Anaheim officers justified in the fatal standoff police shooting of Osman Brown

A man shot and killed in March by Anaheim police had brandished two firearms, and pointed one at officers moments before he was hit, body-worn camera footage shows.

Osman Brown, 41, of Anaheim, was named in a critical incident video that Anaheim police released on Friday, April 8 as the man who died at the conclusion of a standoff in the 600 block of Resh Street in the predawn hours of March 3.

A woman who lived with Brown called police the night before at 9:44 p.m. and said, “He’s got a big gun, and he’s threatening me.”

When officers arrived, she told them Brown was in their home and might open fire on them if they approached, police said. They tried to ask him to surrender over the phone and via a loudspeaker, but he refused to come outside.

Anaheim SWAT officers and negotiators were summoned, and the area was blocked off. The Orange County Crisis Assessment Team, a unit that responds to mental health emergencies, was also called in. A public address system played a recording of a loved one pleading with Brown to turn himself in.

“I don’t want to see you get hurt,” a woman’s voice is heard saying in body-worn camera footage released by police. “Please leave the guns in the house and come out safely, so this can end well. Listen to what they’re saying. Just please come out, come out babe.”

After over five hours passed with no response from Brown, he opened his front door and briefly stepped onto his porch several times to shout at police, as seen in the body-worn camera footage. He did this again at 3:51 a.m. while holding an assault weapon equipped with a dual drum magazine, and appeared to gesture toward officers with the gun before going back into his home.

Brown came back out about one minute later with a handgun and pointed it at police. Multiple officers immediately opened fire in response.

“He didn’t get any shots off,” an officer is heard saying moments after the shooting. “He, he leveled it; pointed it right at us.”

The wounded man was still in possession of the pistol while lying on his porch as officers approached him. He did not comply when they asked him to drop the weapon, so a 40 mm less-than-lethal round was “deployed to determine Mr. Brown’s responsiveness,” Anaheim Police Sgt. Jake Gallacher said in the video released Friday.

Police asked Brown to let go of the gun again, and at that point he was unresponsive. Paramedics then attempted to treat his injuries, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers collected the .38 caliber revolver and .223 caliber AR-style rifle Brown was seen holding, police said. The latter was a ghost gun, a firearm with no serial number that was not assembled by a manufacturer. Both weapons were loaded at the time.