Video released of fatal officer-involved shooting of parolee armed with pistol-shaped lighter
Officers arrived at the door of an apartment at 105 Willis Ave. just after 7 a.m. on April 2 to arrest 44-year-old Lucien Colon, a known Level 3 sex offender, who failed to register himself.
Top Stories
The NYPD released bodycam footage capturing the fatal officer-involved shooting of a parolee armed with an “imitation pistol,” which turned out to be a butane lighter.
Officers arrived at the door of an apartment at 105 Willis Ave. just after 7 a.m. on April 2 to arrest 44-year-old Lucien Colon, a known Level 3 sex offender, who failed to register himself.
The footage was captured on Detective Christopher Chin’s bodycam. Chin is assigned to the Bronx Warrants Squad.
The video first shows Colon’s girlfriend letting the officers into the apartment. They ask her where Colon is and if he has a gun, before telling her to go inside a room adjacent to the front door.
The officers proceed to open the door of the room where Colon is hiding inside the closet.
The officers order Colon to show his hands, and he immediately says, “I got a gun,” and “It’s not gonna happen.” He repeats these statements multiple times.
Colon waves what appears to be a gun out of the closet door, which the officers order him to drop. He replies by telling the officers to “close the door.”
Chin backs away from the doorway before firing two rounds from his gun, striking Colon, who was left lying on the floor.
EMS took Colon to NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln, where he died.
Colon was on parole for a 2013 murder — he was released from prison in 2023.
Authorities say he was also found guilty of rape in 1997 and attempted murder in 1995.
The New York Attorney General’s Office is investigating the incident.
