Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Buffalo Police Department released bodycam footage on Monday of a fatal officer-involved shooting that took place on Saturday at approximately 10 a.m. EST in the 100 block of Reed Street.
The initial 9-1-1 call detailed a Black male in the street with a gun wearing camouflage, but Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia noted the call came from the phone of the deceased individual, later identified as 58-year-old Edward Holmes of Buffalo.
Gramaglia felt Monday the incident was likely a suicide by police officers situation attempted by Holmes.
In the recording of the initial 9-1-1 call, Holmes told the dispatcher the "individual" was threatening a guy at a nearby church, but the supposed individual at the church was no longer there. The 9-1-1 recording in the video also noted the caller said the gunman would shoot at anybody that pulled up on him at the scene.
When officers arrived on scene, they encountered Holmes, armed with a 12 gauge shotgun, and issued numerous commands to put the weapon down.
"At that point, the individual had the gun aimed at our police officers and fired one shot from a 12 gauge shotgun, fired in the direction of our officers. At that point, our officers still did not return fire," said Commissioner Gramaglia on Monday during the press briefing. "The individual, they continued to give him commands to drop the gun. The individual, at that point, was doing something with the gun. You can see on the video where he raised it, maybe at about a 45-degree angle, then lowered it back in the direction of officers again while officers were continuing to give him commands to drop the gun. Once the gun was leveled back at officers, at that point, officers discharged their firearms."
The two C District officers who fired their weapons at Holmes have been identified as Andrew Lewis, who has 18 months on the department, and Joshua Slupinski, a five-year veteran of the department. Gramaglia says a total of 20 rounds were fired from both officers - 14 from Slupinski and six from Lewis.
Gramaglia adds Holmes was struck two times - once in the chest and once in the arm. He says the one round that entered his upper-bicep area appeared to have struck the stock of the shotgun.
In the immediate response to the shooting incident, responding officers began rendering first aid until emergency medical staff arrived on scene.
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Commissioner Gramaglia says the officers' actions in the shooting were justified.
"They were met with an armed individual, he was armed with a 12 gauge shotgun, and fired directly at them. And yet, these officers still were attempting to deescalate, still telling them to drop the weapon, waited another approximately eight seconds until the gun was leveled at them a second time before they opened fire. So they were absolutely justified in the use of deadly physical force," Gramaglia said. "As I said on Saturday, it's a terrible situation. It's terrible for the family, but this is also terrible for the officers that are put into a position they had to discharge your firearms. Now they're dealing with the fact they had a fatal shooting, so it's something that they're going to have to deal with."
You can watch the bodycam footage from police officers in the player below: WARNING: Viewer discretion is advised.