Dallas family says police used excessive force after 911 "medical call" ends in fatal SWAT shooting
The family of a Dallas man fatally shot by police on Tuesday during a SWAT standoff says officers used excessive force against him while he was in a mental health crisis, and they plan to explore legal action, even as police say he twice charged at officers with a knife.
Paul Benes said his Tuesday night 911 call for help during his younger brother's mental health breakdown ended in a preventable tragedy.
"It was a medical call, and it kept escalating, escalating," he said.
He said Dallas police checked on Martin Benes, a local attorney who, according to his family, had been drinking and trying to hurt himself.
Dallas Police Chief Comeaux said during a press conference Wednesday morning that officers were called to a house in the 13800 block of Far Hills Dr. Tuesday around 7:40 p.m., when a man was threatening people in the house and was threatening to harm himself.
"They said, 'Can you flick the lights and give us some indication that you're okay,' and he did that," Paul Benes said. "He turned on the porch lights. He flickered them and they basically said, 'This is pretty good, he's responsive, if you like, we can leave now.'"
Paul Benes said officers left but then returned about 10 minutes later.
"They were like, we want to involve SWAT and give them the ability to come and investigate," he said.
Dallas police chief talks about how events unfolded
Comeaux said Wednesday morning that when officers arrived at the scene, a woman and a man came out of the house. That's when the man charged at officers with a knife. Officers retreated, and the man went back inside the house, barricading himself.
Dallas police then called their SWAT team, which tried to take the man into custody, but Comeaux said the man charged at officers again with the knife. That's when he was fatally shot by officers, Comeaux said.
"They tried to use less-than-lethal force to take the suspect into custody," Comeaux said. "At that time, the suspect charged the SWAT officers with a knife and he was then shot."
"He had an active warrant. A felony warrant for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, family violence," Comeaux added.
Family says incident didn't justify fatally shooting the suspect
Earlier this year, Martin Benes had also been indicted for felony criminal mischief, accused of crashing a vehicle into a house, and was also charged with resisting arrest the same day.
"But he never had a court date, and those cases were most likely going to be dropped," Paul Benes said.
He said none of that justified what happened next.
"They went in there fully loaded, machine gun-looking things, and they went up there and then all we heard is three shots," he said.
Paul Benes said his brother died at the scene. He believes the law enforcement involved used excessive force.
"They cornered him like an animal, and he was holding a knife, highly trained individuals and that's the course of action they chose?" he said. "They should've had a de-escalation specialist, some medical professional on board, talking him down instead of going there with group force. How else was it going to end?"
The family now plans to hire an attorney to explore their legal options.