Two Philadelphia police officers repeatedly shot a 27-year-old Black man after yelling at him to drop a knife.
The shooting in West Philadelphia took place in front of a crowd of angry onlookers.
Philadelphia police shot and killed a 27-year-old Black man on Monday afternoon after responding to a call of a man with a knife, firing over a half-dozen times in front of a crowd of eyewitnesses, according to local reports.
Video posted on social media shows two police officers telling the man, who was holding a weapon, to "put the knife down." They opened fire as the man walked toward them in the street.
"Oh my god," a man on the video can be heard. "They just killed him in front of me."
"You didn't have to give him that many shots," he added as onlookers rushed to the man's body in the middle of the street.
Police appear to have fired as many as 10 times, according to the video. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that there were at least 13 evidence markers at the crime scene.
Witnesses told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the man was holding a knife but was never closer than 10 feet to police. A reporter for the newspaper said there were "numerous" shell casings on the ground.
Tweet Embed:
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1320837770764570625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
I'm in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood of Philadelphia, where police shot a Black man less than an hour ago. Witnesses say he had a knife but was not charging police. Numerous shell casings are in the street. Neighbors are irate, crying, yelling at police. pic.twitter.com/oWtIJTDdUw
Officer Tanya Little of the Philadelphia Police Department told Insider that two cops responded at 2:43 p.m. to a call about a person with a weapon. Upon arrival, the officers ordered the man to drop his knife. However, the man "continued to advance toward officers," Little said, who responded by shooting their guns "multiple times, striking the male in the shoulder and chest."
The man was taken to Presbyterian Medical Center and pronounced dead at 4:06 p.m.
In a statement, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said his office is investigating "today's fatal shooting of a civilian by police."
"In the hours and days following this shooting," Krasner added, "we ask Philadelphians to come together to uphold people's freedom to express themselves peacefully and to reject violence of any kind."
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