Phoenix Officer Shoots Knife-Wielding Man Who Threatened to Slice Her Throat

Lorenz Duchamps
By Lorenz Duchamps
July 31, 2020US News
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A knife-wielding man who was shot by a responding police officer after he reportedly threatened people at a grocery store will be charged with aggravated assault, police said.

The suspect has been identified as 55-year-old Jon David Brouseau and was reportedly intoxicated during the June 14 incident at a parking lot on Union Hills in Phoenix, Arizona.

The City of Phoenix produced the body camera footage, along with a video recorded on a witness’s phone public on July 30. The footage reveals the wild confrontation between the unidentified female officer and Brouseau.

An unidentified woman at the local store called 911 after she noticed a “drunk man armed with a knife” allegedly threatening customers inside the store, police said in the July 30 statement.

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Jon David Brouseau, 55, in a booking photo. (Phoenix Police Department)
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The knife Jon David Brouseau used is pictured. ((Phoenix Police Department)

The officer involved in the shooting was first to arrive on the scene and tried to talk with Brouseau after she “immediately noticed that he was armed with a knife.”

In the video, the officer can be heard urging the man to lower his guard and drop his weapon. But the suspect ignores the officer’s commands and instead tells her to “shut up” and “I’ll [explicit] slice your [explicit] throat!”

“The officer repeatedly told Brouseau to drop the knife,” according to the police statement. “The man ignored the commands and told the officer he would kill her.”

After having continued to ignore commands from the officer for nearly one minute and repeatedly threatening her while walking towards her with the knife in hand, he lunged towards her. The officer then fired her weapon once, police said.

The man can be heard crying out loud after the officer shot him, yelling, “that [explicit] hurt, that [explicit] hurt, as he remains down, rolling around on the concrete of the parking lot.

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Jon David Brouseau, 55, rolling on the concrete of a parking lot after an officer-involved shooting in Phoenix, Arizona on June 14, 2020. (Phoenix Police Department)

Additional officers with the department responded to the scene after calls for backup and were able to give Brouseau medical care. He is expected to survive, police said.

The officer who fired her weapon had been with the department for one year and is assigned to the Cactus Park Precinct, the department said.

“Conclusions about whether the actions of the officers are consistent with department policy and the law will not be made until all facts are known and the investigation is complete,” the department stated.

The video was also uploaded to YouTube and has already been viewed over 400,000 times since it was made public on July 30. Many of the people who commented on the video praised the officer for her patience.

“She is a true professional! She did everything she could to keep from shooting him,” one comment reads.

Others said the officer “tried so hard not to shoot him” and “imagine being forced to shoot someone in the 1st year on the job.”

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