Video appears to show cops kill man with hands up

Matthew Diebel, USATODAY11:56 a.m. EDT September 1, 2015


Gilbert Flores, who was shot to death by police officers responding to a domestic disturbance call.(Photo: Bexar County Sheriff's Office)



Video has emerged that appears to show two Texas police officers killing a man who had his hands up.

Cell phone footage obtained by a local TV station, KSAT, and available on its website, shows two San Antonio-area sheriff's deputies shooting 41-year-old Gilbert Flores Friday after they responded to a domestic disturbance call.

According to another station, KENS-TV, police said the deputies found a woman who was bleeding from her head and holding a toddler who also may have been hurt.

At first, Flores is seen running shirtless in front of a home as the officers approach him. He then seems to put his hands up moments before they shoot him to the ground.



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"He put his hands in the air and they just shot him twice," Michael Thomas, the man who KSAT says filmed the video, told the station.

After the incident, the officers were identified by police officials as Greg Vasquez and Robert Sanchez. Both have more than 10 years on the force, and have been put on administrative leave pending an investigation.

Thomas said he recorded the incident because of increased publicity about police-involved killings.

"I thought with everything going on in the world, with police shootings and everything, I thought I would record what was happening," he told CNN.

The Bexar County Sheriff's Office said Flores was armed with a knife and resisting arrest when deputies showed up. Neither deputy was wearing a body camera.

"We are aware that there is recorded video which appears to show the final moments of this deputy-involved shooting," Bexar County Sheriff Susan Pamerleau said Friday. "It's among many pieces of evidence that we are collecting to determine what happened."



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The incident began when deputies received a call to a block in the northwest section of the city regarding a woman who allegedly had been assaulted, according to Bexar County Sheriff's Office public information officer James Keith.

According to Keith, Flores at one point grabbed a deputy's taser and threw it as deputies attempted to use non-lethal force during the approximately 20-minute confrontation.

Because the video is shot from a distance, it's not clear whether Flores is holding a knife, and though it's clear Flores has one hand up, the other is obscured by a utility pole.

"As the guy and police were going back and forth, the man acted like he was going to run back inside his house and then ran around the cars by the cop car and the cops started pursuing closer to him," Thomas told CNN.

Authorities said Flores resisted arrest, and that nonlethal force — stun guns and shields — were used to try to subdue him, but those didn't work, Pamerleau said.



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"Certainly what's in the video is a cause for concern," Pamerleau said. "But it's important to let the investigation go through its course so we can ensure a thorough and complete review of all that occurred."

The Bexar County District Attorney's Office has joined the investigation, according to KSAT.

Nicholas "Nico" LaHood, the Bexar County district attorney, told KSAT there's a second video of the incident that has a closer and clearer view of what happened.

James Keith, media relations officer for the Bexar County Sheriff's Office, confirmed to CNN that his office has a second video of the shooting by someone else, but he would not go into detail about what it shows.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2...nder/71511908/