CMPD has just released the bodycam footage showing the fatal shooting by an officer of a 25-year-old man who they said was having a mental breakdown and was said to have aimed gun at an officer.
Mecklenburg County District Attorney R. Andrew Murray ruled last week (read the DA’s entire report here) that Officer Brian Walsh’s use of deadly force against Laroslav Mosiiuk on March 8th was “justified.”
On 8 March 2017, at approximately 1:00 pm, Walsh and Officer Michael Dezenzo responded to a suicide threat on Justice Ave.
“[According to Tabaka] Mosiiuk was acting irrationally, had not slept in days and was retrieving a rifle,” authorities noted in their statement. “She told the 911 operator that her brother was screaming that he ‘didn’t want to live.'”
On arrival, Dezenzo walked onto the porch and knocked on the door to the house, identifying himself as being with the police, but as soon as he notices a gun in Mosiiuk’s hands, he retreats and yells “Get back! Get back! He had a long gun!”
After Dezenzo yells and runs away, Walsh also runs, taking cover behind a police vehicle.
Before shots were fired, you can hear the mother saying “please don’t shoot him” (please don’t shoot him).
Walsh then shoots at Mosiiuk in the back.
He told investigators that he didn’t give Mosiiuk “a verbal warning to drop the gun” before he fired because he was “afforded no time.”
The family is now in the process of filing a wrongful death lawsuit.