Four law enforcement officers in Houston have been fired after it was determined they used an unreasonable amount of force in a fatal shooting last April.
Houston police Chief Art Acevedo announced the firings after body camera footage showed that officers shot 27-year-old suspect Nicolas Chavez 21 times after a 15-minute exchange in which they attempted to stun Chavez through the use of a taser.
“I believe that anyone that watches this tape and sees this will see they had a lot of opportunities and a lot of other options readily available to them that we, as long as I’m the police chief of this city, I will expect my officers to take,” Acevedo said at a news conference on Thursday.
More than 20 officers were at the scene after emergency calls described an emotionally disturbed man running around with a metal object.
Acevedo said that only three of the 21 shots fired into Chavez were “objectionably reasonable” and claimed that review of the video footage showed that officers had “other options” available to arrest Chavez.
The firings come at a time in the United States when intense scrutiny has been placed on the interactions between law enforcement officers and people of color. Acevedo said he could not defend the actions taken by the officers.
“Let me be clear: It’s objectively not reasonable to utilize deadly force when a man’s already been shot multiple times, has been tased, has been on the ground, has shown that he really cannot get up,” Acevedo added. “I cannot defend that.”
The officers fired were Sgt. Benjamin LeBlanc, who discharged two of the 21 shots and Officers Patrick Rubio, who discharged six shots, Luis Alvarado, who discharged seven, and Omar Tapia, who discharged six.
