Fullerton police release body-worn footage in death of man shot with ‘less lethal’ projectiles – Orange County Register

Police who deployed ‘less lethal’ bullets but killed a 50-year-old man earlier this month feared the man, wildly brandishing his belt and acting erratically outside a McDonald’s, could harm people at interior of the restaurant, according to a critical report. incident report released by the Fullerton Police Department on Friday, March 29.

The department also released body-worn camera footage.

Officers went to the McDonald’s restaurant located at 1341 S. Brookhurst Road, just south of Orangethorpe Avenue, around 3 a.m. on March 6 after a manager at the restaurant called and said two men were acting abusive. erratically near front doors, possibly under the influence of drugs. The manager expressed concern for the safety of colleagues who would soon arrive for the morning shift.

After officers arrived and unsuccessfully attempted to get the man to drop his belt and cooperate with them, a Taser was deployed twice to no effect, and a second officer fired five bean bag rounds on the man, the video shows. One of those bullets entered the man’s chest cavity, causing him to bleed profusely, Fullerton police Sgt. Ryan O’Neil said.

Officers applied a chest seal and attempted to help the man, the video shows. Officers also applied the pads of a defibrillator, but the machine gave a signal not to shock the man, O’Neil said.

The man, identified as Alejandro Campos Rios, 50, of Buena Park, was taken by paramedics to the hospital, but died.

The video shows the first arriving officer observing two men near the front door. Rios is shirtless, wields a belt, speaks English and Spanish and occasionally sings a jingle. Rios also appears to be fighting imaginary people and his behavior is “consistent with that of someone under the influence of drugs,” O’Neil said. Trash litters the artificial grass area around them, just to the left of the front door.

Officers did not know if the restaurant door was locked, O’Neil said.

The second man eventually complied with the officers, but Rios refused the officers’ orders to drop the belt and sit down.

After the officer identifies himself as police, Rios responds, “I don’t care (expletive). »

Other officers arrive and, for 10 minutes, attempt to defuse the situation and convince Rios to drop the belt, but he refuses and continues to swing the accessory back and forth and over his head.

The Taser-equipped officer uses a “warning arc feature” on the Taser, the video shows. Rios then begins to approach the officer with the belt as he deploys the Taser, which does not affect the suspect.