Man killed by police in Des Plaines threatened officer with electric hedge trimmer, police say

A man who was shot and killed by police in northwest suburban Des Plaines on Wednesday was threatening officers with an electric hedge trimmer and ignored officers to drop it, police said on Thursday.

Des Plaines police responded to a call about a domestic disturbance Wednesday afternoon around 2:30 p.m. at a home in the 2000 block of Touhy Avenue. 

Dispatchers told responding officers that a man at the scene "was acting violently and breaking windows of the residence," according to police.

The first officer to arrive at the scene saw 21-year-old Ayham Babidi in the front yard of the home, holding an electric hedge trimmer.

Police said Babidi approached the officer while brandishing the hedge trimmer "in a threatening manner," and when the officer ordered him to drop it, "Babidi refused and continued advancing aggressively toward the officer."

The officer backed away from Babidi across the street and continued to order him to drop the trimmer, but police said he kept advancing on the officer, who fired three shots, killing Babidi.

Police said the officer's squad car dashboard camera and home security cameras in the area recorded the incident, but the officer was not able to activate his body camera before the confrontation with Babidi.

Police said the video footage is part of an active investigation by the Major Crimes Assistance Team, and will not be released until "it no longer compromises the active investigation."

Babidi's family has said he struggled with mental health.

His family said he was a graduate of Maine West High School and that he struggled with bipolar disorder. His father said he tried to bring his son to the hospital for help the day before the shooting.

Before police said that Babidi had threatened an officer with an electric hedge trimmer, Babidi's family maintained he would never hurt anyone, though they said the 21-year-old tended to scream loudly due to his mental health issues.

His father said they tried everything to get his son help.

"Take hm back to the hospital. Take him back home. Back to the hospital. Give him different medicines," he said. "Sometimes he act bad. We tried calling police to help us to take him, not to kill him."