Video shows moments unfold as man with fake gun shot by Sacramento police
A witness video shows the moments leading to Sacramento officers’ shooting of a man who police say brandished a weapon in the city’s River District on Tuesday.
Erik Dominguez of San Francisco was driving on North 16th Street for a mid-morning tournament at Capitol Casino when he was stopped by the scene playing out in front of him: The street was blocked by a police motorcycle and cruiser. Officers with weapons drawn faced off with the man as Dominguez recorded the scene on a cellphone from his car.
Officers shot the unidentified man when the man pulled the weapon from a pocket, moments after Dominguez began recording the ordeal.
Sacramento Police Department officials on Tuesday said the weapon the man allegedly brandished was an imitation handgun. In a statement Tuesday evening, officials said the man was hospitalized but was expected to survive. He will be booked into Sacramento County Main Jail on unspecified charges once he is released from care.
“I was in disbelief. I didn’t think it was real. It felt like it was a movie set,” Dominguez said a day after the incident, still somewhat shaken by the experience. “I’ve never even shot a gun before. It was shocking.”
The 69-second video viewed by The Sacramento Bee showed two uniformed Sacramento police officers, weapons drawn and facing off with the man in the 200 block of North 16th Street.
It was 9:14 a.m., Dominguez said, five minutes after the 9:09 a.m. call that brought police to the scene.
The man was seen briefly tugging at his jacket pocket before raising his hands and taking several quick steps toward the officers as they backpedaled, their weapons still pointed at him.
The man appeared to be walking in the middle of North 16th, hands raised in exclamation, as he called out to the officers. The words were unintelligible on the video, but Sacramento Police Department officials in a statement summarizing the incident said the man told officers to shoot him.
A motorcycle officer joined the two, his weapon drawn, as the man continued to walk toward them. The man turned away from officers at the 43-second mark, briefly pulled what appeared to be a gun out of the jacket pocket before returning it and walking again along a sidewalk toward the retreating officers.
The officers were out of frame, and the man was obscured by a tree when the three officers opened fire and the man fell to the ground. Six shots could be heard on the video recording.
Sacramento police on Wednesday afternoon said the man remained hospitalized in stable condition.
Officials in the Tuesday statement said Sacramento homicide detectives, internal affairs detail and professional standards investigators are reviewing the shooting along with the city’s Office of Public Safety Accountability and the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.
The Police Department, per state law and city policy, was expected to release video and audio of the incident to the public within 30 days.
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