Body-camera video from a D.C. police officer who shot and wounded a man, who authorities said had weapons and was suffering a mental health crisis in his Northeast Washington home, shows police first confronted him after they said he set basement stairs on fire.
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Moments after, in a scene obscured by the officer’s ballistic shield, 25-year-old Jaron Wimbish fired what police said they initially believed was a semiautomatic handgun but later learned was a paintball gun. Police said the tactical officer returned fire, striking Wimbish twice.
Police identified the officer who shot Wimbish as Brian Daniel, a member of the emergency response team. He has been placed on routine administrative duties pending the outcome of the investigation into the Oct. 5 shooting inside the home in the first block of McDonald Street NE.
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Daniel did not respond to an email requesting comment sent on Friday. D.C. police made the body-camera video public on Wednesday night.
Wimbish was taken to a hospital for treatment, and police said he was charged with assault on a police officer while armed, assault with a dangerous weapon and arson. As of Friday, he had not made his initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court, and his medical condition could not be ascertained.
Efforts to reach Wimbish’s relatives were not successful on Friday. In an interview with WRC-TV earlier this week, his mother disputed the description police gave of the weapons and said no fire had been set inside the home.
Man shot, seriously wounded by police during standoff in Northeast Washington home is charged with assault, arson
The standoff began when police said they were called to the home shortly after noon for a report that Wimbish had shot someone with a BB gun. Police said officers found Wimbish outside holding a weapon that did not match the description of the BB gun and a large knife that police described as a machete. The mother told WRC-TV that her son was not holding the knife when police arrived.
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Wimbish went into the Manor Park house and down to the basement, prompting an hours-long standoff. The body-camera video starts about eight minutes before the shooting. Police released videos from the officer who fired his gun and another officer.
The videos show officers on the ground floor of the single-family house at the top of the stairs leading to the basement. They are whispering, apparently trying to avoid being heard by Wimbish, who can be heard but not seen.
In the portion of the video released publicly, Wimbish appears to ask police to help him understand Muslims.
Police said members of the crisis intervention team talked with Wimbish, and were accompanied by a counselor from the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health. Police also said Wimbish has a history of setting fires at the house, which his mother also denied in the television interview.
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At one point, a police officer on the video shouts, “He’s lighting the steps on fire. Go, go go. Shields, shields shields.”
Officers went down the stairs; the video shows a small flame on a bottom step, but does not show it being set. Police said other steps had been doused with lighter fluid. An officer who reaches the bottom of the stairs yells, “Get on the ground,” followed by gunshots.
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