LAGRANGE, Ga. — LaGrange Police have released the body camera footage from an incident this week in which an officer shot a man with a machete after he was unable to subdue him with a Taser.
The bodycam video first shows an officer encountering the man near Lafayette Square, standing on a sidewalk, with the machete visible in his right hand.
"I just want to talk to you, let you know that we got a call. So can I talk to you for a minute? Can you put the machete down right there and walk over here to me?" the officer asks. "I'm not going to take it, I don't want it, I just want to talk to you."
RELATED: LaGrange Police: Officer shoots man with machete 'multiple times' after Taser was ineffective
Police say the man identified himself to an officer, who discovered the 39-year-old was wanted on three warrants for meth possession, cruelty to children, obstruction, battery, and possession of drug-related items.
According to the department, the officer followed the machete-wielding man in his patrol car near Hill Street before trying to approach him for a second time, but the man ran and the officer followed him near Greenville Street.
The video at that point shows officers running after the man, screaming, "Drop the machete sir! Drop the machete, you're gonna get shot!"
"I don't give a f***," the man responds.
The department's narration of the video says at this point the man "raises the machete and charges officer."
It is difficult to tell definitively from the bodycam video, which is dark and grainy, whether the man's movements indicate a "charge" toward the officer.
The bodycam video then shows the moments of the shooting. The police narration states the officer "shoots Taser in left hand, but man persists so the officer fires his sidearm in right hand."
After the man falls to the ground, the officer continues to tell him to drop the machete.
"Drop the machete! Drop the machete now! Throw it to the side of you're gonna get shot again," he says.
The officer tells him to roll over onto his stomach and asks if he has been shot, and the man replies that he was shot in his stomach.
Officials say first responders gave the man medical aid at the scene before he was taken over to Piedmont Hospital in Columbus, Georgia. The current condition of the man has not been detailed by police.
The investigation is being handled by the GBI.