Bodycam Video Of Officer Shooting Shows Hour-Long Tense Standoff

CHARLOTTE, NC -- “Take a deep breath for me,” the SWAT team officer said to the man holding a gun, attempting to convince him to drop it. “Think about where you are.”

Police body camera videos released Thursday morning unveil tense negotiations and the chain of events leading up to the deadly officer shooting of Sylasone Ackhavong outside a 7-Eleven convenience store in the early morning hours of April 19, 2016.

A State Bureau of Investigation review of the incident following the shooting later ruled officers acted lawfully. Footage of the incident was released Feb. 22 after Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department petition a court to release it, the department said in a statement.

Officers were called to the convenience store in the 6600 block of Tuckaseegee Road in Charlotte around 3 a.m. early that Tuesday morning almost two years ago, where they found Ackhavong in the parking lot, wearing a bulletproof vest and waving a gun, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department statement. CMPD called in a SWAT team and negotiators, who attempted to persuade Ackhavong to drop his gun.

“How you doing right now?” a negotiator can be heard saying on one video. “We’re just here to talk to you. I’m going to be your friend right now because it’s my job to make sure you’re ok.”

Amid negotiations, Ackhavong told officers that he had been “set up” and poisoned. “If you put that gun down and come talk to us, we’ll get you the help,” the negotiator said

“Put that gun down and let’s get you some medical assistance, ok? Let’s not let tonight be the last night,” the negotiator said.

A 20-minute long video from CMPD Officer Richter shows Ackhavong standing under the fluorescent lighting outside the store’s entrance, with the sound of police dogs barking. Officers, standing behind a CMPD police SUV with their weapons pointed at him, tell him over and over to drop his weapon.

“Your family cares about you,” an officer is heard yelling.

Dashcam video shows Ackhavong from a different vantage point for nearly an hour, pointing at officers as he talks to them and pulling up his shirt to reveal a bulletproof vest shortly before two shots ring out.

Security footage from the 7-Eleven shows Ackhavong’s crouched on the hood of a car parked in front of the convenience store for much of the negotiations, holding the gun behind his back.

Negotiations went on for more than an hour, according to CMPD, and ended when CMPD SWAT Officers Olin Lester and Derek Rud perceived an “imminent deadly threat.” Ackhavong died of his injuries while on the way to the hospital, according to a police report.

“In the days before the shooting, Ackhavong seems to have been suffering from some type of escalating psychotic break,” and showed signs of paranoia to a coworker that the government was spying on him, that someone was moving things around in his apartment and said he was seeing ghosts, District Attorney R. Andrew Murray said in a review of the case. A toxicology report later found that Ackhavong had methamphetamine in his system, Murray said.

You can review the District Attorney’s review of the case here.

Photo from CMPD YouTube video