Man With Knife Threatens To Cut Cops Throat, Gets A Shiny New Bullet

Cellphone video shows the scary moments between a suspect and a police officer during an officer-involved shooting in Phoenix.

The shooting happened on Sunday near 43rd Avenue and Union Hills Drive around 7:45 p.m. after someone called 911 about a man armed with a knife threatening to kill people in the Asiana Market. An officer later arrived and the confrontation was caught on camera.

During the confrontation, the suspect is seen walking toward the officer shouting, “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” as the officer tries to get him to back down and put down his knife while pointing a gun at him.

The officer was walking backwards around the vehicle so she could face the suspect as he was chasing her closer and closer around the police SUV. During this, the officer is repeatedly asking him to put down the knife.

“Shoot me. I will kill you,” the suspect says.

“On the ground!” the officer commands.

“I’ll kill you, you stupid little [expletive]. I will [expletive] slice your [expletive] throat,” the suspect says in the video.

The suspect then backs away from the officer. She moves toward him again asking him to get on the ground. He walks toward her trying to get her to clarify what she wanted on the ground.

Facing him and walking backwards, the officer then walks into the parking lot as the suspect advances in her direction. The video cuts away before the shooting but shows a short glimpse of what appears to be the suspect going down before bystanders try to approach the officer.

The suspect has not yet been identified and is still currently in the hospital.

Arizona's Family asked Phoenix police to comment on the cellphone video, to which they responded: "We are aware of several cell phone videos involving this ongoing investigation."

As a former assistant police chief in Phoenix, Andy Anderson knows what training the officer likely went through.

"One of the things we train with at the academy is how dangerous an individual is with a knife," said Anderson. "They have what they call a 15-foot rule because an individual with a knife can cover that 15 feet in the blink of an eye."

Anderson believes the officer did the right thing.

"She was trying very hard to create distance with this individual," said Anderson. "She was trying very hard to get this individual to listen to her and calm down, but when he advanced on her in the method that he did, she ran out of options."

Phoenix Law Enforcement Association President, Britt London, said it concerns him that she was the only officer there.

"People are talking about defunding the police department," said London. "That's what happens when you defund the police department. You have one officer. This situation may have been able to have been handled differently if there were more officers."