Dramatic body-worn video has been released of the moment a man with two knives was Tasered by police.
Aron Tesfalem was ordered 10 times to drop his weapons by police armed with guns, before they decided to bring him to the ground with a Taser.
Staff in a residential tower block had called police and then locked themselves in an office, after Tesfalem reportedly stabbed his blades into a wooden reception desk.
Officers are shown rapidly approaching Tesfalem, aiming their weapons, and shouting: “Armed police – put the knife down.”
One police officer, with his rifle poised, then tells his colleague “Go to Tase, mate”, and the suspect is hit, falling to the ground.
West Midlands Police said they had released the footage to show the realities faced by frontline officers, and the value of body-worn video in evidence.
Tesfalem, 20, was arrested and charged with two counts of possession of a knife, following the incident outside the tower block where he lived in William Booth Lane, Birmingham, on October 3.
He pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court to both offences and was jailed for a year, on November 2, said police.
Chief Inspector Danny Delaney, from the force’s firearms unit, said: “This incident is an example of the professionalism and restraint West Midlands firearms officers demonstrate when dealing with highly volatile violent incidents.
“Officers undergo 14 weeks of intensive training where they are trained to deal with all types of situations, always trying to use the minimum amount of force necessary.”
More than 1,400 of the force’s officers now have the cameras, with all frontline personnel due to have them within six months.
The force said the cameras, known as BWV, were an “important tool” both for transparency and for their evidence-gathering capabilities.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here