RAVENNA, Ohio — Ravenna police have released 13 minutes worth of body camera footage that shows the moments leading up to two officers killing a man.
RELATED: Ravenna police kill man who allegedly used another person as a 'human shield'
A 911 call, provided by the Ravenna Police Department, is from a man who said he was at an apartment complex on Hazen Avenue. He describes an unknown man sleeping in the apartment he's staying at who appears to have a gun on his person.
"I don't know who he is," said the 911 caller.
"You've never seen him before?," asks a Portage County dispatcher.
"Never," the 911 caller responds.
Body camera footage shows two Ravenna police officers arriving to the apartment complex at 1:39 a.m. on Sunday.
Once officers arrive at the apartment, the front door opens up and 48-year-old Shawn Ware appears. What looks like a gun is seen in his right hand.
"Sean! Don't move. Don't f**king move! Put the gun down," one Ravenna police officer commands.
"F**k y'all," Ware responds as he points the gun in the direction of the officers.
One of the officers steps back behind a wall and tells the other officer he thinks Ware has a BB gun, but both are unsure at the time.
Both officers maintain a distance between themselves and the apartment Ware is in.
Body camera footage shows Ware exiting the apartment while holding another man in front of him. It's unclear whether Ware has the gun pointed at officials or the hostage.
Ravenna police said in a press release Ware was using the other man as a "human shield."
"Don't shoot me, man," the hostage tells police.
The hostage seemingly breaks free and is no longer seen on body camera footage.
"Shawn, drop the gun. Shawn!," an officer yells.
Eight gunshots can be heard on Ravenna police body-worn cameras. Footage reveals Ware suffered at least three bullet wounds: two in the abdomen and one in the left arm.
Ravenna police have since confirmed what appeared to be a firearm in Ware's possession is a CO-powered BB gun.
One Ravenna police officer rushes to his unit within 35 seconds of the shooting to grab a trauma kit.
Ware's shirt is then cut off and an officer begins applying pressure to the wounds.
Within three and a half minutes, more officers arrive and assist in rendering aid.
"Stay with us, Shawn!," one Ravenna officer shouts.
Ware is heard grunting on body camera footage, but he ultimately succumbed to his injuries and died at the scene, according to Ravenna Police.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the investigation due to the involvement of Ravenna officers in the shooting.
News 5 sat down with Dr. Kalfani Ture Monday night to review the body camera footage. He used to work in law enforcement and now serves as a use of force and race expert.
"This may sound somewhat counterintuitive. This incident was refreshing," Ture said. "Not refreshing in the sense of the violence that took place and the fact that there was a person who was shot and injured in this process. But, to see that before and after, that there was no evidence of malice on the part of the officers."
Ture said to see how quickly after the shooting that one of the officers started rendering life-saving measures is commendable.
"Both [were] responsible. They were professional. They reasonably interpreted the situation and the threat. They chose the right use of force. I don't know if that comes across bizarre to say, but that was my immediate thought," he said.
He also noted that not only was there a threat of a firearm, but he said the officers were in a "deadly tunnel."
"It was a situation where he couldn't necessarily get out. It was just a really tense situation," Ture said.
News 5 asked his thoughts on why officers may not have initially discharged their weapons after the first time Ware was seen brandishing what appeared to be a firearm.
"One of the things that in law enforcement we're trained to do is to have what we call cover and concealment. It is not enough to fire at the suspect but leave oneself exposed and these walls are just drywall, sheet rock. It puts the officers in danger," Ture said. "If there's an opportunity to de-escalate, it's better as a course of action."
Ture doesn't like the adjective "poster child" in a situation like this, he said this officer-involved shooting comes "pretty close."
"I would say, that the officers gave a reasonable amount of time," Ture said when asked if he believed Ravenna police provided enough time to de-escalate the situation.
"I'm going to stand by these officers. I think they performed admirably," Ture said. "In this very polarized and tense world that we live in where there's police on one side of the barricade and then there's the community, often this fault line is situated in between race and class, here you saw officers immediately render aid to preserve Sean's life, and there was no sort of utterances of racial animus."
While he looks forward to the BCI investigation's findings, he said he's more interested in what led Ware to that moment.
"This is one situation where I actually want to know more about Sean," Ture said. "These incidents can often be the result of some kind of — they're psychological, they're situational. This could be a result of emotional distress, a bad relationship or it could be a result of legal trouble."
Ture suspects this incident may be a "suicide by cop."
"This is such a significant issue. The law enforcement community, academic community, the news media community — we all need to give more attention to this phenomenon because it has been with us for at least the last 100 years. It's obviously here to stay and if we can somehow predict, we can understand it better, and we can create better interventions," Ture said.
The BCI investigation is still in its early stages. We'll continue to follow through as this develops.
Anyone with information regarding the incident is encouraged to contact the Ravenna Police Department at 330-296-6486.
