Baltimore police release bodyworn camera videos in fatal shooting by officer
By Jenyne Donaldson
Click here for updates on this story
BALTIMORE, Maryland (WBAL) — (WARNING: Graphic Video) — Baltimore police on Tuesday released two bodyworn camera videos from a shooting in which an officer fatally shot a man over the weekend.
City police said an officer responding to an assault call Sunday afternoon at Lafayette and Fulton avenues found Tyree Moorehead holding a woman at knifepoint.
Also Tuesday, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office’s Independent Investigations Division identified the officer who shot Moorehead as Officer Zachary Rutherford, a three-year law-enforcement veteran assigned to BPD’s operations bureau.
Baltimore Deputy Police Commissioner Brian Nadeau said one of the videos is from Rutherford’s bodyworn camera, and a second video is from a bodyworn camera of Officer-trainee Michael Hazel.
The videos show Rutherford repeatedly ordering Moorehead to drop the knife before firing multiple gunshots while Moorehead was on the ground. Moorehead stayed on top of the woman, holding a butcher’s knife.
“What we saw the officer witness was a large knife in his hand, struggling with this female, and we saw him get back on top of the female with the knife,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said, adding that an investigation continues. “This is based on the time that the threat is present.”
Harrison said it was unknown how many times Moorehead was struck and that the medical examiner will confirm that information. More than a dozen gunshots were heard on the videos.
The police commissioner was limited in the questions he answered.
“We’re going to await the outcome of the investigation,” Harrison said. “What we can say and what you just witnessed is that a woman’s life was saved.”
Nadeau said the videos were given to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office and a civil rights organization.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
