PEORIA, Ill. – The final report from an officer involved shooting death in Peoria’s East Bluff from this summer states the use of deadly force was justified.
The shooting on August 5th claimed the life of 41-year-old Brandon Lewis, who died from a single gunshot wound, after two Peoria Police officers responded to calls of a suspicious male walking and carrying a bat, as well as reportedly urinating on the street. The male, later identified as Lewis, was found at the corner of Glen Oak and Starr Terrace.
The report from the Peoria County State’s Attorney’s Office states that Lewis was told to place a wooden bat down or to the side, but did not comply. Lewis had then asked the officer why they were there, and informed him about complaints of him swinging the bat and urinating in public. A second officer had arrived in a marked squad car to assist.
Lewis was asked several times to place the bat down, but continued to not comply and continued to ask the officers why they were there. Lewis had, at one point, stated, “No. I’m not putting it down.”
The report continues stating that Lewis then aggressively lunged at one of the officers and raised the bat behind him in a manner swinging it at the officer. The second officer then ran towards Lewis, who ran a few steps away at first, but then stopped and turned to face the officer as if preparing to swing the bat, and struck the officer twice in the arm.
The report says the officer fired one shot from his weapon and struck Lewis after being hit with the bat. The other officer, at the same time, had attempted to use their taser on Lewis, but was unsuccessful. Lewis then ran a short distance before being taken into custody and later dying from the wound.
The report states that an autopsy revealed Lewis weighing around 200 pounds, with a blood alcohol concentration of .073 at the time of his death. It notes that a baseball bat swung more than once by an adult male who weighed 200 pounds can “easily cause great bodily harm or death to an individual.”
The report’s conclusion states that Lewis did not comply with law enforcement from the beginning of the encounter, and that the officer’s actions were justified and reasonable to protect himself and his fellow officer, as well as the general public. The two officers involved in the shooting identified by Peoria Police, Da’Monte Williams and Vernoica Orozco, were placed on critical incident leave after the incident.
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