Four police officers involved in the shooting of a mentally sick father have been sacked after the death of the 27-year-old who was shot 24 times back in April.
The incident occurred in Texas where Houston police officers riddled 27-year-old Nicolas Chavez, who was a father-of-three, with bullets after he pulled a stun gun on them and refused to comply with their orders.
As seen in the footage from the time of the shooting, Chavez, who was mentally ill, slashed himself and cursed at cops as they approached him and attempted to get him to calm down.
In the graphic video, the 27-year-old was also heard telling the officers that he wanted to die.
After pulling out a stun gun and pointing it at the cops, Chavez was shot a total of 24 times and died on the scene.
“Was that necessary? Was that necessary? Oh, he’s dead, he’s bleeding. They just shot him to death. They killed him,” the witness recording the incident says as the man collapses to the ground.
Following months after the death of the father-of-three, four police officers involved in the shooting have been fired.
As Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said, he can’t defend the actions of the officers and the fact that they fired 21 additional rounds after the kneeling suspect had already been incapacitated by the first three bullets that had struck him.
“And I believe that anyone that watches this tape, that see this, would see that that they had a lot of opportunities and a lot of options readily available to them that as long as I’m the police chief in this city, I’ll expect my officers to take,” Acevedo said.
“You don’t get to shoot somebody 21 times because at that time when we discharge those 21 rounds Mr. Chavez was at this greatest level of incapacitation.”
While the police chief condemned the officers’ actions, police union president Joe Gamaldi claimed that “these officers did not want to shoot Mr. Chavez and did everything in their power not to.”
As he insisted, the officers involved used all other available options, including a taser, and were forced to shoot Chavez after he repeatedly refused to surrender and proceeded to point a stun gun at them.
What are your thoughts on this incident? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to SHARE this post with your family and friends!
Replaced!