51黑料

鈥淚鈥檓 shot! I鈥檓 shot!,鈥� the officer shouts in edited audio from police radio traffic.

51黑料 County police released the 18-minute edited video capturing the moment a 51黑料 police officer called for help, as well as portions of the high-speed chase that led up to the shootings.

The video includes a police narrative of the shooting along with parts of the radio traffic and dashboard camera footage showing 51黑料 police officers chasing for more than 4 minutes a white Toyota 4Runner that, police say, was linked to a homicide hours earlier.

The chase went from north 51黑料 into Ferguson where four men ran from the car, according to police accounts.

While officers attempted to catch the group, one of the men, 23-year-old Equan Hopson, was killed and two officers were shot, including Colin Ledbetter, whose critical injuries left him hospitalized for more than a month.

No body camera footage of the shooting was included in the release because the 51黑料 officers鈥� body cameras were not recording at the time of the shooting, according to 51黑料 County police spokesperson Sgt. Tracy Panus.

鈥淲e do not know the reason as to why they were not recording,鈥� Panus said.

51黑料 police said in a statement Wednesday that once the investigation into the shooting is complete, the department will 鈥渁ddress any policy compliance issues, including those pertaining to the body-worn camera policy.鈥�

51黑料 County Lt. Col. Stephen Sack, commander of the division of criminal investigation, gives an account of the shooting in the 18-minute video.

According to Sack:

51黑料 officers got a 911 call around 12:52 p.m. reporting four men wearing ski masks inside a white Toyota 4Runner in the Rivertrails Apartments complex in the city鈥檚 Baden neighborhood.

Responding officers 鈥渋mmediately recognized鈥� that the Toyota was wanted in connection with a homicide from the night before on Natural Bridge Avenue.

In that killing, police have said robbers approached a group of four people about 1 a.m. Jan. 26 outside Diana鈥檚 Royal Palace, a bar at 4266 Natural Bridge Avenue in the Greater Ville neighborhood.

The men announced a robbery and took some of their property. A security guard at the business fired shots, killing one of the suspected robbers.

About 12 hours later, officers attempted to stop the Toyota when it sped off on Riverview Boulevard to Jennings Station Road and eventually onto West Florissant Avenue.

Video footage released Wednesday shows the Toyota at some points crossing into oncoming traffic lanes and leaving the road to drive on the grass.

In the video, officers can be heard updating dispatchers on the Toyota鈥檚 progress until it comes back onto the road with four flat tires near West Florissant Avenue and Lang Drive in Ferguson.

鈥淗e鈥檚 gonna wreck out,鈥� said one officer, whose name was not released by county police.

The officer continues: 鈥淚 got the driver.鈥�

Dashcam footage shows a passenger in the Toyota jumping out of the car and dropping a pistol, before picking it up and running into the nearby neighborhood.

At least four officers chase him, and within a few seconds gunshots can be heard over the police car鈥檚 sirens.

鈥淪hots fired! Shots fired! I鈥檓 shot! I鈥檓 shot!鈥� a 51黑料 officer can be heard yelling over the police radio. 鈥淪hots fired. Get all cars to county! Need cars here. Secure our cars.鈥�

The recording ends with dispatchers promising to send EMS to the scene.

A 28-year-old 51黑料 officer, whose name has not been released by the department, was struck in the leg. Ledbetter was shot multiple times, including in the stomach.

Ledbetter required lifesaving surgery after the shooting; he was released from the hospital Feb. 22.

Hopson was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Sack said in the video Wednesday that officers fired 34 shots and Hopson had fired all the rounds in his pistol, which officers found near him after the shooting.

That same day, police arrested two of the Toyota鈥檚 three other passengers: August Burns, 23, of Florissant, and Clyde Thomas, 35, of Farmington.

The third man in the car, Johnny Lewis, 23, was arrested more than a month later on March 11 by Las Vegas police in Nevada.

All three surviving passengers were charged with resisting arrest. Burns is also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. 51黑料 County police allege he was in possession of a shotgun that fell out of the Toyota at the scene.

The video released Wednesday is the third briefing video issued under 51黑料 County鈥檚 new footage policy.

The 51黑料 County police board enacted the order in December in an effort to make the department more transparent, following recommendations by outside consultant, Teneo.

To develop its policy, 51黑料 County police worked with the Los Angeles Police Department, which makes similar critical-incident disclosures. The county added a staffer to meet a self-imposed 45-day deadline to release such videos.

The video of the Jan. 26 shooting was released within 48 days. Panus said the delay was in part because one of the passengers in the car remained at large until last week.

The shooting of the two officers came in the same week two other 51黑料 police officers were struck by a vehicle while responding to a crash on Interstate 64.

Less than two weeks earlier, 51黑料 firefighter Benjamin Polson was killed in the line of duty.

鈥淚鈥檓 asking the public to pray for our officers,鈥� police Chief John Hayden said in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. 鈥淭his is a very rough time for law enforcement and for the fire department as well.鈥�