The Detroit Police Department has released officer body camera video from a controversial summer shooting in which a 36th District Court bailiff killed a northwest Detroit man during an eviction.
Footage of the July 12 shooting of Sherman Lee Butler, 44, was posted to the department’s YouTube page Monday, three weeks after the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office declined to charge the bailiff. In a Dec. 3 statement, the office said the court-contracted officer had acted in self defense against a “highly agitated” Butler, who held a box cutter to his neck and “made multiple statements that the only way he was leaving was if the officers … killed him.”
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The Free Press is choosing not to link to the video, which shows the deadly shooting.
Video and 911 dispatch calls posted by the department show the bailiff requested police assistance just before 11 a.m. at the apartment complex on Manderson Road, near Woodward Avenue, for “a gentleman inside that has a spike attempting to attack us.” About 10 minutes later, the bailiff is seen knocking at Butler’s door with a police officer. He announces himself and kicks open the door with his gun drawn.
For the next seven minutes, the bailiff and officers can be heard attempting to calm an apparently armed Butler as he yells at them to leave.
“Let’s put the knife down and talk about it,” the man who appears to be the bailiff is heard saying. “What about your family?”
Eventually, Butler starts yelling, “Get the f— out of my house, get the f— out my s—. You are in here illegally. You got guns pulled, all kinds of s—, you shouldn’t be in here! You’re in here to kill me — so use it already!”
Butler is visible for only a portion of the exchange, captured lying in bed. A grainy, zoomed-in still image presented by the department is purported to show he “held a box cutter to his neck with his right hand and a spike ball in his left hand.” Evidence photos of a box cutter and spiked item were also presented.
Eventually, the bailiff turns to an officer and quietly asks “How you want to handle without blasting his ass? That’s the only way, because the steel thing, that brush-like thing he’s got, is steel … is still spikes. It’s up to you.”
“We’ll Tase his ass, it’ll drop him,” the officer responds.
The officer’s Taser deployment did not subdue Butler. Instead, he stands, stepping around the bed with writhing movements.
The bailiff then fires at least six shots and Butler collapses on the ground. Asked by an officer where he’s been shot, he responds “everywhere.” He was pronounced dead shortly after.
In a statement to WDIV-TV, Taura Brown, an activist who said she was speaking on behalf of Butler’s family, said the video shows the 44-year-old’s shooting was “unnecessary” and “overkill.”
Butler, Brown told the TV station, never lunges toward officers. Rather, she said, “I feel like he’s reacting to being Tased.”
The shooting prompted protests and calls for the release of body camera footage throughout the summer.
Detroit police initially declined to release video in the case with the investigation pending. The department, then under former Chief James White, said a new rule requiring greater transparency after shootings by department officers did not apply because Butler was shot by a court bailiff.