Man firing AR-15 into air to celebrate New Year’s was shot by police without warning

A police officer radioing in his location outside a southwest Canton home New Year's Eve, announces that he heard shots, saw a man's head through a fence and, going up to the porch, saw the man put away a rifle.Show more

Then dozens of shots ring out from behind a 6-foot wooden fence on the side of the home.

Police body camera footage of the fatal police-involved shooting was released to the public Wednesday morning. It shows flashes and smoke rising from behind the fence, with the gunfire aimed skyward. Nearly 30 shots in rapid-fire succession ring out as the video moves with the officer returning to the fence, his own gun drawn.

Then, as the shots continue, the officer fires at least four times. The man continues shooting a few more rounds as the officer yells, "Shots fired! Shots fired!" and then louder, "Police! Get down now! Police! Get down now!"

The officer backs up farther, into the street as he yells into the radio, "CanCom! Shots fired. Send us everybody!"

James Williams, 46, of 2307 10th St. SW, had been standing inside the enclosed patio just outside the door on the side of his home firing into the air just after midnight in celebration of New Year's Eve, according to his widow, Marquetta Williams.

She said she joined him, her cousin and nephew-in-law in firing the gun skyward as did their neighbors in celebration of the New Year. She said they went to return inside when her husband asked if she wanted to shoot some more. She didn't, but he did, she said.

It is illegal to fire a weapon in the air in the city.

Marquetta Williams has said she was only a couple feet from him, just inside the door when he fired off four more rounds from her AR-15. The newly released police video shows James Williams firing far more shots in the air.

She said police did not announce their presence before firing, and that she didn't even know her husband had been shot until he turned to come inside. Then, she said, she saw a splatter of blood across his chest.

After the officer reaches the street, he retrieves his rifle from his cruiser.

The video shows another armed officer leaning over the hood of the cruiser, a sport-utility vehicle marked as a K-9 unit.

The other officer yells, "Show your hands!" and then, "Hey, we got kids inside."

A woman steps out onto the porch and yells that her husband's been shot.

The officer who fired his weapon yells that he's the one shooting the gun.

She yells back that "I don't have no gun right now. Nobody's shooting ..." and he interrupts, yelling her to get everyone out of the house.

An officer demands to know where he is. She says he's bleeding in the living room.

The woman and her children exit the house and then sit on the stairs. Officers tell them to move and then enter the house, guns drawn.

They find her husband on the floor in the living room, shot in the chest, the officer reports.

Another officer announces the discovery of multiple firearms. Then another officer says there is body armor behind a couch.

James Williams was taken to Aultman Hospital a few blocks away. He was pronounced dead.

Police Chief Jack Angelo has asked the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to investigate the police-involved shooting. The investigation continued on Wednesday.

The chief's initial news release Saturday said that Williams was armed when police responded at 12:06 a.m. to gunfire at his house in the 2300 block of 10th Street SW. The release said "... the officer, who was outside of his vehicle, confronted a subject that began shooting a firearm. The officer, in fear for his safety, fired his duty weapon at the subject and struck him."

Authorities have not identified the officer, who has been placed on administrative leave per city policy.
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