After an officer from the Lancaster City Bureau of Police shot and killed Ricardo Munoz Sunday afternoon, authorities released body-camera footage of the incident within just a few hours.
The video appears to show Munoz chasing a police officer with a knife in his right hand and the officer shooting Munoz while running away.
In a public statement issued Sunday night on their department website, police reported that the communications department received a call regarding a domestic violence incident at 4:13 p.m. According to police, a woman told dispatchers her brother was “becoming aggressive with his mother and was attempting to break into her house.” Police say the first officer arrived at 4:24 p.m., and Munoz was killed a short time later.
After the incident, civil unrest broke out in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In another public statement released Monday, police reported making eight arrests for arson and rioting outside of department headquarters early that morning. Police said two of the individuals taken into custody were armed with handguns prior to their arrest.
This analysis video is an attempt to provide an objective assessment of the body-camera footage released by police. While the investigation is still in its initial stages, based on my initial review, the officers’ response does not appear to be unreasonable.
Thomas Owen Baker worked as a police officer for approximately nine years. He is currently pursuing his PhD in criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and was selected by the Pat Tillman Foundation in 2018 as a Tillman Scholar. His research focuses on police use of force and its social implications. Follow him on Twitter @thomasowenbaker or catch him discussing the policing on The Discipline and Punish Podcast.
