KSAT 12 screenshot
Editor’s note: This article contains video footage that some may find disturbing.
A video obtained by Texas news station KSAT 12 appears to show that a 41-year-old suspect killed by deputies had his hands up before he was fatally shot. Authorities say that Gilbert Flores, who died shortly after the Friday shooting, was resisting arrest and that nonlethal methods failed to bring him under control, the Associated Press notes.
According to a police statement on Monday, Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputies Greg Vasquez and Robert Sanchez were responding to a domestic disturbance and found a woman with a cut on her head and an apparently injured baby. When they encountered Flores, he was reportedly armed. It is not clear at this time what type of weapon Flores had on him.
Deputies claim that as they attempted to arrest him, they began with nonlethal methods but resorted to shooting only after “those efforts failed.” Eyewitness video taken from a distance, however, appears to show Flores standing still with his arms raised, just before shots were fired and he falls to the ground. The video does not contain audio of what deputies may have said or what Flores said in response.
Vasquez and Sanchez have since been placed on administrative leave. The two officers were not wearing body cameras during the shooting.
“Certainly what’s in the video is a cause for concern, but it’s important to let the investigation go through its course so that we can assure a thorough and complete review of all that occurred,” Sheriff Susan Pamerleau said at a Friday news conference.
The sheriff’s office, however, later slammed the video’s release as “unethical” and “sensational,” AP reports.
Watch the video below:
Read more at KSAT 12 and the Associated Press.
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