IMPD releases bodycam footage of April police shootout, killing suspect
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department released the bodycam footage Monday afternoon from the April police shooting that left a man dead.
Just after 12:40 p.m. April 20, officers were conducting a firearms investigation and surveillance of a house in the 9100 block of East 36th Street. Police say 46-year-old Daniel Ghebrehiwet was seen leaving the home carrying a soft rifle case and getting into the driver’s seat of a black Toyota Sienna. A second person was seen getting into the passenger seat.
Detectives began following Ghebrehiwet south on North Post Road. The officers began to initiate a traffic stop on the vehicle in the area of North Post Road and East 30th Street. Ghebrehiwet failed to stop, which prompted police to pursue the vehicle.
Police attempted to spin the car out to stop the pursuit but were unsuccessful. The vehicle turned into the parking lot of a local business and went into a dead-end, crashing into a 6-foot fence. The vehicle then went off-road into a gap between the business complex and homes on the south side of the business complex.
The vehicle ended up lodged, and that’s when the shootout began between police and the driver.
Ghebrehiwet fired at detectives Sergio De Leon and Jonathon Phelps before they exited their police vehicle. Security camera video from a nearby business shows detectives Mathew Harris and John Wallace exit their vehicle with guns drawn shooting toward the suspect.
De Leon can be seen on the ground behind a truck after getting struck in the leg. In De Leon’s body-worn camera footage, you can hear him yelling “I’m hit, I’m hit… I’m hit, I’m hit.”
Toward the end of the shooting, officers slowly started to approach Ghebrehiwet’s vehicle, where they found him dead. Police also found a rifle next to his body.
Two police cars can be seen riddled with bullets. The two officers shot were taken to a hospital in non-life-threatening and have since been released.
The passenger in the vehicle who was later identified as Darnell Harmon, 31, fled on foot during the shooting but was later arrested under an unrelated warrant charging him with possession of methamphetamine, possession of cocaine, and possession of narcotic drugs.
The critical incident video from April 20 can be watched on YouTube.
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