INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department on Tuesday released a video of a December incident that shows a man ambushing two officers with a knife before they shot him in the back.
Deonta Williams, 20, was charged with two counts of attempted murder following the unprovoked attack at about 1:15 am. Dec. 1, 2021, in the 1400 block of Fairfield Avenue. Williams told dispatchers and officers at the scene that he was being harassed by another man.
The video shows Williams pointing in the direction where he said the man went. After the IMPD officers walked away, Williams stabbed one officer in the chest and another in the neck.
Video footage shows both officers giving Williams commands to get on the ground before firing their guns at him multiple times.
The officers held Williams at gunpoint before additional officers arrived at the scene.
Police who arrived rendered aid to the two wounded officers and Williams.
One of the officers sustained a significant stab wound across his neck and received life-saving care at the scene, the video says.
Court documents said the officer with a neck injury suffered a lacerated outer jugular vein and underwent surgery at Eskenazi Hospital. The officer with the chest wound was treated at Eskenazi and released.
Williams received treatment for multiple gunshot non-life threatening wounds at IU Health Methodist Hospital.
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Prosecutors say Williams was at Eskenazi when he told an IMPD detective that he lured the officers into an ambush because wanted to kill one of them before they could kill him.
“I was gonna kill an officer," Williams confessed to Sgt. Michael Duke, according to the affidavit. “He said he didn't want to kill a lot of officers, he just wanted to kill one.”
Williams told Duke that he felt the city owed him because he had just received a large medical bill that he could not pay, according to the affidavit. Williams told Duke that he wanted to take it out on the officers.
“He said he hoped to get the gun from the officer he killed and then have the other officer shoot him, and that would get him justice,” Duke wrote in the affidavit.
“He said he just wanted to die,” Duke wrote. “I asked him what his plan was, and he said, 'Get my own justice.’”
Records show Williams was on GPS monitoring at the time of the attack while he was awaiting trial on a felony burglary charge. Records show Williams was released from jail in the burglary case in April after The Bail Project posted a $750 cash bond.
The records in the burglary case indicate Williams was homeless.
Williams remains held without bond in the Marion County Jail on Tuesday, records show. A preconference trial is scheduled for March 1.
Watch video from IMPD of the incident below.
Editor's note: The video from IMPD contains graphic content. Viewer discretion is advised.
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