Newly released video shows Bloomington Police officers spent 10 minutes pleading with a 15-year-old to drop a gun before fatally shooting him when the confrontation escalated. The McLean County state's attorney says the officers were legally justified in using deadly force.
Illinois State Police on Tuesday released video footage showing two angles of the Feb. 25 shooting that killed Cole Turner of Normal. An additional angle filmed by someone inside a nearby apartment shows Turner talking to the officers while holding what appears to be a gun. Officers recovered a Sig Sauer P365 Air Pistol from the scene, State Police said. That is a realistic-looking BB gun. Authorities say Turner bought it just two days before he died.
The video footage was released as State's Attorney Erika Reynolds issued a 13-page preliminary report based on a concluded State Police investigation.
“It is our unequivocal opinion that the Bloomington Police Department officers were legally justified in their use of deadly force against (Turner)," Reynolds and two assistant prosecutors wrote. "The officers held the reasonable belief that the subject was armed with a firearm and was willing to use that firearm against the officers. The fact that the weapon was later determined to be an air pistol [BB gun] does not change the reasonableness of their belief.”
10-minute de-escalation
Police say the incident began when Turner and two other young people had a run-in with someone walking their dog near Arcadia Drive on the city’s southeast side. Turner allegedly showed the person he had a gun in his waistband. Police say Turner fled on foot when officers arrived around 4:45 p.m.
The video footage begins when police caught up to and confront Turner behind an apartment building off Arcadia Drive. Turner then talked to officers from a distance for around 10 minutes. Turner stood near two parked, unoccupied cars in an apartment parking lot.
In the video, Turner said he’s on “probation” and that he’s “not going back to jail.”
“We don’t want to hurt you. Why are you doing this?” one officer asked.
“What is upsetting you?” another asked.
“We’ll work through the trouble stuff,” an officer said. “You’re gonna end up getting shot, and that’s a lot worse than jail, I promise you.”
Officers continued to talk to Turner about what’s happening in his personal life. About 10 minutes into the confrontation, Turner began to get more agitated.
“You’re gonna get shot if you don’t drop that gun,” an officer said.
“Oh, for real?” the 15-year-old appears to say.
“Yes,” the officer replied.
Then there was a burst of gunfire. It’s unclear from the video what exactly prompted the gunfire to begin. Turner’s image and movements are largely blurred in the video released by police.
Prosecutors say Turner “chose to raise his weapon and point it at the officers.” Bloomington Police Chief Jamal Simington said Tuesday that Turner raised the gun at officers. Five officers then opened fire, striking Turner three times, authorities said.
After Turner was shot, officers approached him and began rendering first aid.
Turner died at the scene. No officers were injured. As is common practice with police use of deadly force, State Police were called in to conduct an independent investigation of what happened.
Fake gun
Prosecutors say Turner bought the BB gun on Feb. 23 – just two days before his death.
Police say Turner was holding that Sig Sauer P365 Air Pistol, which is marketed to look and feel just like its bullet-shooting counterpart. There are no obvious markings on the BB gun denoting it’s fake. The size and shape of the gun are consistent with the real version.
One of the three people with Turner before the police arrived told officers “he believed the armed subject’s weapon was a real gun,” but that he didn’t think it was loaded. In fact, Turner’s BB gun was inoperable, due to an internal component that was missing, authorities said in their report.
At a press conference Tuesday, Simington was asked whether officers would be able to tell the difference between the BB gun and its real counterpart.
“Impossible,” he said.
The State Police investigation has concluded. An internal Bloomington Police review is ongoing, said Simington, who praised how officers handled the scene.
“Very professional. (The lead officer) took his time. He was very engaged with him for about 11 minutes. (Turner) was told to put the gun down about 40 times. (The officer) developed a rapport with him. He asked him his name. He asked about his family. He gave him options for how to settle this without a loss of life,” Simington said. “I thought the officer did a fantastic job trying to engage with him, to deter him from lifting the gun.”
Simington noted that efforts were being made to have “less lethal tools” to the scene prior to Turner’s shooting. A sheriff’s deputy was en route to the scene with those tools but did not arrive before Turner allegedly raised his BB gun and was shot. Simington said his department is now planning to buy some of those same tools for themselves.
Turner’s family
Bloomington officials said they were limited in what they could say at Tuesday’s press conference “due to pending litigation.” It does not appear that Turner’s family has filed a lawsuit.
Turner’s mother, Kelsey Woodrum, previously told WGLT that Turner was her “wild child.” He loved the warm weather, being outdoors and playing basketball with his friends, his mother said. She also described him as a smart and selfless young man, saying that everyone was his friend.
What Woodrum stressed most about her son is that he was still a child — a 15-year-old who made mistakes like everyone else. At the time of his death, Turner was attending the Regional Alternative School in Bloomington. When he was 13, Turner ran away from home.
“As far as his issues in life, we were working through them. We were in therapy, he’s been through a lot of trauma in his life … he was doing much better with everything, he was on the right path,” she said at a March 9 protest related to his death. “Everybody makes mistakes, but if we could all just, you know, put the hate down for a second and realize that Cole is, was a 15-year-old child … he’s just like everybody else.”
This was the first fatal police shooting in Bloomington-Normal since 2021, and the first in McLean County overall in about a year.
Watch the video released by State Police. Viewer discretion is advised:
