Watch Disturbing Traffic Stop Shootout with Ill. Police Officers
An Illinois police department released frightening body camera footage this week of a roadside shooting that left two officers wounded and a suspect dead earlier this month.
The incident happened Oct. 12 when Decatur Police Sgt. Timothy Wittmer and Officers Austin Bowman and Ryan Ricker had pulled over Jamontey Neal, 32, WCIA-TV reports. The officers had stopped Neal after learning from an informant that Neal, a convicted felon, had a gun.
In the video footage, which was released Monday, Ricker approaches Neal's vehicle on the passenger side, and he spots the gun under Neal. Wittmer and Bowman then tried to pull Neal from his vehicle.
That's when Neal draws a second gun, and he began firing. Wittmer was struck in the hand, foot and back, while Bowman was shot in the stomach.
The officers and Macon County Sheriff's Deputy Travis Wolfe fired back, and Neal was fatally struck. Wolfe and Ricker were not wounded in the exchange.
Bowman and Wittmer were taken to the hospital and have since been released. The bullet that wounded Bowman passed through his body without hitting any major organs, while the titanium wallet carried by Wittmer, a 15-year veteran with the department, stopped one of the bullets. The shot that struck Wittmer's hand, however, fragmented and injured his head and shoulder.
"I'm proud of all of our officers, because every night or every day when they put on a uniform, they are going out to make this community safer," Police Chief Shane Brendel stated in a news release. "And every time they do that, they know they could be putting their lives in jeopardy."
The shooting is under investigation by the Illinois State Police. Investigators will pass along their report to the Macon County State’s Attorney’s Office to determine whether the shooting was justified.
Go to the Decatur Police Department's website for all of the released videos.
