Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Salt Lake police released body camera footage of Carlos Felipe Ocampo-Flores' arrest.
- Ocampo-Flores led officers on a high-speed chase, crashed, and was shot.
- He faces multiple charges; the district attorney will review the officer's use of force.
SALT LAKE CITY — As a Salt Lake police officer runs after Carlos Felipe Ocampo-Flores, Ocampo-Flores appears to be reaching for something in his waistband.
"Do not reach in your waistband," the officer yells at him in a video of the incident.
When the officer catches up to Ocampo-Flores, his right hand starts to rise above his head while his left hand remains near his stomach. The officer appears to trip and fall, and when he regains his bearings, Ocampo-Flores is seen standing nearby looking down at the officer with his arm still raised. The officer then fires three rounds.
On Tuesday, the Salt Lake City Police Department released four body camera videos from the May 12 confrontation.
That night, two Salt Lake police officers riding in the same vehicle attempted to pull Ocampo-Flores over about 11 p.m. near 600 W. North Temple for driving without headlights and speeding. Instead, Ocampos-Flores, 18, sped off, "traveling at a high rate of speed while southbound on 600 West, passing vehicles on the right shoulder," according to a police booking affidavit.
Charging documents note that near 60 South and 600 West, he "drove over the railroad crossing as its arms lowered, lost control, then hit eight parked vehicles" and a light pole.
He abandoned the truck a short time later, got out and ran. Officers searching a nearby field along the railroad tracks and spotted Ocampo-Flores about two blocks later near 100 South and 700 West.
"Hey, police! Stop!" an officer who runs after Ocampo-Flores along the tracks is heard yelling in body camera video.
Charging documents describe the officer catching up to Ocampo-Flores, "who reaches into his waistband. (The officer) commands Ocampo-Flores to stop reaching for his waistband, and Ocampo-Flores growls at (the officer). (The officer) then falls on his back while yelling, 'Move back, move back!' as Ocampo-Flores raises his right arm above his head as if he has a weapon in his hand and is preparing to attack."
After Ocampo-Flores is shot, he falls to the ground and can be heard yelling, "Alight" multiple times. But as officers continue to yell at him to show his hands, Ocampo-Flores exhibits odd behavior and yells back at the officer for them to "back up" and threatens to shoot them.
"I will get up. Back up," Ocampo-Flores is heard yelling.
He then threatens to have his people get the officers, even though no one else is around.
The officer who is holding Ocampo-Flores at gunpoint while backup arrives orders him several times, "Stop reaching or you're going to get shot again."
"I'm not reaching," Ocampo-Flores replies. "I'm not playing."
A second officer manages to walk around to the side of Ocampo-Flores and successfully deploys his Taser on him. At that point, officers rush onto Ocampo-Flores and attempt to put handcuffs on him as he continues to resist.
"I'll let you know everything," he repeats to the officers. "I'll give you guys everything."
"Yeah, I want your complacence, that's what I want," an officer his heard replying in the videos.
The officer who shot Ocampo-Flores tells his colleagues, "I'm not going off lethal," meaning he isn't going to holster his gun until the man is in handcuffs.
Police end up deploying a Taser twice on Ocampo-Flores. After being taken into custody, he was treated at a local hospital and moved to the Salt Lake County Jail when he was healthy enough. He was charged May 20 in 3rd District Court with failing to stop for an officer, a third-degree felony; assault on an officer and running from an officer, class A misdemeanors; nine counts of crashing and causing property damage, reckless driving, drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and interfering with police, class B misdemeanors.
Police have not said if Ocampo-Flores was in possession of a weapon. The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office will determine whether the shooting by the officer was legally justified.
