On the eve of the 30-year anniversary of the L.A. Uprising, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) released video footage of an LAPD officer shooting Jose Barrera, a 45-year-old man holding a cell phone, last month in South L.A.
In an edited video released by the department, a 911 caller tells a dispatcher in Spanish, “There is a man here with a handgun and he pointed it at people.” The caller describes Barrera as a 20-25 year-old man wearing a black shirt and hat. “I am looking at him and he is pointing it at people,” the caller says later. “I am watching him. He takes it out and points it at people then he hides it again.”
Later in the call, when the dispatcher asks if Barrera is holding “a small handgun,” the caller responds, “I don't know but it looks like… I passed next to him and it looked like it had a base, but I don’t know what it could be.”
Digital in-car video from a patrol car, as well as body-worn camera footage, shows LAPD Officer Tatiana Bohorquez driving while her partner, Manuel Rios, sits in the passenger seat, as they both receive information over their police radio. “He does have a handgun and he’s firing at a house right now,” an officer says over the radio.
Later, Rios spots Barrera walking west on Martin Luther King Blvd. “You might have to shoot, you might have to shoot,” Bohorquez says anxiously as they pull up to Barrera, while Rios lets the passenger side door of the car hang open and he clutches his pistol.