Knife wielding autistic man shot by police at homeless shelter

AUGUSTA — Newly-released video and audio recordings of the deadly police shooting of Dustin J. Paradis, an autistic man who was living at the Bread of Life shelter, appear to show that Paradis moved toward officers with a knife in his hand and told them to kill him. Subscribe to our channel: https://t.co/Gh73IIzCkx?amp=1 Footage from security cameras inside Bread of Life’s Hospital Street shelter appears to show two Augusta police officers — previously identified as Sabastian Guptill and Sgt. Christopher Blodgett — come into the entryway of the shelter, draw their guns and position themselves, Guptill in front, Blodgett behind him, just outside the doorway to the adjacent room. The officers can be seen talking with someone who is not in that camera shot, believed to be Paradis, in the next room. After roughly 45 seconds, they both suddenly raise their guns and fire multiple times. They appeared to lower their weapons slightly, directing their weapons’ trajectory downward, between shots, as they fired into the next room. A second video — taken in a room adjacent to the entryway where police were standing just outside the doorway between those two rooms — shows Paradis, with what appears to be a knife in his hand, at first standing and briefly talking with the officers. Paradis then quickly steps forward, knife still in his hand, toward the doorway where the two officers were standing with their guns drawn. A timestamp on the video indicates he moved toward the door at the same time that the other video indicates officers fired their weapons into that room. Audio of the incident, taken by the officers’ microphones and recorded on the dash cameras of their cruisers, indicates police shouted multiple times at Paradis to drop the knife. And Paradis, 34, can be heard shouting back, “Kill me!” repeatedly. That exchange continues for several seconds, with one of the officers saying they did not want to kill Paradis, and repeatedly telling him to drop the knife. “Drop the knife!” police can be heard saying. “I do not want to kill you; please drop that knife for me sir!” After more of that back and forth, several loud bangs can be heard, then moaning. Police then reported over their radios that shots had been fired and a subject was down. Radio broadcasts during Guptill’s drive to the scene say a man was reported to have a knife and had cut himself at the shelter, and a woman at the shelter tells Blodgett, as he nears the entrance, that a man had a knife and was cutting himself inside. Augusta police Chief Jared Mills said Friday he could not comment due to the still-ongoing investigation into the shooting by AG’s office, which is standard procedure. The AG’s office investigates all police shootings in Maine. Last month, when Blodgett and Guptill returned to duty following an internal investigation, Mills said video footage of the incident was reviewed as part of that investigation and Augusta police’s internal review of the shooting determined no corrective or disciplinary action should be taken against either of them, according to Mills. The officers were placed on administrative leave with pay following the shooting, as is the department’s practice. “The entire incident was captured on video, which enabled our investigators to verify all the information they had been provided through a number of witness interviews,” Mills said after Guptill and Blodgett returned to duty the week of Nov. 18. Mills declined to release the findings of that internal investigation, stating that such a report would only be public information if corrective or disciplinary action were taken against either officer. [DISCLAIMER] Viewer discretion is advised. This video and others posted on this channel are for educational and informational purposes only. -------------------- Subscribe to our channel: https://t.co/Gh73IIzCkx?amp=1 Support the channel by donating to https://paypal.me/worldpolicevideos