Shooting Victim Lying in the Street Calls 911, Dies After Cops Run Him Over

A shooting victim who called 911 died after responding police ran him over.

Eric Cole, 42, was lying in the street on West Liberty Avenue in Springfield, Ohio on Sunday night, after being shot in the arm.

But after calling police, horrifying dash cam footage shows the responding cruiser drove over him as he lay bleeding on the side of the road.

He was rushed to hospital but died later that night.

An autopsy has not yet determined a cause of death; but it notes he suffered a gunshot wound and blunt force trauma.

The bullet, it notes, was fired from indeterminate or distant range, WHIO reported, passing straight through the skin and soft tissue of the back of his left arm.

However he also suffered a fracture to sternum and multiple left ribs, internal bleeding in the chest, multiple abrasions and lacerations to his back, lower chest, and left shoulder, and blunt force trauma to the arms, knees and legs.

The dispatch recording shows Cole was on the phone the whole time.

"I'm in the middle of the street," he told the dispatcher after getting shot. "I'm about to die."

Moments later, he told her: "They just hit me."

"Who hit you?" the dispatcher asked. "The police," he replied.

At a press conference, Springfield Police Chief Lee Graf said officer Amanda Rosales had accidentally run him over while she was looking for the address of the shooting.

"This was an accident. It doesn't mean it's OK. It was an accident. This was not an intentional act on the part of the officer. I am sure of that," he said.

"From what we are initially piecing together, remember this is all under investigation, the lead officer was trying to catch the addresses on the house. Eric was lying in the street as you can see from the videos — and the officer did not see him."

He said the dash cam footage did not accurately depict what Rosales was seeing at the time: "That camera focuses where it's pointed. It's not an indicator of what the officer was seeing."

He said Rosales and another officer immediately got out of the car and attempted to render aid.

Member's of Cole's family also attended the press conference; his mother Regina Wilson said she was only told her son had been shot — nothing about the cruiser.

"He said, 'Your son has just been shot,' never once was I told that an officer ran over my son. Why was I not told at the scene that she ran over my son?" she asked.

Graf claimed the reason it wasn't mentioned in the report is because the shooting and the crash are being investigated as separate incidents: The Ohio State Highway Patrol is handling the investigation into the crash, while Springfield Police Division is conducting the investigation into the shooting. The entire incident, however, is being investigated by internal affairs.

"We thinking the gun people that shot him ran him over — but the Springfield Police Department ran him over," one of Cole's cousins told the conference. "So yes, we're upset. You know what I mean? We're all upset."

Denise Williams, President of Springfield NAACP, also addressed the conference, promising it would ensure transparency throughout the investigation.

Rosales has been placed on paid administrative leave.