IMPD Release Body Cam Footage of November 2023 Hostage...
IMPD Release Body Cam Footage of November 2023 Hostage Situation
Source: Indianapolis Metro Police / IMPD YouTube
INDIANAPOLIS — You may remember the hostage situation which led to a police shooting in Indianapolis last year. Police have released edited body-camera footage of the shooting.
A McDonalds customer told the staff November 30th, 2023, that they could hear a woman screaming for help from inside of a white semi-truck on the McDonalds property on Knights Way. It was just before 8 o’clock at night.
Police arrived and one Indianapolis Metro Police officer could hear the woman screaming from the outside. Forced entry is decided, and the officer breaks the semi-truck window with a baton.
Inside is Lamont Bland, 60. He’s on top of a woman, holding a razor blade to her throat. Bland continues to shout “I’m going to kill her. I have nothing to lose,” as the officer tries to reason with him.
The IMPD office climbs further into the truck cabin, where Bland once again tells him to shoot him because he plans to kill the woman. The woman begins screaming, “he’s going to f—ing kill me anyways, so blast his ass.”
At that point, the officer steps forward and fires one shot, killing Lamont Bland.
The officer puts the woman on his back and carries her out of the truck to safety.
Body-cam footage shows the woman covered in blood. She had cuts on her face, head, ear, chest, and hands. She claimed to have never met Bland, and that he had been beating and cutting her for six hours.
Internal police data lists this shooting as the 17th “police-action shooting” of 2023, with 18 in total taking place throughout the year.
The shooting will be reviewed by IMPD’s Critical Incident Response Team. There will also be a separate and independent investigation conducted by IMPD’s Internal Affairs Unit. The shooting will also be reviewed by the Civilian-Majority Use of Force Review Board.
