Walter Wallace Jr. was fatally shot by Philadelphia police officers Sean Matarazzo and Thomas Munz in Cobbs Creek, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The two officers arrived in the area to respond to a domestic dispute. When they arrived, Wallace walked out of his house carrying a knife. As Wallace walked in their direction, each officer fired several rounds at Wallace, hitting him in the shoulder and chest. Wallace’s family stated that Wallace was having a mental health crisis. Protests against the killing occurred throughout Philadelphia in late October.
About Killing of Walter Wallace in brief
Walter Wallace Jr. was fatally shot by Philadelphia police officers Sean Matarazzo and Thomas Munz in Cobbs Creek, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The two officers arrived in the area to respond to a domestic dispute. When they arrived, Wallace walked out of his house carrying a knife. As Wallace walked in their direction, each officer fired several rounds at Wallace, hitting him in the shoulder and chest. Wallace’s family stated that Wallace was having a mental health crisis. Protests against the killing occurred throughout Philadelphia in late October. Peaceful protests took place, as well as several which escalated into violence and looting, leading to arrests, injuries to police and protesters. The family does not want murder charges filed against the officers, and intend to file a wrongful death lawsuit. They also called for the police department’s responses to mental health crises to change. On November 4, the officers involved in the shooting were identified by the P.D.’s Officer-Involved Shooting Investigation Unit and the District Attorney’s office are ongoing. The shooting gained attention after a cellphone video of the incident was posted to social media platforms, where it went viral. On October 30, the family reviewed the footage from the body cameras worn by the officers during the shooting. The footage was released to the public marking the first time the first part of the footage was made public to mark the time of the first public release of the body camera footage. It is unknown if the officers were familiar with Wallace prior to their arrival.
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said the police dispatch prior to the shooting said, \”Tell the officers to use caution in responding to this, it’s an ongoing domestic issue going on up there.\’ Wallace’s mother told the officers not to shoot him moments before shots were fired. An unknown man said \”Get him,\” and \”Shoot him,\’ before each officer shot about seven times, with an unknown number of shots hitting Wallace. Wallace then walked back into the street while officers continued to aim their guns at him, repeating for him to \”put the knife down\” around 11 times. One of the officers placed Wallace in a police vehicle and drove him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving. Wallace was suffering from bipolar disorder and he was incapacitated after the shooting, based on the footage. The officers involved were moved to desk duty pending an investigation. The officer who shot Wallace has not been identified. The investigation into the shooting is ongoing and the district attorney’s office has not yet released a statement on the case. The police commissioner said the family had called for an ambulance to get Wallace help with amental health crisis, not for police intervention, and that Wallace’s parents had been to the family’s house three times on October 26. Wallace’s sister asked for a medic on the scene as her mother’s blood pressure was rising and her father was feeling faint, also informing the dispatcher that he had a criminal record.
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This page is based on the article Killing of Walter Wallace published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 05, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
