DALLAS (AP) - A second video that captured Texas deputies fatally shooting a man whose hands were raised appears to show that he was holding a knife, a sheriff said Wednesday, declining to release the video because the investigation is ongoing.
Bexar County Sheriff Susan Pamerleau said at a news conference that the video has been forwarded to the Texas Department of Public Safety's crime lab to see if it can be blown up and slowed down to establish the sequence of Friday's events. Although it's unclear from the video what 41-year-old Gilbert Flores may have been holding while facing deputies with his hands up outside of a home near San Antonio, investigators believe it was a knife, she said.
"There's no doubt that what was shown in that video is of grave concern to all of us, but we also want to get this right," Pamerleau said of the investigation. She declined to say whether investigators recovered a knife from the scene after the shooting.
A separate video of the shooting taken by a motorist and released publicly shows Flores raise his arms in apparent surrender and stand motionless just before the two deputies opened fire, killing him. A utility pole obscured one of his arms in that video, but Pamerleau said the second video, which was taken from a different angle, showed that both of Flores' arms were raised when he was shot.
"We're not drawing any conclusions at this point," she said. "That would be inappropriate to do so."
San Antonio attorney Thomas J. Henry, who is representing the Flores family, was not immediately available to respond to Pamerleau's comments. But he told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the initial video appears to show that deadly force was unnecessary.
"From a lay perspective, seeing the video, it does appear the immediate danger is gone because he had both hands in the air," Henry said. "Now there are other videos and other pieces of evidence that we want to gather."
He said the family is considering filing a lawsuit to compel the authorities to turn over more evidence.