How To Get Shot By The Police: The Keith Harrison McLeod Story

Above is the security camera video that captured the last moments of 19-year-old Keith Harrison McLeod, of Washington, D.C.:

Police say McLeod tried passing a fake prescription at the pharmacy. Officers were called to the scene and approached him in the parking lot.

Police say the teenage suspect lead them on a foot chase across the street, behind a group of businesses, into a dead-end alley and started screaming at the officer and making threats.

Witnesses tell police the officer tried pleading with the suspect.

“The suspect on the other hand, according to witnesses and others, repeatedly use profanities, screamed and yelled at the officer, ‘I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you’,” Johnson said.

Police say the video shows the suspect aggressively approaching the lone officer, as if he has a weapon. The he reached around his waist, whipped out his hand and points it at the officer, which ends with the officer firing three shots at the suspect.

“It seemed like they were working him very hard, trying to revive him,” said Jessie Issa, of Mondo Pizza.

McLeod was later pronounced dead.

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We keep attempting to educate people to the fact that “unarmed” doesn’t mean “not a threat,” nor is it clear in many instances that the suspect is unarmed until well after the suspect is down. McLeod did everything he could to convince the officer that he was armed, perhaps hoping that the officer would back off and allow him to escape.

McLeod:

  1. verbally threatened the officer
  2. mock charged the officer
  3. acted as if he was drawing a gun

Yes, Keith Harrison McLeod was later found to be “unarmed.”

That doesn’t change the fact that he did everything in his power to try to convince the officer that he had a weapon.

This was clearly a legally justified shooting.

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