MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — The Maryland Office of the Attorney General released video from a body-worn camera of an officer shooting and killing a 19-year-old man who reportedly stabbed multiple people seemingly at random, including two women, who were sitting at a yard sale nearby.
The stabbings started after the suspect, later identified as Franklin Castro Ordonez, reportedly attacked a woman at the Unique thrift store on Veirs Mill Road just after 10:30 a.m. on July 22. He then ran away, later attacking two women who were sitting at a yard sale in the area.
The three women were taken to area hospitals for help, one in critical condition. In a press conference Saturday, Police Chief Darren Francke reported that hospital staff believe all three women will survive. A fourth person, only identified as a man, was also injured but did not require hospital treatment.
On Thursday, police released videos recorded by one officer’s dash camera and another from a body camera worn by the officer who killed Ordonez.
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The Attorney General’s office has also identified the officer who shot Ordonez as Officer Justin Lee, who has been with the department for one-and-a-half years and is assigned to the Patrol Services Bureau.
The seven-minute video captures two angles of the shooting, and is graphic, as it shows the moment Ordonez is shot.
In the dash camera video, you can see Ordonez walking toward the officer’s car with a large knife in his hand. The officer drives away in order to turn around, reporting into a radio that he spotted the suspect.
“[He] just tried to stab my car,” the officer can be heard saying.
The video then shows the officer turning around multiple times in order to track Ordonez while yelling for a man who was working on his car in the area to leave.
RELATED: 19-year-old identified as stabbing suspect shot to death by police in Montgomery County
Tensions rise and the video appears to show Ordonez walking toward Officer Lee, who yells at him to drop the knife. When Ordonez begins running toward Lee, the officer opens fire, shooting three times.
Officers appear to then try to give first aid to Ordonez, who died on the sidewalk.
Silvestre Benitez says he was checking the oil in his car on Harvard Street when he saw the man run into the forest near his home. He tells WUSA9 that he assumed he would not be back, but moments later the man charged towards him with the knife in hand. Benitez says he pulled out a short stick from his car to defend himself.
“That man did not fear anything,” Benitez said. “He charged towards police officer. With the little stick that I had, I wouldn’t have been able to defend myself.”
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