Fort Worth police video shows officers fatally shoot man who ran out of house with knives
Body-camera video released by the Fort Worth Police Department on Friday shows the moments leading up to the shooting that killed a 28-year-old who police said charged at officers with two knives.
Family members have said the man, Brandon Adame, was suffering from a mental health episode.
Officers responded to the Adame family’s home in the 5800 block of Westgate Drive around 4:20 a.m. on Jan. 15 after a woman called 911. A man can be heard in the background threatening to kill her with a knife, according to 911 audio released by the department at a news conference on Friday, Jan. 24.
“Don’t hit me anymore,” the caller says repeatedly, crying. “I’m sorry.”
When police arrived, the video shows, the woman tells them her son “is getting the knives.” An officer tells her to open the door, but she wasn’t able to open the outer metal screen door to the house.
The man was behaving aggressively inside the house, and the officers could tell he had a knife, police said. In the video footage, the officer at the door responds to something the man says with, “No, nobody wants to kill you, Brandon.”
“I know you’re going to kill me, like you always do,” the man says from inside the house.
The woman can be heard screaming, “No, don’t!” and at some point a knife blade comes through the mesh part of the screen door.
An officer remained at the front of the house. He tried to get Adame to talk to him, but Adame closed the inner door.
Two officers went to the back of the home and tried to see what was going on by looking through the windows. They developed a strategy for entering the home, and one of the officers kicked the door open.
Immediately Adame runs out, a knife in each hand, the video shows. Eight gunshots are heard in quick succession as two officers fire their guns, shooting him. Adame falls to the ground and then tries to get up again. An officer tells him not to move and to drop the knives.
Officers provided medical aid to Adame, but he died at the scene. Two kitchen knives were found outside the back door of the home, police said.
Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes said it was a tragic incident.
“This was not a situation where they could sit back and just wait because of the ongoing deadly threat to the mother,” Noakes said at the news conference. “They had to act. They did so the best they could. They were faced with a deadly threat, and they did what we trained them to do.”
According to Noakes, police responded to the same house for a mental health crisis about a week prior to the shooting. That time they were able to get Adame medical care. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option in this situation, Noakes said.
“Even though the other (call) did have indications of potential violence, this one took a different turn,” Noakes said. “You could hear just from the 911 call from the mother, the desperation in her voice.”
The Crisis Intervention Unit was also called, Noakes said, but those officers weren’t able to make it in time.
Brandon Adame’s family told the Star-Telegram that the 28-year-old had schizophrenia and he “had episodes.” He lived in the home with his parents and other relatives.
Adame’s mother, Elsa Adame, said the domestic disturbance began when her son hit her brother, who has Down syndrome. When she went to check on her brother, Adame began hitting her, she said.
Elsa Adame said her son wanted to be off his medication, because he wanted to get married and have children like everyone else. He stopped taking medication at times.
“He was hugging me and kissing me last night,” she told the Star-Telegram the day of the shooting. “Telling me that ‘I love you, Mom. If you die, I want to go with you.’”
A document that police gave the family showed that seven casings were taken as evidence from the scene. It’s unclear how many rounds struck Adame.
If you or someone you know is going through a mental health crisis, please seek help, police said. Call 211 to talk with someone who can connect you with mental health resources.
