Phoenix PD release videos showing officers shooting armed man in 7-11 with customers, staff inside
By: Shocking surveillance and body-cam videos released on Thursday show officers opening fire on an armed suspect walking into a Phoenix 7-Eleven store with customers and staff just inches away. Several customers and a store clerk were inside as bullets started flying, but no one was hurt.
On Sept. 22, a woman called 911 saying her son, Isaiah Manning, walked out of their house near 31st Avenue and Greenway Road armed. “My son just left the house,” she said to the dispatcher. “Left our house with a lot of weapons. He went down to the right and we just heard a shot. I mean as quick as he went out.” A family friend then called 911 shortly afterward. “I have a friend who’s been having issues with a son that she think is having a psychiatric break,” the woman said. “And he just took off with some guns and they heard gunfire in the neighborhood. He is not in his right mind.”
Officers tracked Manning down to the parking lot of the nearby 7-Eleven. Surveillance video shows him walking through the parking lot and heading toward the front door of the convenience store. Body-cam video shows two officers running after Manning, yelling at him to stop. “Get on the ground now! Get on the [expletive] ground!” one officer yells. “Get out of the way!” he yells to customers walking out of the store. “Get out of the way!”
Surveillance video shows a customer inside checking out at the counter. Manning then opens the door and walks in, and one officer begins firing at the store. Suddenly, bullet holes begin shattering the glass doors, and the innocent customer ducks out of the way. Another customer at the back of the store starts running away from Manning while the store clerk hides behind the counter as bullets continue shattering windows and doors. At least eight gunshots are heard on the body cam.
Manning continues walking, heading toward the back of the store, before falling to the ground. Officers went inside, grabbed the clerk hiding behind the counter, and pulled him to safety. Manning was found inside the store shot several times, and he was taken to the hospital.
Robert Castiglia and his fiance had just driven up to the store when police began swarming the scene. Gunshots started going off, and the two were seen on surveillance running outside the store. “I tried to grab my fiancé and get out of the way as quick as possible,” said Castiglia.
He described the scene as pure chaos. “I was just trying to get to safety, trying to get away. There were cops in every direction,” he said. “I feel like it could have been handled in a different manner than what took place.”
Castiglia and his fiance weren’t hurt, but the two were too close for comfort during the incident. “It was pretty obvious when they started shooting. You could feel the bullets and the air moving, so I wanted to make sure she was OK and I was OK,” he explained.
Manning was booked into jail on Sept. 29 and faces two counts of prohibited weapons charges.