ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The Orange County Sheriff’s Office released body camera footage on Thursday of a man who was fatally shot while running at deputies with a knife on Sept. 21.
At about 4:30 a.m. that day, 42-year-old Richard Green’s girlfriend called 911 to report her boyfriend had a knife and was going to kill himself, Sheriff John Mina said in a social media video. Deputies responded to the call at the InTown Suites at 1951 Central Florida Pkwy.
The initial 911 call states that Green had locked himself in the bathroom with the knife and threatened to harm himself.
The body camera footage posted on the Orange County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page shows deputies in the parking lot bringing Green’s girlfriend to safety and trying to get Green to come out of the motel room.
Green stood in the doorway with a knife but went back inside his room when he saw authorities, the video shows.
In the footage, deputies and Green’s girlfriend can be heard offering to help him.
After about 20 minutes, the video depicts Green coming out of the room holding the knife above his head and running toward the deputies. In response, six deputies fired several shots at Green.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
“Our deputies were in the parking lot attempting to get him to come out without the knife so they could get him the help that he needed. So after about 20 minutes of trying to get him to drop the knife and come out, the man ran out of the apartment holding a knife above his head, running straight towards our deputies in an attack-style posture. Several deputies fired their service weapons at the man,” Mina said in his social media video statement.
Deputies were told to cease fire once Green fell to the ground, the body camera footage shows.
According to a news statement by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, deputies treated Green on the scene until the fire department arrived and transported him to the hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
The release of the body cam footage is pursuant to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Release of Video Recordings in Critical Incidents policy.
The deputies who fired their weapons are on temporary, paid administrative leave as the shooting is still being investigated, according to the news release. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate the shooting before turning over its findings to the State Attorney’s Office for review. The Orange County Sheriff’s office will conduct an investigation once the process is complete.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: