Sacramento County Sheriff's fatally shot Christopher Gilmore when approaching deputies with a knife
By: Sacramento County deputies have released video showing the moments leading up to a deadly shooting in Rio Linda.
The shooting happened March 23 along the 6500 block of Campanile Street. Family members reported 38-year-old Christopher Gilmore was cutting himself in a bathroom and was armed with a knife. The family later described the knife as a shaving razor after the shooting.
Upon arrival, deputies spoke with the family and tried to call him out of the home, but he refused. Citing one of Gilmore's roommates, deputies said Gilmore allegedly wanted to die by "suicide by cop."
Dispatch audio released by the sheriff's office revealed he also had schizophrenia and thought everyone was against him. Deputies also learned he was arrested about six days prior and was on a pre-trial release on his own recognizance.
The video shows deputies unsuccessfully trying to call Gilmore out of the house and trying to figure out if Gilmore made comments about dying that day.
Not long after, Gilmore opened the garage door with what the sheriff's office described as a knife in his hand.
Deputies told Gilmore to drop the knife and tried to get him to surrender peacefully, calling on him to come out with nothing in his hands.
Deputies said Gilmore eventually left the garage with the knife and started walking toward them. One deputy fired multiple less-lethal shotgun rounds at Gilmore to try and stop him, but they didn't work.
"Despite multiple directives to stop and being hit with multiple less lethal rounds, Gilmore continued to advance and came within just several feet of a deputy while still holding the knife before the deputy shot him with his service weapon," the sheriff's office said in a news release.
Gilmore was ultimately hit six times with the less-lethal rounds and shot three times with a gun. Deputies applied first aid, but Gilmore died at the scene.
Deputies said the knife Gilmore had was six-inches long with a 3 1/2 inch blade.
The deputy who shot him has been with the sheriff's office since 2019.
The family previously said Gilmore was suffering mental illness and suicidal, but was not a threat to deputies. Bobbie Gilmore told ABC10 previously her brother wasn't trying to hurt anyone and his mental health crisis was met with gunfire instead of the help he needed.