DESOTO, Texas — Police released a portion of body camera video Friday showing the fatal shooting of a man by a DeSoto police officer Sunday after the man allegedly threatened to shoot officers.
The video released Friday was broken into three parts. Additional video is expected to be formally released Monday, said DeSoto Assistant Police Chief Ryan Jesionek.
Watch the full Friday press conference here:
The first portion of the video released Friday shows police making contact with the suspect, later identified as Jesse Martinez, 34, questioning him and asking if he wanted water.
Officers were initially called to the scene of the shooting at about 4 a.m. Sunday to the 1100 block of Greenbriar Drive about a man carrying a small child who was knocking on doors and trespassing through yards in the area, according to police.
When officers arrived, they found Martinez, carrying a handgun and accompanied by an adult woman, a girl and a 1-year-old child, Jesionek said. Martinez was wanted on complaints of aggravated kidnapping and continuous sexual assault of a child, according to police.
Martinez fled into a nearby creek bed and threatened to kill the officer if he saw the officer again, Jesionek said.
DeSoto officers set up a perimeter and found him behind a home in the 1200 block of Springbrook Drive, police say.
The second portion of the video shown Friday shows officers setting up the perimeter and calling for Martinez to “send the women and the children out to us.”
Martinez approached the officers at one point carrying two handguns and refused officers’ commands to stop and show his hands, and an officer fired a single shot, fatally hitting Martinex, Jesionek said.
The third portion of the video released Friday shows an officer heading toward Martinez, noting he had “a gun in his hand” before Martinez was shot.
The officer that fired the shot was placed on paid administrative leave, Jesionek said.
Jesionek said the shooting remains under investigation by the Grand Prairie Police Department, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office Public Integrity Unit and the DeSoto Police Department’s internal affairs division.
