A 57-year-old Black man was reportedly shot multiple times by Chicago police officers who responded last week to a 911 call from his girlfriend, who said he was holding a knife and acting strangely. Charlotta Pritchett said at a press conference on Monday that her boyfriend Timothy Glaze was having a mental health issue and that police used excessive force when they arrived at her sixth-floor apartment of the Albany Terrace Apartments, a public housing building for seniors in the Little Village neighborhood of southwest Chicago around 2 a.m. on January 3. Charlotta Pritchett in tears while recalling the terrifying incident. (Credit: ABC News Video Screengrab) Pritchett said Glaze, whom she had known for six years, was exhibiting an odd demeanor that evening, had a “glazed look in his eye,” and had been walking around for about an hour holding a paring knife, so she called 911. “He sat next to me on the bed with this knife. Like I said, he was treating it like it was a pencil or pen, and I think he said, ‘I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to talk to you,’ and I just felt uneasy,” Pritchett said. “I knew he needed some help I couldn’t provide.” When police showed up, Pritchett, who had taken refuge in a neighbor’s apartment, said she heard police radios and two or three voices command Glaze to “Stop! Don’t move!” Then they began “wildly shooting,” she said. “Before I could get out of the chair to say, ‘Hey, I’m the lady who called,’ I didn’t get a chance to get to the door when we heard this enormous amount of gunfire, at least 35 or 40 rounds, and I froze, and the lady who was sitting with me, she looked at me and she said, ‘I’m so sorry, but your friend is dead,’” Pritchett said. “I don’t want to call 911 ever again in my life because it took his life, and that’s not what it’s supposed to do. It’s supposed to serve and protect,” Pritchett said. According to a review of police audio by the Chicago Sun Times, when Pritchett called 911 she reported that Glaze was holding a knife and a screwdriver. When police arrived and knocked on the door, Glaze “confronted” and “advanced” at them with the knife, according to a police statement. Officers then shot him multiple times. They immediately rendered medical aid, but Glaze, who had been shot in the chest, was pronounced dead at the hospital. Pritchett and several community activists who spoke at the conference said Glaze was a small, medically frail man who did not pose a threat to officers, and they questioned why police did not use de-escalation tactics before resorting to lethal force. Glaze weighed 125 pounds, was recovering from cancer, and moved slowly, Pritchett said. “To come into a senior building with that much firepower, when you could tase, you could mace. But him being so small and you all being so big, a couple of you could have just rushed him, and grabbed him,” she said. “The guy had prostate cancer, he had liver cancer, and he had colon cancer, fourth stage, and he moved like a snail,” said Charles Odum, chair of Union to End Slums, a housing fairness and criminal justice advocacy organization. “A resident, a guest here had a mental crisis, and instead of getting medical attention, he got 28 bullets,” said Baltazar Enriques with the Little Village Community Council. Pritchett said that the Cook County Medical Examiner told Glaze’s family that he was shot 28 times. Pritchett also said that despite having an active order of protection against Glaze, he was homeless, sick and being treated for mental health issues, and she took him in, as he was in the final stages of life. He was in the process of applying for his own subsidized apartment at the senior housing building. Glaze’s criminal history includes several arrests over the last two decades for domestic battery, though most of the counts were later dropped, reported the Sun Times. He was convicted in 2006 of domestic battery and sentenced to serve 100 days in jail. Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), an administrative agency that operates independently of the police department and which investigates officer-involved shootings and allegations of excessive force, is now investigating the incident. COPA said in a statement that a knife was recovered at the scene and that body-worn cameras captured the initial interaction and subsequent shooting. Evidentiary materials related to the incident, including video, will be uploaded on COPA’s website within 60 days. Pritchett, members of Glaze’s family and some community members are demanding that the body cam footage be released sooner, within 10 business days of the incident. “We want to make sure that not only that we get the videos, but we also get these officers charged with murder,” said Enriquez. Glaze’s family also demanded “a full and transparent investigation into this tragic incident” in a statement released on Monday. “As a family , we are in deep mourning and struggling to comprehend how Timothy’s life could be taken in such a brutal and excessive manner. Timothy, who was experiencing a mental health crisis, deserved help, compassion and care — not bullets. … Every person, especially in those moments of profound vulnerability, deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.” The family hopes “this unimaginable loss will inspire meaningful change in how law enforcement responds to mental health emergencies.” COPA’s investigative process includes reviewing all of the available evidence, including police video and audio, as well as potential third party cell phone and doorbell video, and interviewing police and civilian witnesses, said a spokesperson. A final summary report with disciplinary recommendations for the officers, who have been put on “routine administrative duties” for at least 30 days, will be issued by COPA at the end of their investigation, which could take a year or more. Those recommendations could include suspension, termination, more training, or no disciplinary action. The Chicago police superintendent then has 60 days to review and accept or reject COPA’s findings, after which the Chicago Police Board will make a final determination, if necessary. The 2023 annual report by COPA said the civilian agency and the police department agreed on how to resolve 98 percent of all investigations closed with findings that year, which included 64 officer-involved shootings, 8 of which were fatal, and 31 percent of which were found to be “within [police] policy.” ‘Stop! Don’t Move!’: Chicago Woman Expresses Regret for Calling Police After They Began ‘Wildly Shooting,’ Killing Black Man Suffering Mental Health Crisis In a Hail of Bullets at Senior Home