Police bodycam footage released Friday showed an autistic man charging at police with a knife while experiencing a mental health breakdown before cops shot and killed the 20-year-old.
The Irvine Police Department shared video of the disturbing encounter on July 21, when Daniel Meltvedt called 911 to say he recently stopped taking an anti-psychotic medication and wanted to take his life.
When officers arrived and met Meltvedt, he appeared to be standing at the entrance of a closed-off trail in a residential neighborhood as a number of cops watched on from a distance.
He is seen holding a kitchen knife and repeatedly said he wanted officers to shoot and kill him. The footage revealed the intense conversations officers had with Meltvedt as they attempted to persuade him to drop the weapon.
“I’m not afraid of any of you to die,” he can be heard saying to officers of the department’s Crisis Negotiation Team. “If I die, I die, guess what.”
An officer responds saying that comment scared him and asks Meltvedt why he called police, to which he responds that he was worried about his own safety.
“I was ready to die,” he is heard saying.
The negotiator makes more pleas to Meltvedt to drop the knife so they can help him, before Meltvedt says at one point he may have intentions of hurting the officers.
The moment became more tense when some officers pull out tasers, which Meltvedt appears to perceives to be a threat. At that point, he is heard pleading for officers to “take the shot.”
“I can’t wait for you to kill me today,” he says. “I’d rather you shoot me because, if not, all your employees are getting killed.”
The footage also showed an officer asking the young man’s father, Erich Meltvedt, how to calm his son down. The father was present at the hour-plus standoff but was reportedly kept away from talking to his son to prevent further escalation. He advised them to “tell him exactly what to do.”
Around 1 p.m., the officers appear frustrated and began making more forceful comments Meltvedt.
“I’m tired of playing with you. I’m tired of screwing around,” one officer says. “I’ve told you several times, quit playing with my officers. Put the knife down now!”
After more shouting by law enforcement, Meltvedt asks, “Are those guns?” before running toward officers with knife in his hand. As he nears a line of officers, eight gunshots can be heard ringing out.
Paramedics later rendered medical aid, but he was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is investigating the incident. The probe could take up to a year, police have said.
The release of the footage comes after the father and other family members criticized police for what he claimed was an over-aggresive response. Erich Meltvedt said that his son, who worked as a clerk at a grocery store, was sent home from a rough day on the job that day.
“I thought they’d come to help him, but they killed him instead,” the father told the Los Angeles Times last month. Police “had seven guys there and you’re telling me they can’t take down one guy with a 5-inch blade.”
Erich recently told the Orange County Register he hasn’t been able to get himself to watch the newly released bodycam footage.
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