Police in quiet Connecticut town taunted, attacked before shooting suspect, bodycam shows
Colchester officers responded to reports of a man's erratic behavior. (Office of Inspector General)
WARNING: GRAPHIC
Behind a closed door, a man "acting erratically" is heard racking the slide of a pump-action shotgun in bodycam footage before bullrushing police with the gun pointed at them.
"Here we go. This is you. This ain't me," Jared Billard yelled before barging through the basement door of a Colchester, Connecticut, home on April 18.
Gunshots rang out. Billard was shot once in the chest, according to the Connecticut Inspector General, and the 33-year-old died in the hospital.
Before the fatal confrontation with police, Billard, who was a landlord, reportedly pushed the second-floor tenant and "displayed throwing knives," the Inspector General said in the preliminary report.
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Colchester, Connecticut, police enter Jared Billard's basement apartment. (Connecticut Inspector General's Office)
The tenant said Billard was "acting erratically" that whole afternoon. At one point, he lit the grill and left it unattended.
When he returned around 5:20 p.m., he was confrontational with the second-floor tenant, which sparked the fight, according to the Inspector General.
The call to police came in as a disturbance, and responding officers tried to talk to Billard, who was barricaded behind a door in his basement apartment.
A nearly two-minute video of the responding officers' bodycams shows the profanity-laced interaction, where he tells police, "Do not enter my f---ing property. Go away."
A gunshot was fired, as one officer stood in the basement stairwell, and the other took cover in a nook in the basement. (Connecticut Inspector General's Office)
WATCH: FULL BODYCAM (WARNING: GRAPHIC)
The officer tells Billard that he needs to investigate.
"No, you need to investigate the f--k off," he yells back. "Get out of my property right now."
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The police tell him they can't leave, and they need to talk. At this point, he's still behind the door. The conversation is tense but not violent.
Then came the sound of the shotgun from behind the door, and the situation spiraled out of control.
Billard emerged "pointing the shotgun toward Officer Kiruluss Wassef who was standing at the bottom of the basement stairs."
A gunshot rang out, as one officer ran up the basement steps and the other one took cover in the basement.
Police in Colchester, Connecticut, talk to Jared Billard, who was barricaded behind the door. (Connecticut Inspector General's Office)
A nearby resident told Fox News Digital that Colchester isn't a high-crime community, so the violent events were shocking.
"I've been skeptical of other departments, but our local police have been very involved in our community, responsive and all around good people."
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The officer-involved shooting remains under investigation by Office of Inspector General, the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, Connecticut State Police and the New London Judicial District State’s Atorney’s Office.
Fox News Digital's Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.
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