POLICE in Maryland have released bodycamera footage showing a white officer shooting a black man who appeared to charge after him with a knife.
Video from the Montgomery County Police Department shows Sgt David Cohen confronting Finan Berhe, 30, in a parking lot in Silver Spring on Thursday.
Cohen’s bodycamera footage shows him putting on a face mask, and getting out of his vehicle, before pointing his gun at Berhe.
Berhe appears to charge at the officer, who then turns his mic on and shouts: “Put the knife down!”
Cohen calls for backup, and says he “has one with a knife refusing to get down on the ground.”
“Get on the ground!” the sergeant then shouts at Berhe, who continues to stand in the parking lot.
Cohen continues to aim his weapon at Berhe and tells him to get on the ground, as the 30-year-old appears to walk backward away from the officer.
The police officer repeatedly asks Berge to get on the ground and to “go inside,” before telling him, “I don’t want to shoot you.”
Berhe then quickly runs at Cohen — and he shoots his gun at Berhe five times.
As the officer opened fire, Berhe collapsed and dropped an object he was holding in his hand.
“Man down!” a man in the background shouted after the shooting stopped.
Berhe was transported to a hospital where he died, authorities said.
Investigators said they recovered a knife at the scene that Berhe was branding at Cohen when he was shot.
Cohen was responding to a call about a man who threw a rock at a neighbor’s window and who yelled for them to call police, the department said in a news release on Friday.
Chief Marcus Jones said Cohen performed first aid on Berhe before he was taken to the hospital.
Jones also said there is an eyewitness video of the incident, but that doesn’t appear to have been released by authorities.
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Cohen has worked with the police department for 17 years.
He was placed on administrative leave after the shooting, which is a standard procedure.
The findings of a police detective investigation will be submitted to the Howard County state’s attorney’s office.
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