A police officer has only seconds to dispatch a man who suddenly charges him with a hatchet in a shocking video filmed this summer that recently resurfaced on social media.
In the video, a police officer is several minutes into a traffic stop on June 3 in the Chicago suburb of Naperville when another car stops in the road next to them. The officer can hardly ask the second driver who they are before they rush out of the car, appearing to charge them with a hatchet.
The officer fires six shots at the man, who manages to take several strides toward him. But about three seconds after jumping out of his car, the man collapses injured on the ground.
“This scene went quickly from a traffic stop for a minor violation to an attack on a police officer by an uninvolved party, demonstrating just how dangerous the job of a police officer is,” said Naperville Police Chief Jason Arres.
Expanded footage released by local police shows the officer holding the downed attacker at gunpoint, calling for a medic and telling the other driver to stay in their car.
The man was later identified as Edward Samaan, 28, of Naperville, local outlet ABC7 reported. Samaan’s brother told ABC7 he didn’t know why the attack occurred, but said, “We are sorry to everyone involved.”
A joint investigation into the shooting determined that the officer – Frank Tonkovich, a 22-year veteran of the department – was “justified” in using deadly force against Samaan, FOX 32 Chicago reported.
Robert Berlin, state attorney for Naperville’s DuPage County, said Tonkovich’s response was “not only reasonable, but necessary in order to prevent great bodily harm or death to himself or the motorist he had stopped.”
The attack was captured by body-worn cameras only a month after they began to be issued to be local police, the Naperville Sun reported.
