PHOENIX — It began with a burglar alarm and a slightly cracked door on June 29.
Just after 10 p.m., Phoenix police respond to a city home to find the door open and the constant beeping of an alarm.
There was no sign of forced entry. They knock, but there is no response. Body camera shows them knocking on a neighbor’s door, but no one answers.
For around 20 minutes, officers sit outside the open door wondering what to do.
“My worry is an elderly couple, right just can’t hear might not be able to hear us,” one officer said on body camera footage.
Officers again try to bang on the door to grab someone’s attention. They wonder if they should go inside.
“I just worried about going in and giving Nina a heart attack or some war vet with a gun. Like some homeowner with a gun."
Around 10 seconds later, a man, who police say was 77-year-old Dr. Ernest Kaufman rounded the corner of his home, naked and with a gun in hand.
Officers would scramble for cover and tell the man to drop the gun. Eventually, shots were exchanged. Kaufman was hit and taken into custody.
“Why did you shoot me?” Kaufman said on body camera
“You shot at us,” one officer said.
“Because you broke into my house.”
“We knocked several times, loudly,” an officer replied.
“I can't hear that well. Why did you break into my house?"
Police would take the doctor, who they said had non-life-threatening injuries, to the hospital. Police are now recommending aggravated assault charges.
The officers involved are under administrative leave, which a police spokesperson said is normal procedure for a shooting like this.
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