Columbus police release body camera footage of fatal police shooting in University District
By: -----
Columbus police released body camera footage showing officers fatally shooting 34-year-old Lamine Mahmoudi in the University District early Tuesday morning.
In the video, Mahmoudi is seen approaching multiple police officers in an alley off of Chittenden Avenue behind a police substation. The officers tell Mahmoudi several times to drop two-edged weapons he was holding in each hand.
The officers told Mahmoudi that they wanted to help him and that they didn't want to shoot him. Mahmoudi kept walking towards police and did not appear to speak or respond to them.
Once he stepped over a concrete parking block, the officers fired several shots, killing him.
Police recovered the two weapons from his body. One appeared to be a meat cleaver, the other appeared to be a large kitchen knife.
The shooting happened after officers made multiple visits to a house on Chittenden Avenue on Monday night. Police also released body camera footage of those encounters.
Police brought in the Mobile Crisis Response Unit, which pairs Columbus Public Health clinicians and trained officers to assess and de-escalate mental health and crisis situations. Police say during the other two encounters, Mahmoudi refused to communicate with the officers or social worker.
Mahmoudi was pronounced dead at 1:36 a.m Tuesday morning.