MESQUITE, Texas — The Mesquite Police Department released body and dash camera videos to the public, regarding two officer-involved shootings.
The first video released was from Feb. 12. Police said they were responding to a 911 call at an apartment complex in the 4700 block of Samuel Boulevard because someone was banging on doors. Then, they got a more chilling call.
You can hear a woman say, “I need police here now, ASAP. He’s taking the hinges off the door. He’s getting ready to come in, can y'all send somebody please?”
The woman begged officers to hurry up because someone she knew was trying to get into her apartment.
"When they are walking up, they really don’t know what they are walking up into,” said Mesquite police spokesperson, Lt. Brandon Rickers.
The video shows a man, now identified as Dominique Green, running down the stairs.
Officers chased him.
The body camera video is dark and hard to see everything that is happening.
Police say the suspect dropped a gun, picked it back up and pointed it at officers.
Two officers fired more than a dozen times after they ordered Green to drop his weapon.
"To them it started just as a foot pursuit and once the gun fell from where it fell on the pavement, they immediately recognized there was a problem and within seconds, they had to use deadly force,” said Lt. Rickers.
Officers performed CPR and Green survived.
Police say they recovered Green’s gun at the scene.
In the second incident on Jan. 31 at an apartment complex in the 800 block of Highway 80, police say an officer was checking on a vehicle that had been used in an evading arrest case. As the officer pulled up, a man is seen jumping out of the vehicle.
The officer chased him and within seconds, a volley of shots is heard.
Police say the suspect, Joseph Butler, fired at the officer.
“He rounded the corner and got into a shooter’s stance and fired several rounds at the officer. The officer was not hit, but he did return fire and shot Mr. Butler three times,” said officer Jolene Lopez, spokesperson with Mesquite police.
Butler later died at the hospital.
“From the time Mr. Butler was contacted until he fled and was fired upon by Mesquite police, was eight seconds,” said Lopez.
Police say they recovered Butler’s 9mm handgun.
Butler was wanted on active felony warrants and a parole violation.
These cases by state law now have to go to a grand jury to determine if the officers did anything criminal – and there will also be internal affairs investigations to determine if the officers violated any department policies.