Bodycam: Wash. Police Officer Fires at Knife-Wielding Man Moving Toward Neighbor

By Tyler Brown

Source The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash.

A Vancouver police officer fired four times at a man holding what appears to be a knife and running through the front yard of an east Vancouver home May 26, according to police body camera footage released Thursday. The footage shows the man, whom authorities have not yet identified, suffered a single gunshot wound to his lower back.

The officer who fired his gun, Alexander Zaferis, 29, was one of three officers who responded about 6:35 a.m. to a call reporting a residential burglary in the 10900 block of Northeast 48th Street.

The video states that a woman called 911 after waking up to the sound of someone breaking the windows of her home. She reportedly believed the intruder to be a former boyfriend who allegedly tried to break in a few days earlier. She left her home and waited in her car for police.

When police arrived, they said they found a man holding a knife walking toward a neighbor in her driveway. Police said he refused commands to drop the knife and continued moving toward the neighbor.

Video footage shows Zaferis arrive and begin running toward the man, commanding him to drop the knife seen in his left hand. The man runs away in the direction of another arriving officer and residences. The neighbor can be seen in the driveway of the home standing in front of a vehicle.

A single shot is heard as the man sprints away, followed by three more shots. In the video footage, the man is then seen collapsing on the lawn. Zaferis can be heard ordering the man to drop the knife as the man lies in the grass.

The second arriving officer, whom the suspect ran toward, can be heard yelling "let me see your hands" as Zaferis fires three shots.

"I got less lethal. Let me see your hands," he is heard saying again. A Taser can be seen in his hands in the video footage.

A third officer arrives and issues commands in Spanish to the man, though he does not appear to respond to any commands.

The second officer moves around his patrol car to close his door, and the man can be seen throwing an object away from himself. The third officer can be heard saying in between commands in English and Spanish, "He's not doing anything I'm telling him."

The video highlights two objects, marked as knives, near the man. The third officer can be heard saying "Both knives are tossed, but they're pretty close."

The officers then begin providing medical care to the man while one places him in handcuffs, according to the video footage. The man was subsequently taken to a local hospital for treatment. Authorities have not released an update on his condition.

In the video compilation, Zaferis' body camera footage is 17 seconds long and ends as he moves behind a vehicle. The second officer's footage is approximately two minutes and 45 seconds long. The third officer's footage is approximately one minute and 44 seconds long.

Vancouver police spokesperson Kim Kapp said the released footage paints a clear picture of what happened.

"Each clip shows the interaction of the various officers who responded that give the public a view of what occurred based on the cameras of the responding officers," Kapp said.

She said the officers can be seen in one another's cameras. And despite the short length of Zaferis' footage, his camera recorded the entire incident, including when he provided medical aid to the man. That footage was not released.

Kapp said in a follow-up email that "release of the video is to provide some visual context of the incident as the Vancouver Police Department understands the events to have occurred, according to the video and incident information."

The Washington State Office of Independent Investigations is investigating the shooting. Once the investigation is complete, it will be submitted to the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney's Office for review. The Office of Independent Investigations does not recommend charges or make findings as to whether the use of force is justified or whether officers violated department policy, spokesperson Hector Castro previously told The Columbian.

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