A COP who shot and killed an unarmed naked man who charged towards him was “acting within the law”, officials said.
Disturbing bodycam footage shows officer Matthew Yao, from New Hampshire, fatally shooting Ethan Freeman, 37, in the chest during the October 2020 incident.
Officer Matthew Yao’s body camera video captured the fatal shooting of Ethan Freeman in October 2020The pair had first crossed paths that morning in the lobby of a local school after Freeman required medical help for what he thought was a heart attack.
During that encounter, Freeman told Yao: “I just need mental help and medical assistance.”
The events that unravelled later in the day were recorded on the officer’s body camera and captured the moment the officer fatally shot the man twice in the chest.
In the video, as Yao points a gun towards a window of Freeman’s apartment, he shouts: “Stay in there, Ethan”.
Freeman rolls out of the window, unarmed and naked, before leaping to his feet.
As he charges towards the officer he is seen covered in blood.
Officer Yao repeats: “Ethan, stay back. Stay back Ethan, stay back.”
When Freeman gets to ten-feet-away and still failing to stop, officer Yao opens fire, shooting the man twice in the chest.
The footage, which Sun Online has chosen not to show, captures Freeman falling to the ground after being shot.
As detailed in the AG’s report, Officer Yao arrived at an apartment in response to a 911 report of a man injuring himself – hours after returning from his earlier trip to the hospital for the suspected heart attack.
Footage of the pair’s previous encounter in the school captures Freeman telling the officer: “I just need mental help and medical assistance”.
Freeman can be heard saying: “I’m having a heart attack, I’ve had a lot of palpitations and I’m feeling a lot of chest pain.”
He also informed the cops he had been unable to “sleep for days.”
Another attending officer asks if he is “under the influence of anything” to which Freeman replies: “I might be, I’m not sure.”
Freeman was taken to the hospital before returning to his apartment later that afternoon.
The fatal incident happened when police were called hours later to Freeman’s apartment after his upstairs neighbour and landlord dialled 911 after hearing a commotion coming from his apartment.
The AG’s report stated the landlord reported Freeman had cut himself and was “bleeding to death”.
Officer Yao’s body camera footage was critical in the case because the events were matched to what he had told investigators, officials said.
Yao said he did not have time to holster his weapon and switch to a nonlethal form of defence.
Investigators have since said Yao had seconds to react and his action was legal.
Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinkley said: “All of the other evidence gathered from the investigation supports the conclusion that Officer Yao did reasonably believe that he faced the imminent use of deadly physical force from Mr Freeman at the time that the officer fired his pistol,”
“Officer Yao believed that when Mr Freeman, who he heard had threatened his life, ultimately reached him, he would attempt to take his gun and shoot him.”
