Source San Antonio Express-News
SAN MARCOS, TX — Police officials on Friday released body camera footage of a San Marcos officer fatally shooting Malachi Williams in an H-E-B parking lot, days after a grand jury declined to indict the officer.
Officer Alcides "Alex" Ventura shot Williams, 22, about 10:35 p.m. on April 11 after a quarter-mile pursuit from a nearby Snax Max convenience store, San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge said. Police officials had previously declined to release Ventura's name.
Standridge said Ventura made the decision to shoot at Williams as he approached the grocery store because Williams was carrying two knives, he believed he posed a threat to the safety of at least 10 people in the parking lot, and because he thought Williams had an intent, capability and opportunity to cause harm. Standridge said two large knives were found near Williams after the shooting.
"Considering the totality of the circumstances, the officer made the split-second decision to end what he perceived as an imminent — meaning going to occur unless I do something — imminent threat to serious bodily injury or death to others."
Williams' family members have said he was not threatening anyone at the time he was shot. His grandfather, Wayne Miller, on Friday questioned police officials' statement that Williams was carrying knives as he fled.
The video released Friday by police shows Ventura first speaking with Williams inside the store; there is no audio for the first 30 seconds due to the body camera technology, Standridge said.
The interaction took place about an hour after two people called 911 and reported a man, who police later identified as Williams, had followed them from the convenience store and threatened them with two knives, Standridge said.
Ventura was one of the responding officers, and began searching the area for Williams, Standridge said. He saw Williams enter the store, parked and followed him inside, Standridge said. He said Ventura "knew the suspect was armed with two knives and he had already committed two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, which is a felony."
In the video, Williams is seen walking from the back of the store toward Ventura, first with his hands by his sides, then holding them in front of him. The first sound on the recording is Ventura telling Williams to put his hands behind his back as he reaches out toward Williams, who asks why.
Ventura repeated the order, and Williams responded "I thought we were cool, bro." Asked whether Williams and Ventura had interacted previously, Standridge said the department had no records of that.
When Ventura told Williams to put his hands behind his back a third time, Williams asked "you going to shoot me?" Ventura said no, and repeated the order.
After ordering him two more times, Ventura is heard saying "let's go outside," and the two walked outside the store.
Once outside, Williams ran. Ventura chased Williams for just under one minute, past several businesses and into the parking lot of an H-E-B gas station. During the pursuit, he's seen holding a Taser. Standridge said Ventura attempted to use it twice, both times unsuccessfully, either because he missed or because Williams was more than 25 feet away, which is out of the device's range.
Standridge said Ventura reported that Williams pulled out two knives and began carrying them as he ran past Marco's Pizza, before reaching the gas station. As Williams ran past the fuel pumps further into the H-E-B parking lot, Ventura fired three shots. Williams continued moving, and is briefly out of view of the camera behind cars. The video shows Ventura approaching Williams as he lies on the pavement.
Two shots struck Williams in the back, Standridge said. He said a third shot may have hit the pavement then the underside of a car.
About 8 seconds after firing the first shot, Ventura says "shots fired" into his police radio, then "send EMS" about 12 seconds after that. He stands holding his gun pointed at Williams on the ground for about 19 seconds before the video ends. Standridge said a fire marshal who is a certified paramedic provided aid within one minute; however, that video was not released.
Standridge said the decision to not release that was made in order to be sensitive to Williams' family.
He said police found two kitchen knives, one with an 8-inch blade, in a grassy median next to a shopping cart corral. He said he believes Williams dropped the knives after he was shot.
Standridge also presented security camera footage from H-E-B, which he said shows that at least 10 people in moving vehicles were "at risk of serious bodily injury or death."
Asked why Ventura allowed Williams to leave the store instead of continuing to speak to him inside, Standridge said Ventura wanted to "give distance" as a way to de-escalate the situation and to leave a setting where there were "a host of variables that you cannot control," such as other people inside the convenience store.
"I'm actually appreciative of his decision," Standridge said. "There's no way he could have known the suspect would go outside, eventually flee and arm himself."
He said Ventura decided to shoot at Williams as he ran away from the officer because of the potential risk to people in the surrounding area.
Standridge read Friday from an affidavit filed by Ventura, in which the officer wrote: "I was concerned for the safety of the citizens in the parking lot and the grocery store due to the suspect actively running toward that direction with two large knives still in his hands. I was worried that the suspect was going to harm a civilian and that I had to prevent that from occurring."
Williams' family was provided a link to view the video Friday morning, shortly before it was released publicly, Standridge said.
He said his first contact with Williams' mother and grandfather was on April 27, and said he has been in contact with their attorney since then.
Standridge said Williams' family members indicated their first availability to view the video would be in September, and that the city decided to release it Friday rather than wait.
Miller, Williams' grandfather, disputed that claim, saying Standridge "makes promises and takes it away." He said Standridge pushed the family members to view the footage between Wednesday, when the grand jury declined to indict Ventura, and Friday. Williams' mother is out of the state and won't return until September, Miller said.
After Friday's news conference, an officer invited Miller to meet privately with Standridge. Miller asked that Standridge come outside and speak with him in front of media. Standridge declined.
Miller also challenged Standridge's narrative of the pursuit, asking how his grandson would have been able to pull two large knives from his pockets while continuing to run.
"Get something, put it in your pocket and run with it and see how your dexterity is," he said. "See how you're going to be able to pull those knives out of your pockets, or out from somewhere next to your body while you're running at a full pace. It doesn't make sense, doesn't add up."
"As of yet, we have not received the full truth," Miller said.
"This has to stop," he said. "We cannot continue to let our citizens be murdered and the person that murders them go free."
Ventura was placed on leave following the shooting, but returned to work a few weeks later, Standridge said previously.
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