Man fatally shot by deputies may have had knife: Texas sheriff
By Jim Forsyth
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - A man fatally shot by deputies last week near San Antonio appeared to have a knife in his hand, Bexar County Sheriff Susan Pamerleau said on Wednesday, citing a video she saw of the incident.
Gilbert Flores, 41, was killed on Friday by two Bexar County deputies. A cell phone video of the incident, which was broadcast on a local TV station and different from the one mentioned by the sheriff, appeared to show the victim with his hands up in the air before being shot.
"We believe that Mr. Flores had a knife in his hand and that video will help us have a better idea of exactly what he had in his hand," Pamerleau said of the second video.
She added the second video was longer and taken from a different angle than the one shown on broadcaster KSAT-TV. It was sent to crime investigators and has not been released to the public.
Activists said the TV video showed Flores was unarmed and appeared to surrender when he was shot. They said it provides evidence of excessive and perhaps criminal action by police.
The deputies and the victim are Hispanic. Special Agent Michelle Lee said civil rights investigators from the FBI will review the case.
The shooting came after questions have been raised about racial bias in U.S. policing due to incidents that sparked protests nationwide, including the killing of an unarmed black teenager in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri, a year ago by a white officer.
An audio recording, released on Wednesday on behalf of the sheriff's office, of a conversation between a dispatcher and deputies indicated Flores was armed and suicidal and had just harmed his wife and baby.
In the audio, the dispatcher is heard telling deputies that Flores has a knife but the audio does not indicate how she came by that information.
"He is threatening suicide by cop," the dispatcher said, referring to a person who is intentionally using the threat of deadly force to provoke officers into shooting them.
The dispatcher also tells an ambulance crew called to the home that "the male that called it in assaulted his wife and child, so possibly two patients," indicating it was Flores who called the 911 emergency number.
The two deputies involved in the shooting, Greg Vasquez and Robert Sanchez, have been placed on administrative duty pending an investigation, as per protocol.
(Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Trott and Sandra Maler)
