SEATTLE, WA – An officer-involved shooting in Seattle occurred on October 15th where a 37-year-old man is now in custody after allegedly throwing a long stick engulfed in flames inside of a police cruiser, which resulted in the police cruiser being completely scorched.
Officials recently released footage related to the incident.
Detectives with the Force Investigations Team have released body-worn, dashcam, and surveillance video from the ongoing investigation into the Thursday’s officer-involved shooting in South Lake Union.
Viewer discretion is advised.https://t.co/nXo7lpFUe2 pic.twitter.com/pgzb8uqgWm— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) October 16, 2020
Suspect Brian Leil is currently in custody and is facing first-degree assault charges after the unprovoked attack that transpired on October 15th. Seattle police were made aware of reports regarding a man walking around while holding a large torch of sorts.
The incident was said to have taken place at approximately 1:30 p.m. within the area of South Lake Union at Dexter Avenue and John Street.
When Officer Caleb Pomazon had made contact with Leil, he’d personally witnessed the large spear-shaped object in the suspect’s had that was engulfed in flames. Being rather reasonable, Officer Pomazon ordered from a distance for Leil to drop the torch.
Torch in suspect’s hand – YouTube screenshot
That directive was responded with a “fuck you” from Leil.
Officer Pomazon then drove his cruiser toward Leil and simply said the following to the suspect:
“Seattle Police, stop dude!”
Then, that is when the suspect began running fervently toward Officer Pomazon while hoisting the fiery spear-like object as though it were a Medieval joust.
Suspect running toward officer’s unit with torch ablaze
Leil is captured on video breaching the cruiser window with the flaming object, and Officer Pomazon begins to open fire on the suspect.
Surprisingly, Leil was not hit – but that also is in conjunction with the officer having had a flaming projectile being launched into his cruiser as though it were a javelin.
Perspective from inside of officer’s unit as flamed torch breaches interior of unit
During the ending portions of the released footage form the incident, you can see the interior of the cruiser begin to have plumes of smoke permeate the inside of the vehicle.
Seattle police Sgt. Randy Huserik spoke about the moment when the interior of the police vehicle was breached:
“As officers went up to contact him, he was somehow able to get the torch into a sensitive area of the patrol car that it caught fire.”
It was as Leil was being arrested that the flames began to spread inside of the police vehicle. By the time officers had Leil in custody, the cruiser was beyond salvaging. No one was grievously injured during the incident, but Officer Pomazon was treated for minor burns due to the attack.
The suspect in this case is allegedly a local itinerant which, with some locals saying he has been seen wandering around the homeless camp in Denny Park. Witnesses to the incident stated that Leil had been “stomping” around said homeless encampment shouting racial epithets prior to the police encounter.
One of the local vagrants, Nina Ross, stated that Leil had been involved in attacking people previously while armed with a hammer:
“I guess he was the one hitting people with hammers. He hit a black guy.”
Leil is currently being held in the King County Jail and had a bond of $500,000 placed on him.
In other news related to recently released bodycam footage, an officer-involved shooting in Phoenix, Arizona showcased a female police sergeant non-fatally shoot a suspect armed with a wood saw who had been allegedly assaulting women earlier that evening.
The incident occurred at approximately 6:23 p.m. on September 30th.
According to reports, numerous 911 calls came in regarding a man who had been assaulting people and causing damage to property in the area of 44th Street & Camelback Road.
The suspect was later identified as 38-year-old Khambrel Dante Sharp.
When the Phoenix Police sergeant could see that Sharp was armed with what appeared to be a large knife upon her arrival at the scene, she began issuing commands for Sharp to discard the weapon.
Sharp disregarded the orders to drop the weapon and began running from the sergeant. After a brief foot pursuit, she located Sharp while he was laying down in a drainage ditch. The sergeant bestowed a commendable display of de-escalation tactics that unfortunately did not resonate with the suspect.
The suspect then decided to stand upright and started moving toward the sergeant while holding the edged weapon. In response, the police sergeant fired two shots at the suspect, non-fatally wounding Sharp in the process.
Backup officers has arrived shortly after the shots were fired by the sergeant, and they were able to kick the weapon away from Sharp and then place him into custody. After being placed into custody, Sharp was transferred to a local hospital for treatment.
As for the police sergeant, who has not yet been identified, she was described as being with the Phoenix Police Department for 16 years and is part of the department’s patrol division and is currently assigned to the Mountain View Precinct.
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