Chicago police body camera video shows a chaotic hostage situation at the Southwest Side apartment last month where a man shot his girlfriend and a man, then fired at police officers before a SWAT team arrived and killed him after nearly two hours of negotiations.
“My guy just shot me,” a woman tells a 911 operator in recordings released Tuesday by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. “Please come now. I’ve been shot in my neck. I can’t feel my arms.”
“You say he’s gonna kill himself?” the operator asks the woman, who replies, “Yeah.”
After a moment, the woman can be heard saying, “Baby, I love you... Baby, I love you.”
COPA said the April 3 incident began when Frank Campbell, 58, opened fire inside an apartment, striking the woman and another man in a “domestic situation.”
Chicago police officers entered the apartment in the 4200 block of West Ford City Drive near the Ford City Mall and found the woman lying on the ground.
“Help me please. He’s in the back,” a woman tells officers as she lays on the floor with a gunshot wound to her neck, the videos show. She tells the officers her boyfriend’s name.
“Frank Campbell, come out with your hands up,” an officer says.
As police turn a corner, a wounded man can be seen lying in a dark hallway, then flashes of gunfire as Campbell fires two shots but doesn’t hit anyone. The gunfire sends officers retreating into the hallway, where they continued to speak with Campbell and awaited a SWAT team.
Almost two hours passed between the initial gunfire from Campbell and SWAT police opening fire, fatally striking Campbell. Although police body cameras captured the initial shooting, the SWAT team was not wearing cameras and the shooting that killed Campbell was only partially recorded on body cameras.
The officers’ cameras did record audio of the final negotiations before SWAT team opened fire and fatally struck Campbell.
“Lay the gun down and come on out. Please. Come on man. I respect you,” a SWAT team members says.
“No, don’t do that Frank. Put the gun down,” an officer says before a member of the SWAT team raises a gun and fires several times, the video shows. It’s unclear if Campbell had raised his revolver, according to the video and documents shared by COPA.
Paramedics took Campbell to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead.
The wounded man, 78, and woman, 48, were both hospitalized in critical condition, police said at the time.
The officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative duties for at least 30 days, per departmental policy.
