SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - The San Diego Police Department released new body camera and surveillance footage of a deadly shooting that occurred on April 4th in the Stockton area.
According to the video, the surveillance footage which started just before 10 a.m. that day details what happened leading up to the shooting. Police said someone reported seeing that 20-year-old Kevin Gonzalez had allegedly pointed a gun at someone. Once officers arrived on the scene, they found Gonzalez inside of a car and a woman outside of it.
The video shows officers ordering them to raise their hands. The woman complied with the commands from officer but Gonzalez stayed inside the car.
San Diego Police said in the released video that officers negotiated with Gonzalez for roughly 40 minutes.
“It was amazing that they tried to negotiate for 40 minutes,” Kevin LaChapelle, a law enforcement expert, said.
LaChapelle is a former police officer and a criminal justice professor at National University.
ABC 10News asked him to review the video for his expert insight on the situation.
The video shows some tense interaction during the negotiations between officers and Gonzalez.
San Diego Police said less-lethal options were prepared to deescalate the situation. An officer fired pepper balls into the driver’s side window. Shortly after that, a barrage of gunfire erupted from the five officers and a sergeant on scene at Gonzalez.
In the video, a slowed down section by the San Diego Police shows what the department say was Gonzalez displaying a firearm which appeared to a revolver before officers fired.
Gonzalez was shot and taken to a local hospital where he died.
Given the amount of shots that were fired, ABC 10News asked LaChapelle was this standard or typical amount of shots to fired in this kinds of situation.
“You’re firing until you neutralize the threat. In other words, if that gun is still up, you’re firing until that gun goes down; until the person is neutralized,” LaChapelle said. “The challenge is an officer is focused on what they are doing. You hear all of those rounds is because there are multiple officers trying to neutralize the threat.”
Police also revealed the gun that was flashed by Gonzalez was a BB gun that did have realistic appearance.
We asked LaChapelle how difficult it is to tell the difference between a BB gun and real firearm given what reportedly found at the scene in the video shared by police.
He said it’s incredibly difficult.
“Because that absolutely looked like a real revolver and, you know, it’s unfortunate,” LaChapelle said. “Then the officer has to deal with that. But I think most officers are able to understand that nobody would ever know that that’s a BB gun. The bottom line is that would be a threat to anybody.”
Police said the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office will be reviewing the incident.
