Grand jury clears Texas police officer in deadly shooting, prompts protest
GRAPEVINE, Texas - The family of a North Texas man shot and killed by a police officer rallied Monday night with supporters after a grand jury cleared the officer.
CBS DFW reports that dash cam video from the Feb. 20 incident shows the moments before officer Robert Clark of the Grapevine, Texas, police department shot Ruben Garcia Villalpindo.
Clark was responding to a burglary report when he began following Villalpindo, according to the station. After a brief high speed chase, Villalpindo pulled over in Euless, Texas.
On the video Clark can be heard yelling, "Hey hey! Stay right there! Keep your ****ing hands out the window."
Villalpindo later says, "Hey I'm going to walk to you."
Villalpindo, his hands on his head, can be seen walking towards the officer, who yells "Stay right there." Just after Villalpindo walked out of view of the camera, Clark can be heard saying, "Get to the back of the car!"
Two shots can then be heard in the video.
A grand jury cleared Clark of wrongdoing Monday.
Grapevine police says the video shows Clark's actions were appropriate, but at the rally Monday night about two dozen people said the video told them a different story.
"He took too long he should have proceeded with the process of arresting him and put him in the vehicle," said Johnny Gomez, a former officer with the Dallas County constable's office.
Domingo Garcia, the attorney representing the family, says he suspects the video was tampered with.
"We believe this video has been edited or changed by the police department," Garcia said.
But Grapevine Police Chief Eddie Salame stood by Clark in a video posted on YouTube:
"Sadly, this is not the first incident where someone's judgement was impaired by alcohol and created a situation that led to their death," Salame said.