Full Video of Salinas Police Shooting Latino Man (GRAPHIC)

May 21, 2014
7:57 AM

The following video is raw, but speaks for itself. It has gone viral, having been deleted from Facebook, but eventually showing up on YouTube. It happened on May 20 in Salinas, California. It shows two police officers chasing what appears to be an unarmed man. Eventually the police officer fire shots at the man, killing him.

Local Salinas media reported that the man shot was carrying garden shears. The reports say the man was Latino, and that he was allegedly trying to break into a home.

The local report continues:

…they told the man to drop the shears in both English and Spanish and that he refused to comply and began waving them around. They say officers attempted to use a stun gun but it was not effective.

As the suspect continued to ignore the orders of the officers, police said the suspect retrieved the gardening shears from his backpack. The suspect reportedly swung the gardening shears at the officers in an aggressive fashion. Police said those officers were in danger of being stabbed or slashed. In response to this threat, two officers fired their weapons at the suspect.

(H/T Tony Rico)

You can read more at Al Jazeera English.

For the full text of the Salinas PD statement, go here. In addition, the Salinas community saw protests late Wednesday night.