One week after an Akron police officer shot a man who had been kicked out of an Ellet bar, 911 audio documents that dispatchers were told the man had been threatening people with a gun.
But body-worn camera footage shows that the man was unarmed when a police officer shot him, 22 seconds after arriving on the scene. The footage was released within a week, as required by city law.
The footage documents that Officer Caleb Bodjanac fired 15 shots in three seconds at 36-year-old Corey Phillips, striking him at least twice in the chest, after a seemingly confused Phillips reached in the general direction of his jacket and pants pockets. It is unclear how many other times Phillips was hit – the plastic fence behind the man was riddled with bullet holes.
Phillips survived the Nov. 11 shooting and is receiving treatment in a local hospital’s intensive care unit. He was conscious but struggling to breathe and talk in the three minutes of video that document the moments after he was shot.
The chest wounds — one on his right side and one on his left side just above his heart — were revealed after officers approached the motionless Phillips more than 100 seconds after Bodjanac shot him. Bodjanac repeatedly yelled at Phillips from a distance for him to take his hands out of his pockets or he’d be shot again.
Other officers on the scene rolled the man from his back onto his stomach before forcefully handcuffing him and searching his clothing, then moving him into a sitting position as he pleaded with them that he couldn’t breathe.
“Where’s the gun at?” Bodjanac demanded of Phillips as he approached him.
“I never had a gun,” Phillips says, lying motionless on his back. “I never had a gun.”
The city has not released the officer’s name, or the name of the person he shot, but Signal Akron previously confirmed their identities independently.
Per department policy, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is conducting a criminal investigation before the APD conducts its own internal probe. Bodjanac is on paid administrative leave, per department policy.
911 call from inside Karam’s Lounge says Phillips has a gun
Multiple people called Akron police on Tuesday night after Phillips had been kicked out of Karam’s Lounge on Albrecht Avenue. The city released one of the calls, from a bartender, minutes before Bodjanac arrived on the scene. (Signal Akron previously submitted a public records request for all of the 911 calls but has not received them).
The bartender, panicked by the situation in the hectic moments before police arrived, told dispatchers:
- Phillips was acting “strange,” drinking one drink and then nodding off.
- She said she “asked him to leave and he got frickin’ weird,” and that he said he’s “not going back to prison tonight.”
- That Phillips was now in the parking lot with a gun — she identified it as a “black 9mm” and said he “aimed it through the window and tried to shoot and it didn’t shoot — I don’t know if the safety’s on but we all ran.”
- That Phillips was pulling on the door, now locked, trying to get in.
A man can be heard in the background of the call saying, “It did not look like a gun,” and the bartender replied to him, “That was a gun!”
A nearby business owner told Signal Akron the next day that Phillips had made the “finger gun” motion and threatened a shooting, but the business owner didn’t believe he actually showed a weapon. No gun was recovered on the scene.
Bodjanac arrived on the scene while the bartender was still on the phone with dispatch — she could see the encounter on surveillance camera, she said, and the call ended before the shots were fired.
Body-worn camera footage shows how the incident unfolds
Footage from Bodjanac’s camera shows he was in a cruiser by himself that night, arriving with flashing lights on at 9:14 p.m. He puts his car into park on Albrecht Avenue in front of the bar, near the white fence that surrounds its patio. He gets out of the cruiser and engages Phillips, in black pants and a dark gray jacket, as he is walking from the parking lot to the sidewalk.
Phillips appears to put his right hand up toward the zipper of his hooded jacket. Bodjanac, about 10 yards away, aims his gun at the man and repeatedly yells at him to not touch his pockets.
Warning: The video below contains a depiction of police-related violence.
Phillips seems confused, asking the officer, “What are you doing?”
The officer, with his gun focused on Phillips, yells at him to get on the ground or he will shoot him.
“Get on the ground or you’re going to get shot!”
“No,” Phillips says.
Bodjanac yells again for Phillips to get on the ground or he’ll get shot. Phillips bends down and puts his hand on the back of his legs. Moments later he bends back up.
“I’m going to get shot?” Phillips says, appearing to touch the outside of his jacket pockets and turning his body away from the officer.
“Hey, get out of your pockets – get out of your pockets.”
Bodjanac opens fire — Phillips weaves from side to side as he falls into the street in front of a parked car.