New release body cam video Baltimore police captured footage of a naked man charging at a convenience store with a machete and throwing a knife.
Around 9:15 a.m. on Dec. 30, officers responding to a report of a robbery encountered a naked man wearing only socks standing on the corner of the 2000 block of West Street. The Baltimore Banner reported.
Security camera footage shows a man, later identified as Russom Gebretzadik, without clothes, walking outside the convenience store and walking inside, where an employee told police he saw a naked man. She said that the man she was staying with had gone upstairs.
Body camera video released last week shows police searching for a man they found on the stairs behind the building.
“What were you doing naked?” the officer asked the suspect, who was now fully clothed and pretended not to know.
“Are you going to play with me, brother?” the officer asks.
Seconds later, the man threw an object at the officers, who retreated to call for reinforcements with bulletproof shields.
One of the officers believes the suspect threw feces, but later in the video he can be heard saying he believes it was food.
The footage shows officers moving through several rooms before a door opens and an officer carrying a shield, identified as James Stokes, a nine-year veteran of the department, steps forward. .
A police spokesperson said Gebretzadik “emerged from behind the door” and began “advancing” towards the officers, who then realized he was carrying a combat knife and a machete. .
After the man threw a knife at police, Stokes fired five shots at Gebretsadik, hitting him once in the leg, and he was seen being pushed back or falling to the ground.
Officers are seen climbing the stairs and handcuffing the suspect as he sits on the floor.
Police Commissioner Richard Worley told reporters that officers applied a tourniquet to Gebretsadik's leg, which “probably saved his life.”
No police officers were seriously injured in the incident.
The top police official added that a “device” was also found in the room where Gebretsadik was present. The items were examined by the police bomb squad and the Baltimore Fire Department.
A police spokesperson said no explosives were recovered from the building, but a lighter fluid bottle with liquid, a gas can with liquid, an oil jug with liquid, two motors, a lighter, gas Can spout and two circuit boards.
Authorities have not identified the liquid.
Gebretsadik was released from the hospital and charged with attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and related charges.
His trial is scheduled to begin on Monday.
It is unclear whether Mr. Gebretsadik was the first robbery suspect to whom police were called, but court records show the shooting took place at Mr. Gebretsadik's home address. WMAR reported.
