Police released the bodycam from the police shooting back in late February 2025 just a few short blocks from my house. Cole Turner, 15, wondered around with a Sig P365 BB or airsoft gun, acting like a tough guy one Tuesday afternoon. People called the police and they showed up.
For ten minutes or more, police showed saint-like restraint trying to talk Cole Turner down from his tough-guy irrational mental state. He tried telling them to leave. Like that was going to happen. Then he threatened to kill them. That didn’t seem to intimidate them either. At a couple of points he said, “You’re gonna kill a 15-year-old kid.”
Well, sweetie, if you demonstrate that you’re a credible threat to innocent life, yeah. Police are going to shoot to stop the threat. And if you die? Tough cookies, punk.
When he raised the gun, five officers discharged their guns.
Cole Turner wanted to die and not go to jail again. He got his wish on both counts.
Before the final details came out, I wondered if little Cole Turner wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, gaining national attention as the nation’s next mass spree killer by shooting up the nearby playground where me and my boys were at as this went down. Turner reportedly told his peers on a public transit bus, while showing them his pistol, that he didn’t expect to live the rest of the day. He was going to “take care of some business.” We had walked home to welcome mom home when we heard the gunfire.
Turns out Cole didn’t have a real gun. Not this time at least. But he talked like he did. The threatened to kill the cops with his very realistic-looking airsoft/BB gun. And they took him at his word.
His mom, no stranger to law enforcement in the community, says her son wanted to go to law school and become a prosecutor. Yeah. He was expelled from public schools. At the “alternative” school he reportedly was on the verge of failing out of that. And I’m told he also had a starring role in a police stand-off in Normal last fall. It’s hard to get into law school with bad grades. And becoming an attorney as a felon? Good luck.
And to become a prosecutor? LOL.
Mom was just trying to get a bigger wrongful death settlement. However, with the bodycam’s release, that’s gonna be very difficult. She’ll be lucky if they don’t send her a bill for the ammunition used and overtime paid while investigating, and cleaning up the mess her son made.
Frankly, I thank the good Lord that Bloomington Police interacted with this young hoodlum where they did, when they did. If they had not, it might have fallen on others to stop what they perceived as a lethal threat to innocent life. And the aftermath of using deadly force in self-defense is not one bit nice.
Here’s more from WGLT:
‘We don’t want to hurt you’: Video shows 10-minute standoff before police shot 15-year-old in Bloomington
Newly released video shows Bloomington Police officers spent 10 minutes pleading with a 15-year-old to drop a gun before fatally shooting him when the confrontation escalated. The McLean County state’s attorney says the officers were legally justified in using deadly force.
Illinois State Police on Tuesday released video footage showing two angles of the Feb. 25 shooting that killed Cole Turner of Normal. An additional angle filmed by someone inside a nearby apartment shows Turner talking to the officers while holding what appears to be a gun. Officers recovered a Sig Sauer P365 Air Pistol from the scene, State Police said. That is a realistic-looking BB gun. Authorities say Turner bought it just two days before he died.
The video footage was released as State’s Attorney Erika Reynolds issued a 13-page preliminary report based on a concluded State Police investigation.
“It is our unequivocal opinion that the Bloomington Police Department officers were legally justified in their use of deadly force against (Turner),” Reynolds and two assistant prosecutors wrote. “The officers held the reasonable belief that the subject was armed with a firearm and was willing to use that firearm against the officers. The fact that the weapon was later determined to be an air pistol [BB gun] does not change the reasonableness of their belief.”
10-minute de-escalation
Police say the incident began when Turner and two other young people had a run-in with someone walking their dog near Arcadia Drive on the city’s southeast side. Turner allegedly showed the person he had a gun in his waistband. Police say Turner fled on foot when officers arrived around 4:45 p.m.
The video footage begins when police caught up to and confront Turner behind an apartment building off Arcadia Drive. Turner then talked to officers from a distance for around 10 minutes. Turner stood near two parked, unoccupied cars in an apartment parking lot.
In the video, Turner said he’s on “probation” and that he’s “not going back to jail.”
“We don’t want to hurt you. Why are you doing this?” one officer asked.
“What is upsetting you?” another asked.
“We’ll work through the trouble stuff,” an officer said. “You’re gonna end up getting shot, and that’s a lot worse than jail, I promise you.”
Officers continued to talk to Turner about what’s happening in his personal life. About 10 minutes into the confrontation, Turner began to get more agitated.
“You’re gonna get shot if you don’t drop that gun,” an officer said.
“Oh, for real?” the 15-year-old appears to say.
“Yes,” the officer replied.
Then there was a burst of gunfire. It’s unclear from the video what exactly prompted the gunfire to begin. Turner’s image and movements are largely blurred in the video released by police.
Prosecutors say Turner “chose to raise his weapon and point it at the officers.” Bloomington Police Chief Jamal Simington said Tuesday that Turner raised the gun at officers. Five officers then opened fire, striking Turner three times, authorities said.
After Turner was shot, officers approached him and began rendering first aid.
Turner died at the scene. No officers were injured. As is common practice with police use of deadly force, State Police were called in to conduct an independent investigation of what happened.
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