Tucson Police released body camera videos showing officers firing at a man who reportedly was threatening construction workers with a knife last month.
The man pulled a weapon on officers and was shot after refusing commands to drop the gun, which turned out to be a BB gun.
The release of the videos — before an internal board of inquiry completes its investigation — is crossing into uncharted territory, said police Chief Chris Magnus.
Magnus said he made a decision to comply with media public records requests as body camera footage is “still an emerging issue in Arizona and across the country.”
The chief said he decided to be “quite transparent,” but this may change in the future, depending on the situation and a look at procedural and legal issues.
The department has 70 patrol officers wearing body cameras out of 331 officers who are on the street. Magnus said he plans to eventually equip all patrol officers with body cameras, which is one of his priorities. He also said the challenges of body cameras is that “it gives you just one perspective. There are different perspectives from the body camera.”
In a news conference at police headquarters Monday, Magnus said it is important to show the life-and-death situations and how officers deal with it.
He said officers encounter situations that can change quickly, and officers must deal with a person’s injuries and how badly that person is hurt or incapacitated. Officers must be consistent with their training, the use of best practices, and see whether the threat is resolved before rendering aid to a suspect, Magnus said.
Depending on the situation, officers may not have the time to call in mental-health experts, or know if they are faced with a person under the influence of substances or a suicide-by-cop situation.
He also mentioned the volatile situation Chandler police encountered early Saturday at a Walmart. Two officers responded to a trespassing call and were “ambushed” by a shooter who wounded both officers, Magnus said.
Magnus also reinforced that officers and all first-responders, including dispatchers, need to be supported after shootings and other stressful situations through their department’s behavioral health services and unions.
“We need to take better care of our first-responders,” Magnus emphasized.
The release of the videos shows officers firing at Carlos Alegria, 41, who was struck multiple times March 15 when officers attempted to talk to him and he brandished a weapon that turned out to be a BB gun.
Alegria was hospitalized and released a week after the shooting, and booked into the Pima County jail. He faces three counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer with a simulated weapon and five counts of disorderly conduct with a dangerous instrument.
The incident began at about 9:30 a.m. when four officers responded to a 911 call about a man with a knife who was threatening construction workers in the 5600 block of East Pima Street, near North Craycroft Road, said Sgt Pete Dugan, a department spokesman, soon after the shooting.
Officers found the man walking down the street with a knife in his hand. The videos show police yelling numerous times at the man to drop the weapon, which also included what appeared to be a handgun.
The man did not, and shots were fired at the man. The two officers who fired their guns were Mark Molina, a 19-year veteran of the department, and Gary Rosebeck, an eight-year veteran, Dugan said.
No officers were injured, and both Molina and Rosebeck are back on duty.
The video shows officers yelling and going up to the man after the shooting, repeatedly ordering him to roll over. Officers arrive to where the man is lying and roll him over and restrain him while another officer retrieves a first-aid kit to treat the man before paramedics arrive.
For more than two years, officers have used kits that are similar to those used by the military in battle to save lives. They have used these kits 180 times, mostly on the public, and eight times in officer-involved shootings, said Capt. Eric Kazmierczak.
Capt. Chad Kasmar, chief of staff, said the department applied Monday for a federal Bureau of Justice Assistance grant totaling $500,000 to help secure 300 additional body cameras.
The videos released will eventually be used in training at the police academy, said Capt. Fabian Pacheco.
