‘Do it!’ and ‘Don’t do it!’: Raleigh police release videos in fatal shooting at station
Police video released by the city of Raleigh on Thursday shows officers giving conflicting messages before fatally shooting a man who was throwing Molotov cocktails at them.
The city released 10 videos that showed the events leading up to and following the shooting of 37-year-old Reuel Rodriguez-Núñez on May 7 outside the Raleigh Police Department’s Southeast District police station on Rock Quarry Road. The videos include a summary video, as well as videos from officers’ body cameras, panoramic angles from police vehicles and security footage from the police building.
Police Chief Estella Patterson said last month that officers shot Rodriguez-Núñez after he continued to throw Molotov cocktails toward them. She said he did not follow repeated commands to stop throwing the flammable devices, and after he threw one in the direction of an officer, the four officers on-site fired at him.
Officers fired a total of 30 rounds, the police department has said. Rodriguez-Núñez succumbed to his injuries at a hospital. None of the four officers involved were injured in the incident.
The Raleigh Police Department petitioned for the release of the videos. A hearing was held May 26 in Wake County Superior Court, the city said, when an order was issued to authorize the release of the videos.
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the shooting, which is standard for officer shootings.
The Raleigh Police Department previously said six minutes elapsed from the first officer arriving at the station’s parking lot at 1:18 p.m., where Rodriguez-Núñez already had thrown the incendiary devices at two vehicles, to the fatal shooting at 1:24 p.m.
After he is shot, police officers handcuff him, and a knife is seen on the ground near him. Officers start administering CPR.
Here is a summary of what the video footage shows.
Security footage
The security footage from the building shows a broad view of the scene when Rodriguez-Núñez drove a silver van to the parking lot.
He gets out, throws a container of “bodily fluids” at the entrance of the station and then retrieves a cup with flammable liquid that he ignites and throws at a parked police SUV.
He then throws a separate projectile at a second vehicle in the parking lot, a personal car. Flames spurt out and then subside, but the fire in the car smolders for several minutes as Rodriguez-Núñez sits in the back of his van.
A police patrol car arrives in the parking lot several feet away, and Rodriguez-Núñez chucks three cups with the flammable liquid at it before a second patrol car arrives.
The roads were not closed at the time of the shooting, with police vehicle footage showing civilian cars driving by when shots were fired.
Body camera 1
In a video labeled Body Camera 1, an officer approaches the suspect with his hands up in a shrug.
“What’s going on, man?,” the officer asks the suspect. “What’s going on?”
That officer did not have a weapon drawn.
Rodriguez-Núñez can be heard in the video saying, “Today... is my day to move on.”
An officer can he heard saying, “Calm down brother, you don’t have to do this.”
Another officer repeatedly tells the man not to make any more Molotov cocktails.
“Don’t do anymore,” the officer says. “Don’t do anymore. Don’t do it. Don’t do it, bro.”
The man proceeds to fill more cups with flammable liquid and throws one at the officer closest to him.
Multiple officers fire at him as they close in, continuing to yell at him to put his hands up after he falls to the pavement.
Body camera 3
In footage labeled Body Camera 3, an officer pulls up as radio traffic says the suspect is “throwing Molotov cocktails at us.”
The officer, with his gun in his hand, runs toward the police station and stands closest to the suspect.
“Go ahead (expletive) do it,” he says. “Do it! Do it! Go a-(expletive)-head. Go right (expletive) ahead. Go ahead (expletive). Do it. Do it.”
A different officer says “put your hands up” as the officer on body camera 3 continues to say “do it.”
“Give me the go ahead,” the officer on body camera 3 says.
Multiple officers engage the man and command him to drop the Molotov cocktails, the footage shows.
“Take your hands out of your (expletive) pockets!” one officer shouts, along with “do not do it” and “Don’t do it (expletive), I’m done with you!”
Next steps
The city previously identified the four officers as Lt. M.F. Schabel, the first to arrive, and Senior Officer B.A. Beausoleil, Master Officer P.W. Coates, and Officer M.M. Oreskey, all of whom responded to a request for assistance from Schabel. All four officers have been placed on administrative duty, as is department protocol whenever an officer shoots someone.
In addition to the SBI investigation, an administrative investigation by the department’s Office of Professional Standards is also being conducted.
Police said the detective division is conducting a separate investigation into the Rodriguez-Núñez’s actions.
A family member of Rodriguez-Núñez previously told WRAL that he had recently been incarcerated and suffered from mental health issues.
Jasiel Rodriguez-Núñez, the brother of Reuel, told ABC11 last month that he believed his brother may have been protesting his treatment in county jail, where he had served for violations like assault on a government official and drug charges.
Jasiel Rodriguez-Núñez said he wishes officers had found another way to handle his brother’s behavior, according to ABC11, The News & Observer’s newsgathering partner.
Law enforcement officers have shot seven people in the Triangle area this year, all but one of them fatally.
Raleigh Police fatally shot 43-year-old Daniel Turcios in January following a crash on the side of Interstate 440. Police gave Turcios numerous commands to drop a knife he was holding. Police tased him, and after he lunged at an officer with the knife, another officer shot him.
This story was originally published June 2, 2022 at 1:29 PM with the headline "‘Do it!’ and ‘Don’t do it!’: Raleigh police release videos in fatal shooting at station."
