The people of Philadelphia are angry tonight following a deadly police shooting in West Philly. Witnesses looked on as police gunned down a 27-year-old man with a knife right in front of his mother.
Authorities are now looking into the incident, which was caught on video. Police were initially called to the scene around 3 p.m. for a report of a man with a weapon.Â
Police can be heard in the video ordering the man to drop his weapon several times and even telling his mother to move out of the way as they prepared to fire on him. The man, who was pronounced deceased at a nearby hospital, was later identified as Walter Wallace.
Here is the full video of the police shooting:
Witnesses say the man was not charging at police and critics of the officers are questioning why less lethal force wasn’t used to get the man to comply with their orders.
Police are looking to talk to eyewitnesses about the shooting. There were also unconfirmed reports circulating that Wallace may have been autistic.
According to NBC Philadelphia, investigators said the officers involved were wearing body cameras which will be part of the investigation.
In a response to the shooting, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner announced his office’s Special Investigation Unit will be part of the investigation of this police shooting.
“The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office takes its obligation to try to be fair and to seek evenhanded justice seriously,” Krasner said. “The DAO Special Investigation Unit responded to today’s fatal shooting of a civilian by police shortly after it occurred, and has been on scene with other DAO personnel since that time investigating, as we do jointly with the PPD Officer-Involved Shooting Investigation Unit, in shootings and fatalities by other means involving police.”
Later on Monday night, angry citizens took to the streets of Philly to protest. We’ll keep you posted on any updates.
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