being detained. The man continued to ask why he is being detained and refused to put down the bat.
After his continued refusal to drop the bat, both officers can be seen approaching the man to detain him. The man then stood up, raised the bat and swung it at the second officer, hitting him in the arm. The officer then fired a single shot. The officers pursued the man as he continued to flee, eventually locating him in a nearby backyard.
Footage shows the officers attempting to handcuff Lewis, who continued to ask what he did wrong. The officers tried to help him stand and they told him to “stay with them” while requesting medical assistance. Other officers arrived on scene shortly afterward.
The officer who fired his weapon can be heard telling a fellow officer that the suspect hit him twice with the bat, prompting him to draw his weapon and fire. The officer is later seen retrieving the bat from a nearby yard, after a resident pointed out its location.
The Peoria County Coroner’s Office later confirmed the suspect died at the scene from a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
