FBI opens civil rights investigation into fatal on-camera shooting of San Antonio man

[TexasTowelie]

Source: San Antonio Express-News

SAN ANTONIO — The FBI said Tuesday afternoon it has opened a federal civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of a man by two Bexar County Sheriff's deputies, which was captured on cellphone video.

"We coordinate our investigation to ensure that we are not interfering with (BSCO's) investigation," said FBI spokeswoman Michelle Lee. "They have been extremely cooperative and transparent."

Gilbert Flores, 41, was shot by deputies Robert Sanchez and Greg Vasquez on Aug. 28 in his front yard at a Northwest Side neighborhood. A video of the incident appears to show Flores' hands raised just before the deputies opened fire, however, Flores' left hand is obstructed by a utility pole.

Authorities have not said whether Flores had a weapon in his hand at the time of the shooting and have refused to provide a written report of the incident, pending a full investigation. The Sheriff's Office has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Everything-we-know-about-the-on-camera-killing-of-6478222.php

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Edited to correct link.

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ETA: It is now being reported by one of the dispatchers that the man threatened "suicide by cop" during the incident.

http://www.chron.com/news/local/article/Recording-deputy-shooting-San-Antonio-video-6478986.php

[underthematrix]

1. Horrific. this is what the GOP KKKochroaches built

[CincyDem]

2. Having watched the video, the only way he had a weapon in his left hand was if...

...it was magically delivered by bird to him. Literally dropped out of the sky.

The author of the article is correct in saying that, at the moment of the shooting, his left hand is obscured by the telephone pool. So let's step back to the moment 5 seconds before the shooting, when it's pretty f'ing clear that he has absolutely NOTHING in his left hand. Let's move forward 2 seconds to the point 3 seconds before the shooting when Mr. Flores has his hands raised. Still nothing but he's in the process of raising his hand (not for the first time in this video either). Then his arm is behind the pole but there's nothing about how he moves that suggests his hand has lowered. As he falls, it appears that his hand was up.

It will be interesting to see where this "weapon" came from and, judging from all the police activity on the video around the body immediately after the shooting, there just might be one. The question will be who's throwaway piece it was.

[Chemisse]

3. The network news said there was another video filmed by a neighbor

With a closer view.

But the police have it and won't release it. I think that tells the whole story right there.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

5. Another MURDER by cop

fucking pigs

[Fred Sanders]

4. GUNZ....in almost every incident of deadly violence and raging injustice.... there it is...the GUN.

The GUN is an equally opportunity weapon, a completely fair and balanced, non-discriminatory killer and terrorist because they are all made that way - all the 320 million GUNS in America are all manufactured, fresh from the factory to the gun shop, guaranteed by the gun corporation to be totally oblivious to the intent of it's owner.

[Midnight Writer]

6. O'Reilly on Fox just said it doesn't matter if he had a gun

[JonLP24]

7. This sort of thing seems to be occuring more frequentinely and routinely

meaning police are police but the corrupt kind of police generally used to always do this sort of thing but did so more in the shadows but now it feels like they are embolden to do so openly as if they feel they can get away with particularly with shootings because all that is required is "reasonable fear".

I thought this was a good short-documentary with 538 has a series of particularly at the end when the NYPD brass enter the home of the whistle-blower cop with no warrant saying he was orders to report to this higher commander and that he is doesn't have a choice which he was objecting to they check his heart rate which was high due to normal stress one would feel under those circumstances (doing the right thing and subjected to that sort of abuse) which the cop whispered "EDP" to the EMT which means Emotional Disturbed Person which I guess in NY gives the cops rights to take all of someone's rights away for "threat to self or others" but basically a lot of control. They found a recorder but didn't know about the second recorder.

How The NYPD Abused Citizens In The Name Of Data, And How One Cop Exposed It (18 minute documentary at the link below)

Exposing police misconduct can be risky, even for a cop.

“Crime By The Numbers,” a short documentary directed by Don Argott for FiveThirtyEight and ESPN Films’ Signals series, tells the story of Adrian Schoolcraft. Schoolcraft, as a New York Police Department officer, blew the whistle on the NYPD’s abuse and misuse of CompStat, a system to track crime trends in New York City.

But in trying to fix the injustices of New York’s policing system, Schoolcraft experienced that injustice personally.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-the-nypd-abused-citizens-in-the-name-of-data-and-how-one-cop-exposed-it-all/