JONESBORO -- A district prosecutor said Monday that a Manila police officer who fatally shot a 41-year-old man July 28 while the man was advancing with a knife was justified in his actions.
In a letter to Lt. Brant Tosh, the commander of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Arkansas State Police's Jonesboro troop, 2nd Judicial Circuit Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington said he would not file criminal charges against officer Jared Camp.
Ellington indicated that Camp fired his weapon in self-defense as Timothy Johnson, 41, approached him while holding a long-bladed knife.
Police said paramedics responded to Johnson's home at about 8 p.m. July 28, after friends found Johnson had secured a zip tie around his own neck, Ellington said in his letter to Tosh. When Camp arrived at his home, Johnson walked toward Camp with the knife drawn, the letter said.
Camp ordered Johnson to drop the knife, but Johnson charged at the officer.
"You want to help me?" Camp said Johnson told him. "Here, help me," Johnson said as he lunged toward Camp, Ellington wrote.
Camp fired three shots at Johnson from about 3 or 4 feet away, striking him. Paramedics tended to Johnson, but he died at his house.
"Johnson's state of mind is called into question, but it appears that although he may have been suicidal moments before the shooting, he appeared to observers more than willing to injure or kill officer Camp as he lunged toward the officer with the knife," Ellington wrote to Tosh.
State Desk on 10/13/2015