Bodycam footage shows the moment a Florida deputy shot dead an armed man, just moments after his brother had been fatally wounded by a suspect.
Bryan Richardson, 28, was standing next to his bleeding brother, 21-year-old Dylan Jimenez, and holding a gun pointing to the floor when he was fatally shot by an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy who had responded to a previous altercation between the brothers and a third man outside Heritage Hotel.
Deputies arrived at the scene of the 6 August incident around 12.30pm, after receiving reports that Mr Jimenez and the third man shot at and injured each other. Mr Richardson and Mr Jimenez reportedly ran to the hotel parking lot, where Mr Jimenez collapsed, police said in a statement.
Horrifying footage released by police on Friday shows a deputy preparing to render aid to Mr Jimenez, whose bleeding body is blurred and shown lying on the floor, before a woman screams, ‘He has a gun!,’ prompting the deputies to turn their attention to Mr Richardson. The unnamed officer then draws his gun and asks Mr Richardson to drop his.
Mr Richardson seemingly tries to appease the officers with a hand gesture and says ‘That’s my brother’ but within seconds, the male officer fires at least seven rounds at him. The brothers were transported to a hospital but died shortly after.
“They challenged that person, asked him to drop the gun. He refused to comply. One of the deputies discharged his weapon, striking the suspect,” Orange County Sheriff’s Office Undersheriff Mark Canty told NBC affiliate Wesh2.
The department said it was releasing the bodycam video in the interests of transparency and that the deputy who had killed Mr Richardson, who has been with OCSO since 2018, was placed on paid administrative leave following protocol.
“It is our policy to release bodycam video within 30 days of critical incident including deputy involved shootings. All officer-involved shootings are independently investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement,” Sheriff John Minna said in a statement.
An additional investigation by the District Attorney’s Office is also underway.
In the video, a witness yells “He has a gun pointing at people,” but when Mr Richardson is in the frame he appears to be shocked and his gun is pointing at the floor. A female deputy attempted to remove the gun before her colleague opened fire at Mr Richardson.
The third man involved in the altercation was also shot by Mr Jimenez but is expected to survive, the sheriff’s office said.
“Because the deputies were victims of aggravated assault with a firearm, they have availed themselves of Marsy’s Law, and their names are not being released,” OCSO said in a statement to The Independent.
