Fullerton officers fatally shot man who disregarded orders to drop his knife, body camera video shows

Footage from several Fullerton Police Department officers’ body cameras released Wednesday provides new information on a May 3 police shooting that left a man dead after he disregarded officers’ orders to drop his knife.

Fullerton police said in the “critical incident” briefing that an officer stopped on the 2200 block of Commonwealth Avenue after he saw two men struggling near a truck at around 9:30 p.m.

One of the men was carrying a stick and another was carrying a knife, police said. The officer yelled at the men to drop what they were carrying, and the man with the stick dropped it. The man with the knife, identified as Jesus Estrada Leon, 26, of Fullerton, was sitting in the truck and did not drop the knife.

Body camera footage showed the officer yelling at Leon to get out of the truck and put the knife down. He did this while pointing his gun at Leon.  The man who had dropped the stick got down onto his knees after other officers arrived.

Footage showed Leon got out of the truck and waved the knife around. When Leon got out of the truck, the man who previously had the stick stood up and ran away from Leon and toward other officers.

Leon walked toward the middle of the road and toward the man and officers. When he did that, body camera footage showed one officer shoot Leon with a bean bag gun, followed by at least one other officer shooting Leon.

Authorities said in a statement that Leon was shot with a bean bag gun twice. It wasn’t immediately clear how many times he was shot with live rounds, but body camera footage showed one officer reloading after shooting Leon.

Police said CPR was given to Leon after he was shot, and he was also given a tourniquet.

Leon died of his injuries after he was transported to a local hospital.

In all, the body camera footage from five officers was shown in the critical incident briefing

An investigation revealed that Leon and the man he was in an altercation with were relatives, and Leon was attempting to carjack his relative while armed with a knife, police said. Fullerton police also said Leon had previously been convicted of a narcotics violation, theft, robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. He was on parole and probation. He also had an active arrest warrant in Nevada.

The footage of the incident can be found here.

“All officers involved with this incident have returned to work and are working their regularly assigned duties,” police spokesman Sgt.  Eric Bridges said.

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is investigating the incident to determine if the officers acted lawfully.