New body camera footage and 911 calls have been released in the fatal shooting by Fort Lauderdale Police officers of a man accused of setting multiple fires and who was armed with Molotov cocktails back in January.
New body camera footage and 911 calls have been released in the fatal shooting by Fort Lauderdale Police officers of a man accused of setting multiple fires and who was armed with Molotov cocktails back in January.
The video released by police Thursday show the moment officers confronted the man the morning of Jan. 9 in the parking lot of a business in the 5300 block of Northeast 33rd Avenue.
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WATCH HEREOfficers had responded to the scene after receiving 911 calls that a man started a fire outside the commercial building.
"He's just standing there and there's fire," a woman tells a dispatcher in one of the 911 calls released Thursday. "I don't know why he's burning it but…you can't miss it cause the fire's getting bigger."
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"There's a guy blasting music just burning stuff, I don't know," she says later in the call.
A man also reported seeing the suspect setting a fire in a separate 911 call.
"There's a crazy person, he's throwing things," the man said "He's burning, like, the building."
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The body camera footage shows officers arriving and encountering the man, who was standing next to a fire and throwing objects into it.
Officers are heard yelling at the man to drop whatever is in his hands, but officials said he refused to comply.
"He's got another one, he's trying to throw them at our car," an officer says in the footage before officers open fire multiple times.
"Shots fired, shots fired, give me a rescue, I don't know how many more we have, suspect's down," a female officers says in the video.
The suspect was hit by the gunfire and pronounced dead at the scene. His identity hasn't been released.
Images showed what appeared to be Molotov cocktails at the scene.
Authorities said they put out the fire, which was contained to a pile of debris in the middle of the parking lot. There was no property damage as a result.
Police said the suspect set another fire at a separate building about a block away a few hours earlier.
Surveillance footage from that fire showed the suspect dumping a jug of liquid at the building before it went up in flames.
Police said a note was found at the scene of that fire that indicated the suspect would be at the second fire location.
The fires remain under investigation, police said.
The officers who opened fire were placed on paid administrative leave, which is department policy.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating, which is standard practice in police shootings.
