DALLAS – 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 still going on.
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 the footage 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, which also involves the FBI. She declined to say whether investigators recovered a knife from the scene after the shooting.
A separate video 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 ofFlores’ 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.”