Police in California have released body camera video showing an officer talk down a distraught man thought to be armed with a gun as he repeatedly begs the cop to shoot and kill him through sobs.
The incident took place just before 9am on November 27 in the City of Fontana in San Bernardino County, but the officer’s body camera video was only released on Monday.
According to Fontana Police Chief Bill Green, the situation began to unfold when a man called 911 to report a person armed with a gun and looking ‘very disgruntled’ in the area of Commerce Way and Santa Ana.
Officer Joshua McMillan, with Fontana police in California, responded to a report of a man armed with a gun on November 27
Body camera video released by the police department shows the officer repeatedly asking the suspect to pull his hands out of his pockets, but the man implores the cop to shoot him
As Green later revealed, the caller was actually the armed man himself, and he contacted the police in the hope of committing a suicide-by-cop.
Officer Josh McMillan arrived on the scene at 9.04am and found the suspect standing in the middle of the road, with his hands inside the pockets of his black sweatshirt.
In the body cam footage the cop emerges from his patrol car with his gun drawn and orders the suspect to show his hands.
‘Show me your hands. Do not pull anything out,’ McMillan tells the man in the sweatshirt while holding him at gunpoint.
The man, whose face is obscured in the video, remains standing with his hands in his pockets and says nothing in response.
The man breaks down in sobs and kneels on the ground, begging the officer to kill him
After a brief standoff, a second officer arrives as backup and together he and McMillan handcuff the suspect
a search reveals the man only had his cellphone and his pocket and was unarmed
He then takes his right hand out of his pocket, but keeps his right hand hidden, prompting the officer to order him again to pull it out at once
‘Do it. Pull your hand out, do not pull a gun out. I’m telling you right now, I will shoot you. You understand me?’ McMillan asks.
The suspect finally speaks, telling the officer, ‘Shoot me. Just shoot me!’
As McMillan orders the man over and over again to take his hand out of his pocket, the suspect proceeds to beg the officer, ‘Please, just please. Please, please, please shoot me, shoot me.’
‘I do not want to shoot you,’ the officer replies. ‘Pull your hand out of your pocket, bro. Come on! Don’t do this man!’
As the man continues tearfully pleading with the officer to use lethal force, McMillan firmly tells him he is not going to do that and offers him help.
The man was taken to a hospital to be treated in the wake of a mental health crisis
‘We’ll get through whatever you’re going through, man, but don’t f***ing do this!’ he tells him.
McMillan asks for the man’s name and urges him to open up to him.
‘You’re going through some s***, let me help you!’ he presses on.
The suspect breaks down in sobs and kneels on the ground, again asking the cop to shoot him, saying, ‘You can’t help me.’
A couple of minutes later, the man finally takes his left hand out of his pocket, and an audibly relieved McMillan tells him he will approach him and place handcuffs on him.
‘I’m gonna f***ing help you, bro,’ the officer reassures the distraught man crying on the concrete. ‘You may think I can’t, but let me try! Just give me a chance.’
Four minutes into the call, backup arrives and McMillan admonishes the man to stay put and to not put his hand back in his pocket.
‘Just kill me,’ the man again implores the officer.
‘No, I don’t want to kill you, you’re not dying today,’ McMillan declares.
When a second officer arrives on the scene, he and McMillan handcuff the suspect and take him into custody.
When the officer reaches into the man’s sweatshirt pocket expecting to retrieve the gun, all he finds is his cellphone.
‘I don’t have a gun,’ the man admits. ‘I’m the one who called.’
As officers lead the man to the back of a patrol car, he continues asking them to kill him, but they offer him to it down and talk to them instead.
‘The person in this video was clearly experiencing a mental health crisis,’ Chief Green says at the conclusion of the bodycam video. ‘Had the man not responded to the tireless de-escalation tactics employed by officer McMillan, the outcome could have been tragic for the individual in crisis and our officers.’
A spokesperson for the Fontana Police Department told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that the man in the video, who has not been named, was taken to a local hospital for a mental health evaluation and has not been criminally charged.
Officer Richard Guerrero said the outcome could have been different had the incident taken place in the middle of a busy street, and he commended Officer McMillan, who has been on the force for nearly 15 years, for ‘putting himself out there’ and taking the time to talk the man down.
‘It could have turned bad,’ Guerrero added. ‘Thankfully, the guy was listening.’