The incident remains under investigation.
Frederick, Md (KM). The public has a chance to see the police body cam video of the incident last month where Frederick County Sheriff’s Deputies fatally shot a suspect who stabbed his mother and father. The Sheriff’s Office says to provide additional information to the community, it is releasing the body camera video from the incident.
Early Tuesday morning, November 29th, the 911 center received a call from a woman who said her brother stabbed their mother and father. In the audio from the 911 call, a woman tells a dispatcher that her mother was stabbed. She’s screaming and crying that “he’s stabbed my mom!”
Deputies, state troopers and Frederick Police responded to the 5800 block of Haller Place, which is east of Frederick city, for a stabbing. Medics and police located a man and a woman who had been stabbed.
The woman, the suspect’s mother, was transported to Shock Trauma in Baltimore and released within 58 hours. The man who was the suspect’s father father was taken to Frederick Health Hospital where he died.
Three additional deputies responded. They are Deputy 1st Class Casey Boettcher, Deputy Travis Sley and Deputy Nathan McLeroy.
The suspect, 23-year-old Aaron Mensah of Frederick, was located on Zoe Lane. The video shows he was ordered to “show his hands.” According to the video, less lethal methods were used, including a bean bag shotgun and a taser. “Drop it,” police tell Mensah. Gunshots were fired at Mensah.
“We got shots fired. Officer okay. We got shots fired,”: one of the police officers says on the video.
Authorities administered first aid, and you can here them telling the suspect “stay with me.” Mensah was pronounced dead at the scene.
Because it involved deadly force by police, this incident is under investigation by the Independent Investigations Division of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office detectives are investigating the homicide of the suspect’s father.
“Considering the new laws surrounding the investigation of law enforcement involved death of citizens, it’s important that factual evidence to include body worn camera footage be disclosed and made available to the public when possible,” says Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, in a statement. “This allows the public to see first-hand what occurred and understand why the suspect forced deputies into a situation where they had to use deadly force as a last option to stop the threat to themselves, following an already deadly attack by the deceased suspect on his parents.”
The body camera footage comes from cameras worn by State Troopers and Frederick Police Officers.
“This is a very tragic situation that ended with a deadly outcome that was completely avoidable, had the armed suspect obeyed deputes and simply dropped the knife,” Jenkins continues in his statement. “I must emphasize the fact that this critical incident was not one that any of the involved deputies want to experience and is very difficult for them.”
The Sheriff’s Office says it’s usually the policy of the Independent Investigation Division to release body cam video 14 days after the incident. But that can be extended if investigators need more time to complete witness interviews, if there are technical issues, or to allow family members to view it first before releasing it to the public.
By Kevin McManus
The video is available for viewing on wfmd.com, or the WFMD Facebook page.