WATCH: Man Grabs Battle Creek Officer’s Gun in its Holster and Pulls the Trigger
Body Cam footage was released by the Battle Creek Police Department on Wednesday of a mental health crisis intervention on Thursday, May 26th.
Local News Outlets reporting the man involved, Brian Armstrong, was dancing in the intersection of Wabash and Capital Avenues that afternoon. Police say he was intentionally trying to get hit by passing cars.
Two officers responded to the incident - Joshua Millikin, and Hunter Barnett - and determined Armstrong was having a mental health episode.
"They evaluated the situation by telling Armstrong they wanted to help him." - Battle Creek Police in a news release from June 1st
The body cam footage shows the officers approaching Armstrong upon their arrival, asking him to step out of the street, and offering help. At one time, he claims "they're trying to kill me," and begins to step back out into traffic toward a semi. That's when officers approached Armstrong to subdue him, and bring him out of the street.
When they came in contact with him, Armstrong began to struggle. Officer Millikin can be seen taking Armstrong to the ground in the videos. Shortly into the struggle, Armstrong was able to grab Millikin's firearm, and discharged it while it was still in its holster.
The loud "Bang" can be heard in the body cam footage. The bullet went through the bottom of the holster, and grazed Millikin's leg. No one else was injured during the incident.
Armstrong was then taken to Calhoun County Jail where he will receive mental health treatment.
This is an instance where the officers did their best to de-escalate the situation, shown by their patience in the body cam footage, and recognizing that this was someone who needed help. Even after the gun is discharged, both Millikin and Barnett can be heard attempting to calm Armstrong down.
Armstrong will face three criminal charges for resisting and obstructing police, assault with a dangerous weapons, and attempting to disarm a police officer.
Below are the two body cam videos. The first from the perspective of officer Millikin (the scuffle begins at about 4:25 into the video):
(WARNING: THERE IS STRONG LANGUAGE IN THIS VIDEO)
The Second perspective is from the body cam of Officer Hunter Barnett (You can see officer Millikin approach Armstrong to remove him from traffic at around the 4:20 mark. The gun is fired at around 4:33, and you can see Armstrong continuing to reach for the gun shortly after).
(WARNING: THERE IS STRONG LANGUAGE IN THIS VIDEO)