Lansing police release video from fatal Jan. 5 shooting of man on Irene Court
LANSING − Police body camera images released Thursday appear to show a man walking toward officers with an object in his hands before they shot and killed him last week in a south Lansing neighborhood.
Lansing police released the video clips and audio recordings of two 911 calls from the Jan. 5 incident involving Nicolas Micko, 35, who was shot during what police described as an active shooter situation.
The video shows officers encountering a man in the street who moved toward them, stopped and appeared to reach toward his waistband. The video appears to show the man holding something in his hands with his arms outstretched. Police said the man was pointing a gun toward the officers with both hands.
The officers repeatedly ordered the man to put his hands up before they shot him, the video shows.
A Lansing officer and three Michigan State Police troopers from the MSP's First District are on paid administrative leave while detectives from MSP's Third District headquarters in Flint investigate. The incident occurred in the 2000 block of Irene Court, a side street off Aurelius Road, north of Jolly Road.
The video presentation is slightly more than six minutes long and was released without an accompanying press release on the Lansing Police Department's Facebook page. The video includes some embedded statements. Chief Ellery Sosebee said in the video it was meant to be a "brief account" of events so the community can understand what led to the shooting.
He said the officers "stopped an ongoing and deadly threat to the community."
City police said a Lansing officer and several state troopers responded to multiple 911 calls regarding someone pointing a gun at people and firing rounds. Gunfire is audible in at least one of the 911 calls and in officer-worn body camera recordings before officers encountered the man in the street.
The video presentation shows the events leading up to the shooting but does not show Micko being shot. The video picks up again as officers rendered first aid to Micko. A still photo shows a handgun on the ground near Micko.
The day after the shooting, Lansing police said city Officer James Zolnai was on leave pending the outcome of the investigation. The names of the three troopers involved in the shooting have not been released by Michigan State Police.
Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing police release video from fatal Jan. 5 shooting of Nicolas Micko on Irene Court
