New Video Shows Pasco Police Handcuffed Man Without Checking Pulse After Shooting Him

A second amateur video of Pasco police shooting an unarmed man who was throwing rocks shows that police didn’t check him for vital signs. Instead, they handcuffed him as he lay dead, face down on the sidewalk.

The man who Pasco police shot and killed was a Mexican apple picker, 35-year-old Antonio Zambrano-Montes.

The police shooting took place on February 10 and one video taken by Dario Infante Zuniga went viral within a couple of days. The second video, which was first broadcast by the local news station, KEPR-TV, shows the chase and encounter from a different angle and for a longer period of time after he is shot.

In the video, as Zambrano-Montes lays on the ground, several police officers approach his body, and without checking to see whether he is dead or alive, handcuff his hands behind his back. The video also includes audio of some of the dozens of bystanders yelling at police that the shooting was unjustified and that the man was unarmed.

KEPR analyzed the YouTube video to check the claim that he had something in his hand when police shot him. There have been numerous reports that Zambrano-Montes was throwing rocks, but police have not confirmed these details. A police special investigations unit only said that he did not have a gun or a knife.

The video analysis, done by Davis Wahlman, found that he did have something in his hand, though it cannot be clearly identified.

“We’ve all seen the video at the beginning, he has a rock, clearly, I think everybody would agree, he throws a rock at the police and then runs across the street,” said Wahlman in the KEPR analysis.

He goes on to analyze the video as police approach Zambrano-Montes and fire the first of several shots at him.

“… what is very important about this is that after those shots are fired, if you look at the video, something clearly drops out of his hand.”

When the video is analyzed frame by frame, something black falls out of Zambrano-Montes’s hand and falls to the ground.

At least two people took cell phone video from among the many people in the crowded intersection where Pasco police shot the man. The first video, which has already been widely circulated, appears to have been taken from inside a parked vehicle and includes no audio of bystanders. The second video is longer and includes audio of bystanders yelling in Spanish and English at police. One man can also be heard saying in Spanish that he recognized Zambrano-Montes.

The county coroner who oversees Pasco said that they are considering a possible inquest jury into the police shooting. According to the Seattle Times, that would be a rare move. The coroner’s inquest would address whether the police shooting was justified.

Coroner Dan Blaisdel told the Times that there is concern over public protests in the case.

“We don’t want another Ferguson here in Pasco,” he said about the potential fallout from the Pasco police shooting.

[Lead image via Shutterstock]