Cop Refuses To Shoot Murder Suspect Charging At Him, Screaming ‘Shoot Me Or I’ll Shoot You!’ [Video]

In general, police body-cam footage tends to show fatal footage, such as when knife and Bible-wielding Thaddeus McCarroll was shot and killed by St. Louis County police recently, as reported by the Inquisitr. However, the below video shows a much different story, with New Richmond Police Officer Jesse Kidder — a rookie on the force for only one year — abstaining from shooting a man who had been accused of murdering both his best friend and fiancee.

The Ohio cop is being praised for not shooting and killing 27-year-old Michael Wilcox, as reported by MSNBC — even though Wilcox repeatedly charged at Kidder and yelled at the officer to shoot and kill him.

“‘Shoot me or I’ll shoot you!”

“No man, I’m not going to do it!”

Instead of reaching for the trigger and taking down Wilcox, which many folks say Kidder would’ve been well within his rights to do, the Ohio officer even fell down backwards, as reported by ABC News. Kidder was able to get back on his feet and convince Wilcox to lay down on the ground and surrender. Wilcox reportedly had a weapon either on his person or in his car, as the dispatcher warned the cop, and was a “police suicide” case, whereby a person wants to kill himself or herself by getting a police officer to shoot them dead.

Kidder’s calm judgment call of not getting trigger happy with the man that charged him is winning the police officer plenty of kudos for his restraint. Officer Jesse entered the now-viral video situation when on his patrol Thursday evening and heard the word that the murder suspect had fled from Brown County police officers and might have been on his way to New Richmond. That’s when Kidder parked his patrol car and eventually ran headlong into Wilcox.

As far as Kidder’s background, his years prior to joining the police force included fighting as a Marine in Iraq. He’s been a cop since April 16, 2014. In an age where some police officers are being criticized for shooting suspects too quickly, Kidder is a standout for his maturity in holding back on his fire.

“Law enforcement officers all across the nation have to deal with split-second decisions that mean life or death. I wanted to be absolutely sure before I used deadly force.”

#JesseKidder saw the video of the incident you were part of, and gotta say that was guts, patience and #Professionalism.

— Dan MacNeil (@DanMac2014) April 19, 2015

[Image via YouTube]