FacesofDeath

New bodycam footage captured the moment a man who was holding a woman hostage with a machete was shot and killed by police in North Miami Beach earlier this year. The incident happened back in March on the first floor of an office building in the area of Northeast 168th Street and Northeast 2nd Avenue. North Miami Beach Police Chief Harvette Smith said officers responded to the building around 1:30 p.m. after getting a 911 call of a man walking around with a large machete. When officers arrived at the scene and made contact with the man, he refused officers' commands and ran into the building after officers tased him, Smith said. Bodycam footage released Monday showed the moment the man held a woman hostage with the machete pointed at her neck as she pleads for her life. "She's not doing anything to you, please put her down," a police officer is heard saying. "Let her go. It's okay, man. Put the machete down." "Just relax, man," the officer added. "We're going to get this worked out and everything is going to be just fine." After several attempts by officers ordering the man to drop the weapon, he continued to refuse to drop it and officers opened fire, Smith said. "The machete was pointed at her neck, in an attempt to kill her. At that point, our officers again gave commands for the subject to drop the knife. The subject refused to drop the knife at that point, making my officers result to using deadly force to save a life," Smith said. The woman was recovered as officers tried to give life-saving measures to the suspect, Smith said. The suspect died from his injuries. Family members later identified him as 38-year-old Edridge Alexis. No officers were injured, and the woman was also okay, Smith said.

Prince George’s County police Officer Braxton Shelton responded to a breaking-and-entering call at Windham Creek Apartments in Suitland, Feb. 1, police said. He went into an apartment alone and shot and killed 31-year-old Melvin Jay in the kitchen. The body-camera video starts with Shelton parking and walking toward the unit where the alleged break-in took place. He entered without identifying himself and shouted commands to “show me your hands” before a shot was fired. About 35 seconds passed between the time Shelton got out of his cruiser and the shot was fired. After the shot, Shelton addresses another man in the apartment, asking him if he lived there and what he was doing there. The man said it was his cousin’s house and Jay was his brother. More officers arrived and searched the home and provided aid to Jay, but Jay died at the scene. Officers found a gun in Jay’s pocket and another near the kitchen sink, police said. It’s unclear from the video if Jay had anything in his hands, and police haven’t said who the guns belonged to. In the 911 call officers responded to, the caller said a neighbor told him someone was breaking into his apartment. The caller did not say Jay might be inside. The caller, Jay and the person who allegedly broke into the apartment are related, police said.