Police officers are thrown into intense, life-or-death situations every day, and, with the growing use of body cameras, the public will see more of these moments come to light.
This was exactly the situation Baltimore officers were put in on Friday during a tense hostage situation.
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Reno Owens, 39, held two small children hostage with a knife on Friday before being shot and killed by SWAT officers.
Owens spent the night at his cousin’s house, charged at his cousin with a knife and took her two children hostage in a bedroom.
According to a report from the Associated Press, the bodycam footage was shown to press on Tuesday. However, only a short, edited part of the footage has been released publicly, in the interest of the children’s privacy.
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The full-length clip shows officers trying to reason with Owens, who responded by screaming, praying, singing “Rock-a-bye Baby,” laughing and threatening the children.
The video also shows footage of a sergeant telling SWAT Officer Zachary Wein, “I want you to be calm. I want you to be relaxed, and I want you to walk in there and kill this guy.”
You can see the following moments in the muted, released footage, where officers march up the stairs and prepare to take out the deranged Owens.
During this tense moment, Owens told officers he’d “rather go out this way.”
Scenes like this one out of Baltimore are sure to be more numerous this year. Since the controversial death of Freddie Gray in 2015, the Baltimore Police Department has made the use of body cams standard.
Watch the chilling clip of the officers preparing to shoot Owens below.
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