MIAMI TWP. — The Miami Township Police Department has released body camera video of the deadly officer-involved shooting that happened earlier this month.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
The shooting happened on Feb. 19 after police responded to a disturbance on Sawgrass Drive, near PipeStone Golf Club.
Miami Twp. Police said they waited to release the video until Stephenson’s family was able to view it, which they did Friday afternoon.
In a newly released 911 call, a woman told dispatchers that her son, 21-year-old Jayden Stephenson, had threatened the family with a knife. She also said she believed her son was struggling with mental health issues.
“I need you to come here, my son’s pulled a knife on us,” she told dispatchers.
Officers were at the home within minutes of the 911 call.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Double deadly fire in Miami County was intentionally set, investigators say
- Company releases statement on legal battle to re-open Frisch’s in the Miami Valley
- Justin Timberlake cancels concert 10 minutes before taking stage in Ohio
Body camera video showed officers initially speaking with Stephenson, who was sitting inside with a knife, from the front door of the home before going inside.
Alan Statman, a lawyer representing Stephenson’s family, said the 21-year-old only had a small box cutter from his job in his hands.
Video shows officers telling Stephenson to drop the knife multiple times. Police previously said officers gave him that command 29 times through the seven minutes leading up to the shooting.
Stephenson eventually stood up and walked toward the staircase of the home. At that point, officers deployed a taser and a bean bag gun which did not stop him from running upstairs into a locked bedroom.
Officers followed him upstairs and kicked in the door. Stephenson was found lying on the ground in a connecting bathroom.
From there, police used a taser and bean bag gun again on Stephenson. He got up and moved toward officers, at which time at least one officer fired their gun at him, hitting and killing him.
As reported on News Center 7 at 5:00, Stephenson’s family does not believe the shooting was justified and their lawyer thinks it was absurd.
“I’m going to tell you that if he had a gun, he’d still be alive today,” Statman said. “They wouldn’t have gone in that house. They would have called a SWAT team. They would have brought in a negotiator, a crisis manager, and it would have been a long, drawn-out process before something like this would have happened.”
The family said Friday that he had been dealing with mental health issues, but did not pose a threat to himself or his family.
As previously reported, five officers were placed on paid administrative leave pending the completion of the investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Miami Twp. provided call logs and incident reports showing that officers interacted with Stephenson multiple times in the days leading up to the shooting.
A call detail report showed that officers were called to Everybody Fitness on Kingsridge Drive on Feb. 17 after Stephenson was allegedly trying to fight someone at the gym. He was trespassed from the facility.
Officers reportedly interacted with him twice the day before the shooting: once overnight for a reported domestic violence complaint, which he was arrested for, and once for a mental health call over 12 hours later.
[SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
©2025 Cox Media Group
