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A video released by a Southern California police department showed a man wrestling a gun away from an officer and getting into her police car before another officer shot and killed him.
An officer said “he has my gun. He has my gun. Please don’t shoot me. Please don’t shoot me," in body camera video released Wednesday by the Fountain Valley Police Department.
She got out of her car and hid behind a mail truck before another officer arrived and shot through the cruiser's window, breaking it before shooting and killing the suspect.
The suspect in the Jan. 24 shooting was identified as Osean McClintock, 26, of Fountain Valley.
Officers were responding to a report of a “disturbed” man trying to open the door of a car occupied by a woman as she was leaving a middle school, Lt. Mike Parsons of the Fountain Valley Police Department said in a briefing posted online with the video footage. The caller noted the woman appeared “visibly shaken."
A male officer first approached McClintock on the side of the road. The video showed McClintock repeating “In Jesus’ name, I pray forever. Amen” before running away. The officer chased him on a charge of resisting arrest but lost sight of him and radioed to colleagues to “just let him go” if he ran again.
Another officer radioed that she copied and turned on her camera when she saw him in front of her car, which delayed her video’s audio. As she got out of the car holding her gun, McClintock tried to grab it and she ended up on the ground in the scuffle.
McClintock repeated, “You're saved in Jesus' name forever.” as he fought for the gun.
When the second officer arrived, McClintock was standing in the street holding the gun. The officer shouted, “Put it down, dude! Put it down!”
McClintock then entered the police vehicle and shut the door as the officer began firing. Bullets broke the window and hit McClintock as the officer radioed in the shooting.
Police performed CPR on the man, but he was pronounced dead by the Fountain Valley Fire Department. Both officers involved were unharmed, according to radio traffic. Their names were not released because of the ongoing administrative investigation, Parsons said.
The shooting is being investigated by the Orange County District Attorney's office.
Geoffrey Alpert, an expert on deadly force and professor at University of South Carolina, said it was extremely rare for a suspect to get ahold of an officer's gun.
Exiting her vehicle with the gun like that put the officer in a “very vulnerable situation" but it is important to hear what the officer's reasons were for drawing her weapon, he said.
If the first officer said “let him go,” Alpert said, "I don’t blame her for trying to apprehend him, but why with a gun?”
He also said it was important to question what the imminent threat was to the officer or anyone for the male officer to pull the trigger.
“Is he shooting because he perceives the guy is pointing the gun at him? Or is he shooting because he doesn’t want the guy to get away with a stolen gun and a stolen vehicle,” Alpert said.
Fountain Valley, a city of about 55,000, is located in Orange County and approximately 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.
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