TPD releases footage from police shooting of double homicide suspect
By: Officials with the Toledo Police Department held a press conference Tuesday to address the deadly police shooting of an alleged double homicide suspect on Friday. Police Chief George Kral gave a presentation showing body camera footage that some viewers may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.
Officers responded to reports of a shooting in the 2700 block of Albion just before 11:30 p.m. Thursday night and found two victims suffering from gunshot wounds. According to the Lucas County Coroner’s Office, the victims Malinda Moore and Brent Roscoe died from the injuries they suffered in the shooting. Moore died from a gunshot wound to the neck and Roscoe died from multiple gunshot wounds. The autopsy revealed Roscoe suffered eight total gunshot wounds. The Deputy Coroner ruled both of their deaths homicides.
Police say witnesses at the scene told officers one of the victim’s vehicles was missing. Officers were able to use that information to track down the vehicle in the 600 block of Leach at the Weiler Homes where they found the alleged suspect, Prince Jones, 24, sitting in a victim’s vehicle pointing a gun to his head. The department spokesperson said a member of the Critical Incident Negotiation Team tried to deescalate the situation for about 30 minutes but the suspect did not follow officers’ orders to drop the gun.
The victim eventually got out of the vehicle with the gun still in his hand. Police tried to further negotiate with the suspect and when that failed, officers shot the suspect as he allegedly began to raise his gun. Police Chief George Kral said Tuesday that officers fired six shots at Prince. Emergency crews took him to an area hospital where he later died.
Kral said the threat to police is what mattered in the moment.
“It maybe hard for people to understand, police officers don’t need to be shot at to use deadly force,” Kral said. ”If they perceive a threat, if a weapon is raised at them, we have no way of knowing if there are rounds in there at all. I know some folks may have heartburn about that but it’s true.”
According to TPD, there’s no exact timing for how chaotic scenes like this should play out, but the movement and the environment matter.
“If a person is barricaded in a residence, we have all the time in the world so we can take our time. In a case like this, he’s in an apartment building parking lot and he’s walking around. It was obvious they could have used deadly force a lot earlier than they did. And I think it showed great restraint and firearm discipline,” Kral said.
Two officers are on paid administrative leaving stemming from the incident, per collective bargaining agreements.
The case will go to a Grand Jury.
Police were not able to provide additional information as to what lead up to the double homicide on Albion or what the relation is between Prince and the victims.