DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (NewsNation) — The Daytona Beach Police Department released bodycam footage after an attempted murder suspect was shot and killed in a gunfight with police officers on Saturday.
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Police said they received an anonymous tip that 44-year-old attempted murder suspect Michael Harris was at an apartment complex on Espanola Avenue in Holly Hill. There was a warrant out for Harris after he was suspected of shooting a woman twice in the back a few weeks ago, police said.
When officers entered the building to look for Harris, they were shot at from a back room. The officer wearing the body camera was immediately shot in the chest, but his ballistic vest stopped the bullet from penetrating him.
The police fired back. The body camera footage shows both police and Harris firing shots at each other. The shootout stopped momentarily when officers heard screams coming from the same room the suspect was barricaded in.
“The woman that’s screaming, you need to put your hands up right now and open that door!” the officer wearing the body camera yelled.
The video shows the officers direct the screaming woman out of the room.
“I don’t know how that, by God’s grace, she’s alive,” Police Chief Capri said in a press conference Saturday. “Because he let her out of the room, let her leave, after the first initial rounds of bullets.”
The suspect then resumed firing at officers and was eventually shot dead by police.
Capri said this is why his police department invested in body cameras nine years ago.
“The suspect fired at officers first, and we defended ourselves,” Capri said. “If you pull a gun out on a police officer and shoot a police officer, you’re going to get killed. Simple as that.”
Capri said the officer struck by the bullet is expected to recover.
NewsNation affiliate WFLA contributed to this report.