Metro: Officers shot, killed knife-wielding man who ran toward them

The Metropolitan Police Department revealed new details in a briefing Tuesday about a shooting by two officers that killed a knife-wielding suspect on Friday.

Body camera footage played during the briefing showed Percy Hawkins, 37, running toward officers with a knife in his hand in a parking lot.

The shooting by officers Trenzel Allen, 27, and Anthony Salinas, 26, is the 10th officer-involved shooting for Metro this year, police said. That’s twice the number of such shootings from the same time last year.

Metro officers responded to a request from a business in the 200 block of East Tropicana Avenue just before 10 a.m. Friday in response to a report of two people who had gone behind the counter and threatened employees, Assistant Sheriff Yasenia Yatomi said in a briefing at Metro headquarters on South Martin Luther King Boulevard.

Surveillance footage played during the briefing showed a woman going behind the counter at the business with a dog on a leash and Hawkins following.

When Allen and Salinas arrived in the parking lot, they encountered Hawkins, Yatomi said. She said he was holding a knife that appeared to be two and a half inches long. He also appeared to be holding a metal necklace.

Body camera footage showed Hawkins quickly approaching Allen, who was in his patrol car.

“Officer Allen attempted to de-escalate this dynamic incident by ordering Hawkins to drop the knife,” Yatomi said. “Hawkins did not comply.”

Allen fired his gun, discharging a total of six rounds, police said.

The footage then shows Hawkins running toward Salinas, who fired a total of 12 rounds, police said. After shots had been fired, Hawkins turned away from Salinas.

The footage appears to show Salinas firing two more shots as Hawkins ran away from both officers.

Yatomi would not confirm this, and when asked if this was standard policy, Yatomi said, “We have a force investigation team and critical incident review team that will thoroughly review all of the tactics, training, policies, procedure, leadership as well as supervision and will conduct a thorough investigation.”

The video did not clearly show Hawkins collapsing after being shot.

Metro is on track to have more officer-involved shootings than it did last year.

“Our goal is to never have an officer-involved shooting or any senseless loss of life,” Yatomi said.

”There are internal conversations that continually happen daily. We are concerned, but we are very grateful that our officers are safe, and we are very sorry for the losses that the family members are incurring,” Yatomi said.

Contact Estelle Atkinson at eatkinson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @estellelilym on X and @estelleatkinsonreports on Instagram.