By WMBD TV

PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — In the frantic seconds before a 15-year-old was shot by a Bloomington police officer, cries to “Put the gun down, don’t be stupid” were heard over and over again.

Footage from the officer’s body camera and the squad car’s dash camera were released Tuesday by the Illinois State Police, who are investigating the Feb. 25, officer-involved shooting as required by law. 

Killed was Cole L. M. Turner, who was shot and killed in the 800 block of Arcadia Drive after officers responded to a report regarding an armed man. Turner had an airsoft pistol.

The video released by ISP can be found on their website.

At a midday press conference, the state police, as well as the Bloomington police, spoke about the investigation. At the same time, State’s Attorney Erika Reynolds released her findings in a 13-page report that said the five police officers who shot Turner acted in a justified manner.

The prosecutor’s report

Reynolds said her review of the incident indicated that the officers’ actions were “justified, reasonable and necessary to protect the public and themselves from great bodily harm.”

The officers, she said, believed the teen was carrying a real gun. Even Turner, in talking to the officers, is heard saying “y’all know how much (expletive) money I just spent on this mother (expletive) gun?”

And others believed it was real too, the county’s top prosecutor said in her report. 

“No witness told officers that they believed the object in the subject’s hand was a toy, BB gun, air soft gun or the like,” she wrote.

That, mixed with a report that an armed subject had already used a firearm in a threatening manner and that person matched Turner’s description, led officers to believe he was, in fact, armed and dangerous.

The officers were aware that any bullets fired by Turner in the heavily residential area could endanger their lives but also the lives of people in the area. They tried to evacuate the area, but “could not undo the fact that the armed subject was surrounded on multiple sides by apartment buildings while in a heavily populated residential neighborhood.”

Turner, Reynolds noted, repeatedly made comments like “I’ll double tap ya” or “blow you (expletive) in.”

The totality of the situation, she said, made the decision to fire by the five officers justified under Illinois law. 

“There is no doubt that the armed subject heard the commands to drop the gun and knew that the police officers on scene were prepared to use deadly force against him. Even with that knowledge, he chose to raise his weapon and point it at the officers.” 

The footage

Footage from the dash camera shows the squad car arriving at the scene at around 4:45 p.m., and then a person, presumably Turner, running around a corner. The officer is heard saying, “Guys, I got him,” before going around the corner in his squad car.

The person who was fleeing then turns to face the officer and, in the footage, appears to reach into the waistband of his jeans. The officer gets out of the car and repeatedly tells the person to “put the gun down.”

The teen is seen going in between two cars and disappears. The officer is heard on the radio saying he believes the teen has a gun in his right hand. Repeatedly, the officer yells to put the gun down. 

“Put the gun down, don’t be stupid.”

It appears the boy reply’s with, “I am not trying to be stupid.”

Both continue talking back and forth as more officers arrive at the scene and can be heard in the background yelling to put the gun down.

An officer asks, “why are you doing this, man?” to which the teen responds, “I am not going back to (expletive) jail.”

Officers continue on the camera footage to talk the teenager down, saying he will not get into trouble, despite being on probation. “We can work through that,” one is heard saying.

Footage shows police officers surrounding the teen, on the ground. 

Things escalate between the teen and the officers when he begins to start screaming.

The officer one more time says if he does not drop the gun, he will be shot, to which the teenager can be heard saying, “Oh, for real?”

Then, several shots can be heard ringing out and striking the windshield of the car in front of the teen.

A few minutes later, several officers and a canine can be seen walking to him as what appears to be a medical bag is opened and taken to the area. The dash cam video then ends. 

Another video taken by someone inside the apartment, it appears to show the male leaning up on the car with what appears to be a weapon in his right hand before the shooting.

Why was the ISP involved?

Per state law, the state police investigates all officer-involved shootings to avoid any sense of bias or conflict.

The state police will conduct their investigation and when it’s done, turn over their findings to the McLean County State’s Attorney, who will make a final decision on whether the incident was within the bounds of police protocols.

Under Illinois law, police are allowed to use deadly force if an officer “reasonably believes, based on the totality of the circumstances, that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or another.”

The shooting was the second officer-involved shooting in McLean County in February. On Feb. 6, while trying to take two people into custody at a Lexington gas station, a Chenoa police officer and two state troopers shot Ryan Aeron Stanley Hurst, 18, after he pointed a gun at them.

Hurst survived and has since been charged in McLean County Circuit Court with attempted murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm at a peace officer and aggravated assault at a police officer, according to online court records.