Wilmington police release 911 tape of man in wheelchair shot by police

Wilmington Police made good of their promise of transparency by releasing the 911 audio of the shooting of Jeremy McDole.

[Listen to the 911 call above.]

He’s the man in the wheelchair who police say shot himself, but still had a gun when police arrived on the scene. Police shot and killed McDole at 1811 Tulip Street. Four officers involved in the shooting are on administrative desk duty.

The police call starts with a woman asking police to go to Autozone and Scott Street.  She says a man in a wheelchair just shot himself.  Police are heard trying to get more information from the woman, whom police have not identified, while trying to calm her down.

About a quarter way through the recording the woman realizes McDole still has a gun. “Please get somebody here,” the woman can be heard saying over and over again. She describes McDole on the ground trying to get back into his wheelchair.  Police ask if she can see anything else, and she answers that she’s not that close.  “I don’t know if he’s crazy or not,” she says.  She can also be heard telling other people arriving on the scene that “he’s still got a gun.”

The last thing heard on the nearly 2-minute, 41-second recording was the woman yelling at people, “He’s still got a gun in his hands! Back up!”

The recording was sent to the media just after 10 p.m. Friday. In the email, Mayor Dennis Williams’ office said that only the portion of the 911 call related to the shooting was being released. There was no mention whether there was a recording after police arrived.

The Wilmington Police Department and the Delaware Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust are investigating the case. At a Thursday afternoon news conference where Mayor Williams and Police Chief Bobby Cumming promised transparency. Also at that news conference was McDole’s mother, Phyllis, who claimed her son did not have a weapon.