Emergency Calls Give New Insight Into Fatal Barricade Situation

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A traumatic ordeal caught on police body cam, as children are held at knifepoint in Baltimore.

The dramatic emergency calls for help, as the barricade situation in west Baltimore ended with SWAT officers killing the suspect, 39-year-old Reno Owens Jr.

The kids continue to recover after being held at knifepoint for almost an hour.

You can hear the screams in the background of the body cam footage from both the kids and the suspect.

Into a rowhome and quickly at the center of life and death, SWAT officer Zachary Wein had just seconds to fire a precise shot and save a pair of children held at knifepoint.

"The SWAT officers were tasked with making one of the toughest decisions of their lives," said Baltimore Police Department spokesman T.J. Smith.

Police say it's rare to have an active hostage/barricade situation, but it's exactly what they arrived to find Friday morning.

"Can I get some units in the rear? Need more units in the rear," can be heard in the emergency calls.

A woman yelling that a family relative, Owens Jr., was highly agitated inside and threatening two small children with a butcher's knife.

"You got that medic ordered up just in case? Be advised we have an individual with a knife up on the second-floor front bedroom, and you have some children in that location," with screams for help, heard through emergency calls.

Negotiations lasted almost an hour in the doorway of a bedroom, as the suspect continued to brandish the knife, appearing to be on drugs.

"He's requesting that the father comes upstairs. He's holding a knife right now, and he has them on his lap."

When SWAT officer Wein arrived, he was briefed that the children were in imminent danger, and less lethal options weren't on the table.

He was told by his sergeant, "Walk in and kill this guy."

That's exactly what Wein did.

Even after Owens was shot and killed - slumping in his chair - both the children and knife had to be pulled from him.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis calls it grace under pressure, a scenario that could've easily been tragic.

"If we missed it or didn't kill him, he could've cut the throat of that little girl right in front of us," said Davis.

Media was allowed to review the footage Tuesday, but the entire video was not released to the public because police don't want to add any more trauma to what the family and kids are already going through.

Police are still investigating a motive, and whether or not drugs played a factor.

The family continues to ask for privacy, but tells WJZ the kids are not doing well.

Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook