Police have released bodycam footage showing the moment they shot and killed a man holding a woman at knifepoint, shortly after he attempted to shoot his wife in the head at close range.
Elijah Radford, 45, a known serial abuser, had recently been charged with strangling his wife, Charminca Kirk, just days before the violent incident occurred outside an Indianapolis office building. During the ambush, Radford shot Kirk in the hand and dragged her to the ground, but she managed to escape when his gun jammed as he attempted to fire at her head.
Radford, who had been a suspect in a 2019 hammer attack, fled the scene in his car, leading officers on a high-speed chase through the city before he was eventually shot dead while holding another woman hostage with a knife.
Kerry Hyatt Bennett, from the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, emphasized the severity of nonfatal strangulation, stating, “Nonfatal strangulation is the best predictor of future domestic homicides. We are lucky that she is alive over there on the northwest side.”
Just two weeks earlier, Kirk’s neighbor had to use a baseball bat to defend her from Radford during an attack in the front yard of their home on Zionsville Road. Police arrived and charged Radford with domestic battery, battery causing bodily injury, and strangulation.
Despite a court order from Marion County prohibiting him from contacting his wife, Radford waited for her outside an office building on June 25. He shot her in the hand and attempted to shoot her in the head, but the gun malfunctioned. She ran back toward the building, slipping on blood as she struggled to open the door, while Radford reloaded and tried to fire again. This time, the rifle’s clip fell to the ground.
Police officers arrived just in time to witness Radford speeding off in his maroon Dodge Ram, initiating a 100mph chase on Interstate 465. The pursuit ended 11 miles later when Radford swerved onto Maple Leaf Lane and entered a home, where he held a woman hostage at knifepoint.
Bodycam footage from two officers shows them approaching the house, with one officer urging, “We have to go in there,” as screams echoed from an upstairs room. The officers rushed up the stairs, finding Radford holding a knife to the throat of a woman who had her hands raised.
“That’s enough, drop the knife!” one officer shouted as Radford struggled with the hostage. Seconds later, a shot was fired, and Radford fell to the ground.
The woman was unharmed but still in shock as officers instructed her to step over Radford’s body, which lay motionless on the floor. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators later revealed that Radford had been living at the residence where the incident occurred. Despite Radford’s violent history, including an outstanding warrant for the 2019 hammer attack, the Marion County Court had not acted on the warrant when he appeared before them two weeks prior.
Hyatt Bennett expressed concern over this missed opportunity to prevent the tragedy: “My understanding is, they hadn’t picked him up on the warrant, but there was a seven-day hold, and the prosecutor asked for a bond deviation because of the history of his domestic violence.”
She added, “If he was picked up on that warrant before this tragic incident happened, he would have been in jail for the foreseeable future.”
Bennett reiterated the importance of resources for domestic violence survivors, saying, “We don’t want violence of any kind in our community, not like this especially. It is tragic for everyone involved in these situations. There are resources out there, we want people to reach out and do their best, if they can, to get out of certain situations.”
