New Video Shows Man Had Both Hands In Air When Fatally Shot By Cops

A grand jury voted this week not to indict the officers.

A bystander's video newly released by Texas authorities this week shows that a man who was killed by police in August had both hands raised in the air before being shot.

On Wednesday, a grand jury voted not to indict the two Bexar County officers involved in the killing of 41-year-old Gilbert Flores in San Antonio, NBC News reported.

Police responded to a domestic disturbance call on Aug. 28. On a recording of the 911 call obtained by local TV station WOAI, the suspect's mother says her son has gone "crazy" after assaulting his wife. In the background, Flores can be heard suggesting "suicide by cop."

"I got a knife and I'm gonna suicide by cop," Flores says on the recording. "So you better bring a SWAT team or whoever, gonna get ready to pull the trigger because I'm going to die today."

Gilbert Flores
Gilbert Flores
Bexar County Sheriff's Office

The day Flores was shot, bystander Michael Thomas released video he took of the incident, in which a shirtless Flores can be seen with at least one arm raised in the air and the other obscured by a pole. The new video, released Friday, shows that Flores had both hands raised in the air when officers Greg Vasquez and Robert Sanchez opened fire on him.

"After he put his hands in the air, they shot him," Thomas told KSAT the day of the shooting.

Bexar County Sheriff Susan Pamerleau, who previously lambasted KSAT on Facebook for releasing Thomas' video, said a crime lab analysis of the footage shows Flores was holding a knife at the time, WOAI reported.

Flores' family has filed a civil suit against the police department.

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