‘Drop the f'ing gun, or you die’: IMPD releases bodycam footage of January officer-involved shooting
By: The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has released body-worn camera footage from officers involved in a January shootout on the city’s northeast side.
The footage is from an incident on Jan. 29 where IMPD officers were involved in a shootout with a suspect in a prior shooting incident in Broad Ripple.
The suspect, Christian Djon Myers, 22, was critically wounded in the gunfight. Investigators said Myers fled from officers who attempted to arrest him for allegedly shooting at the car of his child’s mother around 3 a.m. on Jan. 29 in Broad Ripple Village.
IMPD patrol officers and detectives from the Violent Crime Unit spotted Myers’ car around 4 p.m. at a convenience store/gas station at East 38th Street and Fall Creek Parkway.
The newly released video from IMPD includes traffic camera footage of this arrest attempt, showing patrol cars pull into the gas station as Myers entered his car. Myers is then seen pulling out of the opposite side of the gas station parking lot, evading officers and speeding away.
According to IMPD, Myers then led officers on a short chase that ended with a collision with another vehicle at Kessler Avenue and Binford Boulevard. Myers and a passenger in his car, IMPD said, then ran on foot westbound across Binford and through a treeline.
In security footage from a nearby house, the passenger in Myers’ car can be seen going toward the ground shortly after exiting the treeline. Myers can be seen stumbling while running across Winding Way Lane before crouching in a front yard near an electrical box.
Shortly after, an IMPD unmarked patrol car driven by Detective Andrew Girt can be seen pulling up near the two men. Meanwhile, IMPD said that two other officers, Zachary Boston and Jacob Liebhauser, were also chasing after the men.
In the edited video, IMPD says that while Boston and Liebhauser were recording on their body-worn cameras, Girt’s was not activated.
Bodycam footage from both Boston and Liebhauser show the two officers exit their cars and run toward the treeline the men ran through. Both officers can be heard yelling at the men through a fence, telling one of them to drop a gun multiple times.
“Drop the f***ing gun, or you die,” one of the officers can be heard saying around 7 minutes into the video.
Soon after, multiple gunshots can be heard and Boston and Liebhauser are shown shooting their service weapons. IMPD said Girt also shot at Myers, but bodycam footage of this was not recorded.
According to IMPD, Myers was the first to fire his weapon.
Bodycam video then shows all three officers approach Myers, who is laying flat on the ground, and arrest him. The officers can be heard calling medical crews for a person shot.
Myers, IMPD said, was taken to a local hospital in critical condition. On Feb. 7, the following charges were filed against him:
* Attempt to commit battery with a deadly weapon (2 charges)
* Criminal recklessness by shooting a firearm into a building (2)
* Unlawful possession of a firearm by a domestic batterer
* Battery resulting in bodily injury
* Attempted murder
* Possession of a machine gun
* Resisting law enforcement by using a vehicle
* Resisting law enforcement causing bodily injury
Myers’ jury trial has been scheduled for 9 a.m. on May 8.
IMPD announced after the shooting that Boston, Girt and Liebhauser had all been put on administrative leave pending an investigation, which is standard protocol in officer-involved shootings.
Soon after the shooting occurred, IMPD released photos of two guns they said were recovered from the scene.
The first gun, a handgun with an extended magazine, was found next to the passenger-side door of Myers’ vehicle. The second gun, a handgun that IMPD said had an extended magazine and was equipped with a machine gun conversion device, was found near Myers.