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El Cajon Police Department Releases Video Of Fatal Police Shooting
Warning: some may find the above video disturbing.
The El Cajon Police Department has released two videos showing the fatal shooting of Alfred Olango on Tuesday. This comes after protests turned violent on Thursday night, leading to the arrest of two people.
The videos were shown at a press conference held by El Cajon Police Chief Jeff Davis, Mayor Bill Wells, and San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. The "escalating aggression" at the protests was what led the police department to release the video, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune.
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The first video was silent surveillance footage captured from the drive-thru of the Los Panchos restaurant, where Olango can be seen walking through the restaurant's parking lot when he is approached by Officer Richard Gonsalves. A gun can be seen in the hand of Officer Gonsalves as he interacts with Olango, and a second police officer can be seen responding to the scene shortly thereafter. Not long after the second officer responds to the scene, Olango is shot and he can been falling to the ground.
The second video (the clips are shown back-to-back in the video embedded above) is a shorter clip shot by a witness to the shooting, taken from a cellphone. In it, four shots can be heard followed by a woman screaming. In both videos, a bystander can be seen walking behind Officer Gonsalves and running for cover after the shots are fired.
Police say that Olango pulled a vape pen from his pocket and pointed it at officers before he was shot by Officer Gonsalves.
Officers responded to the scene on Tuesday afternoon after multiple 9-1-1 calls about a man behaving erratically and walking into traffic. One of the people that called police was Olango's sister. Olango's mother said at a news conference on Thursday that Olango was not mentally ill, but distraught over the death of a friend.
While El Cajon has a Psychiatric Emergency Response Team, or PERT, Davis said they were at another call during the time of the shooting.
Schools in El Cajon shortened their schedules on Friday over concerns of safety in the wake of last night's protests, and officials are urging businesses downtown to remain closed until at least Sunday.
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