COCOA, Fla. — Cocoa police has released body camera footage after they say a man was shot and killed by officers after they saw him stabbing a woman.
Cocoa police responded to the area of Prospect Park sometime around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Police said Renard Daniels, 55, refused to drop his butcher knife after he was asked to repeatedly by Officer Brian Fredette.
Daniels was fatally wounded when he charged at Fredette, police said.
“(The) actions of our officer last night during this incident were what saved the life of the victim,” Police Chief Mike Cantaloupe said.
Cocoa Police say a man has died in an officer involved shooting tonight off Prospect Avenue #WFTV pic.twitter.com/MVheT4h5sL
— Michael Lopardi (@MLopardiWFTV) January 16, 2020
Hours before the shooting, Daniels was set to be sentenced to two years behind bars for separate theft and battery cases. However, he never showed up in court and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was released to get his affairs in order.
Tensions at the scene were high as a group of people stood at the police line, some of them lashing out and yelling at officers. One man said, “That guy wasn’t threatening.”
“We want to all come together. We want to work to find out exactly what occurred here tonight," Cantaloupe said. “Somebody with a knife that’s attacking another person -- Tasing them doesn’t always work.”
Agents from the FDLE were called to investigate the shooting.
Fredette was placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard for officer-involved shootings.
Fredette joined the Cocoa Police Department in April 2019. He served in the U.S. Navy for four years, where he was a military police officer.
See a portion of the bodycam footage below:
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