GRAPHIC VIDEO: Man with knife shot while running away from Phoenix officers

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — New body-cam video shows officers shooting a suspect armed with a knife as he ran away from them earlier this month in Phoenix. On Dec. 3, around 9:30 a.m., a man called 911 and said he was being threatened by 53-year-old John Torp, who was carrying a knife. “I just had a homeless person pull a knife on me,” the man told a 911 dispatcher. Surveillance video from nearby businesses also shows Torp throwing something at a man riding his bike across the street.

Police arrived and found Torp near 29th Avenue and Thomas Road. As two officers pull up, Torp immediately begins running away. The officers jumped out of the patrol car with guns drawn. “Put your hands up! Face police! You’re under arrest!” one officer yells. “Get your hands out of your jacket, now,” the other officer says. They start chasing Torp down the sidewalk.

One officer then uses a less lethal round to try and get Torp to stop. However, he continues running and rounds a corner between several businesses. “Get back; you’re going to get shot! You are going to get shot!” the officer says. One officer nearly catches up to Torp while the other officer falls behind. “Do not run that way!” he says to Torp. “I need you up here,” the officer says to his partner. He then yells at Torp to get his hands out of his pockets and drop the knife. A car driving by then stops near Torp, which is when the officer shoots at him twice and the other officer fires another less lethal round. He collapsed to the ground.

Torp was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries and later booked into jail.

Copyright 2022 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.