California police body camera footage shows a bleeding and crying 17-year-old apologizing to the officer who shot her three times after the teen taunted him into opening fire after she deliberately ran toward him with a six-inch kitchen knife.
An officer responded to reports of a girl causing a disturbance behind the Carl Jr’s fast food restaurant on North Rose Avenue in Oxnard with a 12-inch knife in her pocket.
Oxnard Police Chief Scott Whitney described the 2019 standoff in an edited video package posted online by his department.
The young woman involved, who has not been identified, survived the shooting and five years after that traumatic day has gone on to help police officers in their training after she took responsibility for her actions.
“This is not your typical officer involved shooting. A 17-year-old girl attempted suicide at the hands of a police officer. She was shot 3 times. The officer saved his life. “This young woman is now sharing her experience with police officers to help them understand what might be going on with a person who wants to commit suicide at the hands of a police officer,” Oxnard police posted online.
This photo taken from police video camera video from May 3, 2019 released by the Oxnard Police Department shows an officer shooting a 17-year-old girl armed with a knife in California.
The girl, center, appears alongside officers who have received training to prevent “suicide by cop” incidents.
‘After falling, I returned to my normal state of thought. For that I apologized profusely. I wasn’t apologizing because I got shot. “I apologized because I hurt this officer and made him fear for his life,” said the young woman, now 22 years old.
“I feel bad saying this, but when he said ‘something bad is going to happen,’ I feel like he was giving me the pass (to shoot me and end this).”
The woman in question recovered from her injuries and has since focused on improving her mental health, sitting face to face with Officer Timothy Roberts.
She has spoken about the importance of dealing with mental health issues and has also spent time talking to police officers about her experience in the hopes that they can understand and comprehend what might be happening with someone who might be attempting suicide at hands of a police officer.
“In many of these situations, the person in my situation is not living,” he said. “I feel it is my duty, as someone who lived, to promote mental health awareness.”
The teen said she had a history of suicidal ideation and had attempted suicide before. She said she thought involving the police would be a more effective method, but now she regrets the decision.
“I feel guilty about that assumption because a police officer is there to help,” the young woman said. ‘It is horrible to want them to harm someone in their community whom they have sworn to protect.
‘I don’t want this guy to live with the guilt of that. I didn’t want anyone to get upset about it,’ he continued.
‘It was frustrating not being able to move and it was frustrating to live. “It was frustrating not being able to talk to Officer Roberts,” he said.
Officer Roberts said he didn’t realize at the time that it was a suicide attempt.
“It’s impossible to know that at this point,” Roberts said. “She also didn’t give any indication of that with what she was saying.”
An officer responded to a vacant lot behind a Carl Jr’s in response to multiple calls allegedly made by the teenager reporting a disturbance caused by her.
During the heartbreaking incident, Oxnard Officer Roberts’ body camera records him warning the girl not to reach for the gun.
‘Why, what if I catch up with him?’ asks the girl, who is wearing a red t-shirt, blue shorts and sneakers.
“Then something bad is going to happen,” says Roberts, who at the time had been on the Oxnard force for four years.
The camera then shows him walking away from the teen in a parking lot while ordering her to drop the knife.
The girl ignores his orders and continues walking towards him. “Come on, shoot me,” she tells the officer who stands some distance away with the gun in her hand. “I’ve been waiting all day.”
“Leave it,” the officer orders.
“No,” the teenager responds.
When she suddenly starts running towards Roberts with the knife in her right hand, he shoots her several times and she falls to the ground.
The officer in the video repeatedly orders the young woman to get rid of the knife, but she refuses each time.
Police say the teen was armed with this 12-inch kitchen knife at the time of the incident.
The video shows the 17-year-old girl taunting the police officer and daring him to open fire on her.
The officer backs away until the girl runs away, prompting him to shoot her three times.
The teen falls to the ground, bleeding and writhing in pain.
Two officers are then shown providing first aid to the girl while they wait for an ambulance to arrive.
“I’m so sorry,” the teen says as he gasps and writhes on the pavement.
“Okay,” an officer responds.
The two officers are seen in body camera footage examining the girl’s injuries, including gunshot wounds to the chest and thigh.
Officer Roberts and his partner proceed to administer first aid to the girl.
The girl repeatedly apologizes to police as she is treated for gunshot wounds.
The second officer arrived moments before the shooting and was preparing to use a bean bag gun to try to subdue the girl, according to police.
Roberts had worked for the Oxnard Police Department since 2015 and was assigned to the patrol division.
Further investigation revealed that multiple 911 calls made that morning reported a distraught woman armed with a knife and the calls came from the teen’s own phone, leading them to believe she “intentionally intended to receive a shot by an officer.”