Sandy MaloneDallas, TX – Officials released bodycam video of a gunfight between a fugitive and Dallas College police that left one officer wounded and the armed suspect dead (video below).
The incident began at about 6:10 p.m. on Nov. 5 when officers noticed a vehicle blocking the entrance to the parking garage in the 700-block of Elm Street near Griffin Street, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Bodycam video showed that a few minutes after police arrived, 25-year-old Reginald Alexander Jr. exited the 7-Eleven and returned to his illegally-parked vehicle.
Alexander spoke with the officers and sat down in his car, the video showed.
And he gave them his identification when they requested it, according to the Dallas Morning News.
The video showed the officers talking with Alexander inside his car for more than 10 minutes before the dispatcher notified them that the man they had stopped was wanted.
Dallas Police Department Deputy Chief Reuben Ramirez said Alexander had an outstanding probation violation warrant for family violence, KXAS reported.
Officials were trying to revoke his probation in a 2017 assault case.
Bodycam showed one of the officers standing nearby the vehicle warned another officer that Alexander might try to resist arrest because he was “real nervous, and he’s already said that he don’t like the police.”
Officers asked Alexander to exit the vehicle and put his hands on his head, Chief Ramirez said.
Video showed the driver complied with the officers’ request and got out of the vehicle and faced the car.
But when the officers told him several times to put his hands on his car, Alexander suddenly became agitated and started resisting arrest.
The struggle between the officers and the suspect happened fast, the video showed.
In the video, one officer yelled “he’s got a gun.”
“Don’t do it, man,” another officer shouted at Alexander.
The video showed Alexander struggled until he broke free of the officers and then the gun battle began.
It is not clear who fired the first shot, but Alexander was clearly standing and facing the officers, pointing his gun at them in the video.
One of the officers was wounded in the gunfight and the suspect was killed, KXAS reported.
The wounded officer was transported to the hospital for treatment and has since been released.
However, police have not released the identity of the wounded officer, according to KXAS.
Chief Ramirez identified the two officers who fired their weapons as Dallas College Police Officers Rodrigo Garcia and Danny Mason, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Both officers have been place on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, as is protocol with all officer-involved shootings, according to the deputy chief.
The Dallas Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit is heading up the investigation into the incident, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office is also conducting a simultaneous independent investigation of the shooting.
Chief Ramirez said the incident was the tenth officer-involved shooting in Dallas this year, the Dallas Morning News reported.
He said that four of the 10 shootings involved officers from other police departments.
Police said they released the bodycam videos of the incident quickly in an effort to be transparent and dispel rumors that Alexander was not armed when he was shot.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below. WARNING – Graphic Content and Obscene Language:
Holly Matkin
