By Police1 Staff
TRINITY, Texas — The Trinity Police Department has released footage that shows how quickly a traffic stop can escalate into a dangerous situation for officers and how different a situation can look depending on the perspective, KHOU reported.
The videos posted on the department’s YouTube shows two perspectives of an Aug. 29 traffic stop — one from an officer’s body camera and another from a dash cam.
The first video, a dash cam, shows the reason for the stop: the driver didn’t have his headlights on at night. The officer, identified as Wheeler, appears to talk to the driver for a moment before drawing his gun and pointing it at him.
“Based on the dash cam video, you might assume that Officer Wheeler is being overly aggressive towards the driver for no reason,” the department wrote on YouTube. “If Officer Wheeler would have shot the driver, it could have sparked an outrage based on that limited view.”
Officer Wheeler’s body cam shows another perspective. Wheeler is seen approaching the driver’s window and telling him his headlights are off. When Wheeler asks for a driver’s license, he spots a gun in the passenger’s seat.
“Is that a real gun right there?” Wheeler asks the driver.
As the driver reaches over to grab the gun, Wheeler draws his service weapon and tells the man to not touch it. The driver immediately puts his hands in the air and Wheeler has him step out of the vehicle.
“If (the officer) would have shot him people would have argued ‘He shot him in cold blood, he didn’t even do nothing,’ versus this you can clearly see what the gentleman has done,” Trinity Police Chief Steven Jones told the publication. “We’re able to show ‘Look what Officer Wheeler was facing.’”
The department hopes the videos give people pause the next time they read about an officer-involved shooting or see a video with limited perspective.
Chief Jones praised Officer Wheeler for his de-escalation of the situation.
The driver had a warrant for his arrest. He was charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon, possession of controlled substances, bringing a prohibited substance into a correctional facility and tampering with physical evidence.