Dramatic body-worn video has been released of the moment a man with two knives was Tasered by police.
Aron Tesfalem was ordered 10 times to drop his weapons by police armed with guns, before they decided to bring him to the ground with a Taser.
Staff in a residential tower block had called police and then locked themselves in an office, after Tesfalem reportedly stabbed his blades into a wooden reception desk.
Officers are shown rapidly approaching Tesfalem, aiming their weapons, and shouting: “Armed police – put the knife down.”
One police officer, with his rifle poised, then tells his colleague “Go to Tase, mate”, and the suspect is hit, falling to the ground.
West Midlands Police said they had released the footage to show the realities faced by frontline officers, and the value of body-worn video in evidence.
Tesfalem, 20, was arrested and charged with two counts of possession of a knife, following the incident outside the tower block where he lived in William Booth Lane, Birmingham, on October 3.
He pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court to both offences and was jailed for a year, on November 2, said police.
Chief Inspector Danny Delaney, from the force’s firearms unit, said: “This incident is an example of the professionalism and restraint West Midlands firearms officers demonstrate when dealing with highly volatile violent incidents.
“Officers undergo 14 weeks of intensive training where they are trained to deal with all types of situations, always trying to use the minimum amount of force necessary.”
More than 1,400 of the force’s officers now have the cameras, with all frontline personnel due to have them within six months.
The force said the cameras, known as BWV, were an “important tool” both for transparency and for their evidence-gathering capabilities.