FORT WORTH, Texas — Fort Worth police have released body camera and dash camera footage of an incident where a man was shot by Fort Worth police after a 911 caller told the department's communications team that the man told them "you are under arrest" and that he was "going to pull the trigger."
Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes told media in a March 4 press conference that North Division officers responded to the intersection of Park Vista Boulevard and Keller Haslet Road and tried to make contact with the man, but he did not respond and walked away.
Noakes said officers saw a handgun in the waistband of the man's pants, continued to walk him into 13000 block of Park Vista Blvd. and one officer deployed her taser on him to take him into custody. The taser was ineffective, Noakes said.
Noakes further said the man then reached for the gun in his waistband, and fearing he was going to shoot, another officer "fired at least one shot," striking the man in his abdomen.
Officers provided medical aid to the man and he was taken to the hospital, where he is in stable condition, according to Noakes.
The weapon that the officers saw was recovered from the scene by police, Noakes said.
Noakes said the officers who initially responded to this call were not part of the department's Crisis Intervention Team – who have additional training in mental health care and have a mental health professional who rides with them on calls – but were patrol officers who "came and worked hard to de-escalate the situation themselves."
The Crisis Intervention Team did respond to the scene later on, Noakes said.
The scene is near a children's care facility, which was another concern for the officers who responded, according to Noakes. There were no children or staff at the facility during the shooting, Noakes said.
Dashboard camera and body camera video
In an edited video released by the department on March 10, Fort Worth police are seen talking with the man and trying to get him to comply moments before the shooting.
In the video, the man is seen taking his shirt off and Noakes explained that officers saw an object in his waistband that they believed to be a gun.
As the man walked closer to the day care center, officers fired a shot at the man.
Noakes said that after the shooting, the weapon officers believed was a gun in the man's waistband was actually a pepper spray gun.
Noakes did not provide an update on the man's condition or on any charges, but asked anyone who may have witnessed the incident to call Fort Worth Police.
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