LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Video showing the moments before a Louisville police officer shot and killed a man Sunday in Crescent Hill shows the man breaking into a neighbor's apartment to steal the knife he ultimately used to stab the officer.
WDRB obtained the exclusive video of what preceded the shooting just after noon April 20 on Arterburn Avenue, near Frankfort Avenue. Louisville Metro Police officers responded to a report of a possibly intoxicated man acting erratically.
Neighbors identified the man this week as Ahtume McCollum.
"In this past few months, he's escalated and escalated and escalated," one neighbor said.
The video shows McCollum break into a neighboring upstairs apartment just before 12:30 p.m. to steal a knife. The woman who lives there said she often gave him food.
"At first, I thought he was just knocking aggressively," she said. "It turns out that my apartment wasn't as secure as I thought."
It took roughly three hits before McCollum broke down the door. There were two people in the apartment: the woman and her 5-year-old daughter.
The mother is seen confronting McCollum in the surveillance video. She shouts "Please, don't do this!" before he went into her kitchen. The mother then calls for her child, who was hiding in the side bedroom. This causes McCollum to run toward them before he dismisses her and steals a knife.
Video shows the moments leading up to a police shooting in Crescent Hill.
As McCollum is leaving, the video shows the woman shout out to her neighbor as a warning. That's where the video ends. In total, the terrifying encounter took less than a minute.
Neighbors said McCollum went on to smash windows in a downstairs unit.
The only exit for the woman who lived there was a front door McCollum "tried to kick down 10 times."
"I was so panicked because I didn't think I was going to get out," the woman said. "I knew that he was going to kill me. He was screaming, and then I ran out the front door and went upstairs."
She ended up in the apartment McCollum broke into just minutes before. The two women and the child hid until LMPD arrived.
"I didn't realize that he had broken her door down," the downstairs neighbor said. "I panicked again, because we didn't have any way to lock the door. We're upstairs trapped."
The police arrived a few minutes later. The women said they watched the struggle between McCollum and LMPD officers outside the downstairs apartment. LMPD said McCollum resisted as they tried to detain him, and a struggle broke out. A taser was deployed but was ineffective.
Police said McCollum stabbed one officer in the chest, but his ballistic vest stopped the knife from doing any damage. Another officer, Benjamin Klingenfus, then shot McCollum in the head. He died at the hospital.
The women said this was an ongoing issue, with McCollum often screaming at the top of his lungs and punching holes in his apartment.
"I would time myself going in and out of my apartment because I didn't want to run into him," the upstairs neighbor said.
Both neighbors said they feel safer with McCollum gone.
LMPD Chief Paul Humphrey said there is body worn camera footage of the incident, which will be released within 10 business days. Both officers involved have been placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation, which is standard procedure in use-of-force cases.
"No one else was more seriously injured in a situation that could have been horribly worse," Humphrey said.
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