LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville police released body camera video Monday showing a rookie officer shoot a convicted felon who pointed an "AR-15-style pistol" at him while running through the Wyandotte neighborhood.

The video, taken from the body camera of Louisville Metro Police Officer O'Sha Rogers, shows Jaron Bobbitt running from officers who responded to a domestic violence call around 2:30 p.m. Nov. 13 on Beecher Street near Wyandotte Park. The 911 call, which LMPD played during a news conference Monday, reported two men in the street fighting, a "girl running down the street screaming for help" and a man chasing her. 

Rogers — who graduated from the police academy in August and has no history of complaints — and another officer had just arrived at the scene when Bobbitt jumped out of a car in the driveway of a home and immediately ran.

In Monday's news conference, seven days after the shooting, LMPD Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said Bobbitt, who has a "lengthy criminal history," repeatedly failed to obey officers' commands. Running down Camden Avenue — at times, even skipping — Bobbitt held the gun up in the air, waving it around in his right hand with Rogers less than 10 yards behind him.

For nearly 30 seconds, Rogers hardly stopped shouting for Bobbitt to drop the gun. Bobbitt eventually responded, saying "I will drop it," before immediately turning and pointing it at officers.

"This person's behavior is not congruent with what he's saying," Humphrey said Monday, explaining the mentality of officers in the moment. "Your words can be nice. Yours words can say all kinds of things. But if your actions are presenting a threat, we have to handle that threat appropriately. And, sometimes, that means that we ultimately end up using force, including firing our weapons at people at times. It's a difficult decision to make."

Rogers fired four shots, hitting Bobbitt.

Three officers quickly tended to Bobbitt's wounds — which appeared to be to his torso and right arm — as he screamed on the ground. 

"I wouldn't have shot you dude," he yells a couple minutes after he was shot. "... Please don't let me die, sir!"

Bobbitt told officers after he was shot that the gun was a toy, but Humphrey said it was real and loaded.

"We might be talking about this for 30 minutes today, 45 minutes today, but you saw that happened in a matter of 45 seconds," Humphrey said. "And there was a lot of interaction, a lot of opportunity for people to get injured — way more than just what ended up happening at the end of this — in that very short period of time. These are not simple situations, right? The answers might be simple, but making those decisions in the moment are not."

Jaron Bobbitt.jpg

Jaron Bobbitt (Photo courtesy of the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections)

Humphrey stressed after releasing the video that officers run into situations that at least begin like the one with Bobbitt every day around Louisville. Those often result in dangerous guns being seized, but those cases don't get the same attention because they don't end with someone being shot.

"These are tense, rapidly evolving and uncertain situations," Humphrey said. "(Rogers is) having to make these split-second decisions very, very quickly. ... I think you saw the culmination of a lot of training." 

Bobbitt was taken to the hospital but has since been released and booked into Louisville's jail downtown. He appeared in court Wednesday on charges of wanton endangerment of a police officer and being a convicted felon in possession of a gun. Humphrey said he's also charged with fourth-degree assault in connection to the domestic violence incident that was the subject of the initial 911 call.

"He's a severe danger to the public," Humphrey said Monday. "To be armed with that type of weapon and then resist police commands, continue to resist police commands, run through a neighborhood that's obviously occupied by homes and people, he presents himself as a very immediate threat to the public. I think we're very fortunate as a community that this person is now off the streets, and, hopefully, he stays off the streets for an extremely long time, at least until he's aged out of this inability to make good decisions."

No one else was injured in the shooting.

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