Rantoul releases bodycam of Azaan Lee shooting himself in the femoral artery, causing his own death

0:00 - Side-By-Side
4:55 - Officer McComas
14:25 - Officer Aceves
19:02 - Sergeant King
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The Rantoul Police Department released body camera footage on Thursday, as well as officer reports regarding an officer-involved shooting that left Azaan Lee, 21, dead earlier this month.

That footage is showing us Lee’s final moments and lets us hear his final words.

“We recognize that it’s a tragedy for the community, and it’s going to take time for the community to heal,” Tony Brown, Rantoul’s Police Chief, said.

He feels it’s important for the community to see it to maintain trust with the department.

Brown said his department wants to be as transparent as possible and show the community what happened that night.

On Wednesday, Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Reitz said that the officers’ actions were “legally justifiable.”

Now, the body camera footage gives us a closer look into what happened on Feb. 6.

It was a routine line of questioning that night. Officers had no idea that moments later, a gun would discharge, resulting in Lee’s death.

Brown said it’s a tragedy for the community.

Rantoul officers questioned Lee when investigating a stolen vehicle. Officer Jose Aceves engaged with Lee a few blocks away from that investigation, not knowing that other officers were with him minutes before at the first scene.

Officer Rikki McComas joined Aceves and recognized Lee from before.

She asked him if he had keys, and saw something heavy in his sweatshirt pocket.

“What’s in your front sweatshirt pocket?” you can hear McComas say in the footage.

That’s when Aceves got involved. You can see him pat Lee down on the body camera video.

“You got anything? Don’t hide anything. Pull out what you’ve got. What do you have here?” you can hear McComas say.

That’s when he realized Lee had a gun and things escalated. Lee’s gun went off and hit him in the leg.

Officials said the investigation by the Illinois State Police-led Champaign County Multi-Jurisdictional Investigative Team (MJIT) determined that Lee was shot once by his own gun during a struggle with police officers for that gun. Aceves fired three shots from his own weapon as Lee ran away, but none of the three hit Lee.

Lee was eventually located in a backyard with a gunshot wound to the inner thigh. He was subsequently taken to Carle Hospital in Urbana, where he was pronounced dead.

The coroner determined that the bullet fired from Lee’s gun perforated his femoral artery, resulting in his death.