A Phoenix police officer fatally shot a father with weapons holding his child in a dramatic encounter captured on camera images of the body.
The officer can be heard pleading with 37-year-old Paul Bolden to put the child down before shooting him outside a hotel on Jan. 9 in a video released by Phoenix police on Monday.
Police responded to the scene after Bolden’s girlfriend called 911 and reported firing a gun while holding the child.
“[He] just took my baby, he’s got a gun, he’s loaded, he took the baby. He’s trying to kill him, he’s shooting, he’s shot, ” the frantic mother told the emergency center, according to the audio of the call released Monday.
“He’s got my son, he stole my son.”
Before police arrived, Bolden held a driver at gunpoint, according to another 911 caller.
When police arrived on the scene, Bolden declined their order to drop the gun, police said.
“He has now taken a child hostage,” an officer reported on the radio. “He has a gun, he has already taken a shot,” the officer continued.
“We need more units, block all traffic.”
Bolden then points the gun at his child and others, police said, as she led the officer to the fire with a rifle.
The shot was fired from behind the door of a police SUV, which blocked the officer’s body camera.
After firing, an officer decides to run and grab the crying baby from the ground.
“Hold on, hold on, hold on,” you hear an officer say.
“No, fuck it, get the boy! Get the kid!” Answers another.
Bolden was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.