A new cellphone video that has been provided to a Seattle television station shows police shouted warnings at least five times before shooting a man in his vehicle in downtown Winslow Wednesday.
Bainbridge police shot a man who apparently sped away from an earlier emergency call near Ordway Elementary Wednesday afternoon after officers blocked his car on Winslow Way near Eagle Harbor Congregational Church.
The short video, provided to KOMO TV by a witness to the police shooting, shows four officers standing next to the man’s Ford Mustang before two gunshots ring out.
The officers — two Bainbridge police, a Kitsap County Sheriff’s Deputy and a fourth officer in street clothes — stand next to the vehicle, parked sideways on Winslow Way after being hemmed in by police.
Three officers approached the passenger side of the vehicle with weapons drawn, and at least five shouts of “Put it down!” can be heard on the video.
The Bainbridge officer closest to the vehicle appeared to fire into the Ford.
The shooting occurred Wednesday, at about 3 p.m., and though witnesses were reportedly plentiful and readily informing investigators as to what they saw, police were initially tight-lipped regarding the sequence of events.
Bainbridge officials released few details following the shooting.
Bainbridge Police Chief Matthew Hamner said officer-involved shootings are typically investigated by an outside, independent law-enforcement agency.
Hamner did say that it was a Bainbridge officer who fired the shots that injured the man.
No officers or bystanders were injured.
Hamner would initially not confirm whether or not the pursuit and shooting were at all related to an emergency call at a nearby elementary school just before.
“Right now we have one individual who has been shot and transported. We have one BIPD officer, and no serious injuries to the officers at this point,” Hamner said Wednesday in the wake of the incident.
“All other facts and factors will come as we develop them. As developments come in, we will update you, but at this juncture that’s what we have,” he said.
Hamner estimated there were at least nine immediate witnesses that police needed to interview downtown.
“We have numerous people that have come forward and said they were standing out here and saw it happen,” he said.