Phoenix Police video shows officers shooting man, running him over during domestic violence call

The Phoenix Police Department released on Friday videos that show the moments when a man armed with a pellet gun was shot by and then run over by police earlier this month.

Officers say they were called out to an apartment near 14th Street and McDowell Road around 8 p.m. on Jan. 14 for a possible domestic violence situation. The caller said her cousin’s boyfriend was trying to kick in the apartment door while holding a knife. He then walked down the alley. Officers arrived, and he’d already left, so they searched the neighborhood. That’s when they saw 38-year-old David Epaloose near 15th Street and McDowell. “Stop right there,” an officer is heard in the body-camera video. “Put your ****ing hands up, or you will get hurt!”

One officer started firing pepper balls at Epaloose, but he kept walking. “Get on the ground!” an officer yells, but Epaloose ignores him. About a minute later, he was walking near a gas station, and the officer continued to shoot pepper balls at him. Police continued to chase Epaloose in the neighborhood, shooting pepper balls at him. Surveillance video shows Epaloose pointing multiple times what police thought was a handgun, but later determined to be a pellet gun.

Epaloose went on a street just south of McDowell called Brill Street. A police lieutenant arrived on the scene and pulled out his shotgun. The body-cam video shows him running and asking on the radio, “Is that him?” The video shows him stopping and then firing his gun once, hitting Epaloose.

A different body-camera video shows an officer driving in a patrol SUV with an officer in the passenger’s seat, holding a 40 mm launcher that shoots foam bullets. “We’re going to have to take him out,” the driver said. “He’s reloading too,” said the passenger officer. “We gotta move.”

A gunshot is heard in the video. “We’re running him over,” said the officer. “Hold on.” About four seconds after being shot, the officers run Epaloose over.

Epaloose was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Police said he wasn’t involved in the original domestic violence call. He was later released and booked into jail, police said on Wednesday. The domestic violence suspect was later found and arrested.