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Video: Police kill wanted man in downtown Dallas shootout

Bodycam video shows the armed suspect broke away from officers mid-arrest, leading to a fatal exchange of gunfire

fatal dallas officer involved shooting

Lynda M. Gonzalez/Staff Photographer

By Tom Steele
The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — Dallas police released body-camera footage Tuesday that showed the fatal exchange of gunfire between a wanted man and Dallas College officers Thursday.

Reginald Alexander Jr., 25, died from his wounds. A Dallas College officer, whose name has not been released, was wounded but has been released from the hospital.

The video released Tuesday includes more than 12 minutes of footage from one officer’s body-worn camera showing the incident from its beginning to the shooting, followed by about 45 seconds of footage from a second officer’s camera that shows only the shooting.

Officers at Dallas College El Centro Campus had noticed a car about 6:10 p.m. Thursday that was blocking the entrance to a parking garage in the 700 block of Elm Street, near Griffin Street.

The footage shows that a few minutes later, Alexander walked out of the 7-Eleven next door and got into the car while speaking to the officers, who asked for his identification.

The officers discovered after checking Alexander’s ID that there was a warrant for his arrest because Dallas County officials had sought to revoke his probation in a 2017 assault case.

At one point, one of the officers said to another, “He’s real nervous, and he’s already said that he don’t like the police” and suggested that Alexander might try to resist arrest.

About 10 minutes after they first made contact with Alexander, the officers told him to get out of the car and tried to take him into custody. While he was standing and facing the car, with his back to police, he appeared to struggle with the officers and refused to put his hands on the roof of the vehicle.

One of the officers then shouted, “He’s got a gun.” Another yelled, “Don’t do it, man.”

Seconds later, shots were heard as Alexander broke away from the officers. It is unclear who fired first, but the footage showed Alexander pointing a gun at police. The video released by police pauses and zooms in on Alexander at this moment.

Officers Rodrigo Garcia and Danny Mason fired their guns, according to Dallas police Deputy Chief Reuben Ramirez. Both have been placed on administrative leave, which is routine when officers fire their weapons in the line of duty.

Dallas police are investigating the shooting, and the Dallas County district attorney’s office is conducting a separate investigation.

Ramirez said it was the 10th shooting this year in Dallas that involved police, and the fourth of those involving a law-enforcement agency other than the Dallas Police Department.

(c)2020 The Dallas Morning News

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