[News] Footage shows moment unarmed black man was killed by police after his family called for psychiatric assistance

An unarmed Black man was shot and killed outside of his home in front of his family and footage of the incident has now been released.

 

Ring video doorbell footage captures the final moments of Patrick Warren’s life, when a cop in Killeen, Texas, responded to the family’s call Sunday, Jan 10.

 

In the video, the officer rings the doorbell and is briefly allowed inside the home, but then says he’s going to walk back outside.

 

Attorney Lee Merritt, who’s working with the family of the deceased, says Warren told the officer to leave.

 

Shortly afterward, Warren is seen walking outside toward the cop while waving his arms erratically. The officer tells him to stop and get on the ground, but Warren refuses.

 

As his family follows him outside, a Taser is deployed on Warren. Then, he gets up and continues to move toward the officer off camera. The officer then shoots 3 times. A family member screams at the cop, “I told you don’t use a gun!”

 

Warren later died at the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center.

 

 

Attorney Lee Merritt said the family first called for a mental health resource officer on Sat, Jan. 9, because Warren was having a mental health issue, the day before he was shot.

 

The Killeen Police Department sent a resource office on Saturday, who was able to speak with Warren. Warren voluntarily agreed to go to the hospital with the officer and returned home that Saturday night, according to Merritt.

 

On Sunday, however, Lee said Warren continued to experience mental health issues. So the family called and asked for a resource officer again. Instead of a resource office, a police officer was sent to the scene. Merritt said the officer, later identified as Reynaldo Contreras, was “hostile” and not equipped to handle the situation.

 

 

“He was not prepared to deal with the mental health crisis. He didn’t have any clear skillsets that could encounter the situation,” Merritt said. “He quickly escalated, almost the entire time, from the moment he entered the house until the moment of the fatal shooting.”

 

Warren was shot and killed by Killeen Police Officer Reynaldo Contreras, a 5-year veteran of the department, while responding to a call concerning a man having mental health issues on Sunday, Jan 10.

 

Merritt says the family “demands the immediate firing and arrest of the officer responsible for his death.”

 

The officer is currently on administrative leave while the Texas Rangers investigate the incident.