Video: Suspect Pulls Gun on Dallas SWAT Unit During Drug Operation
What to know
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A Dallas SWAT officer fatally shot a 26-year-old man during a federal drug warrant operation after police said he opened a door and pointed a firearm at officers.
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The officer was placed on administrative leave as Dallas police and the Dallas County district attorney investigate the shooting.
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Authorities said drugs, including methamphetamine and fentanyl-laced pills, along with a stolen firearm, were recovered from the residence, and two infants inside were released to their mother.
By Chase Rogers
Source The Dallas Morning News
Dallas police on Monday released edited body-camera footage of a federal drug operation in West Dallas, showing the moments before a Dallas SWAT officer fatally shot a man the city’s chief described as a known drug dealer.
The shooting — the Dallas Police Department’s fourth this year and third this month — occurred as Dallas SWAT officers, working with Lewisville police and the Drug Enforcement Administration, executed a search warrant Friday morning at a home in the 1000 block of Shaw Street.
Before the shooting, the man inside the home opened a door and pointed a firearm at the SWAT team outside, prompting an officer to fire, Dallas police Chief Daniel Comeaux said during a news conference at Jack Evans Police Headquarters.
Comeaux took reporters’ questions after the footage was shown. He was joined by Lewisville police Chief Brook Rollins and Joseph Tucker, the DEA special agent in charge of the Dallas area.
The SWAT team’s medic rendered aid, but the man, identified as Matthew Leija, 26, died at the scene. Rollins declined to say whether investigators knew Leija might be at the home, citing the need to protect confidential sources used in the lead-up to the operation.
The officer who fired, Senior Cpl. Elias Wells, was placed on administrative leave pending investigations by Dallas police and the Dallas County district attorney’s office. He joined the department in July 2015, records show.
Body-camera footage released by the department shows officers jumping from an armored police vehicle on Shaw Street and moving quickly to clear a single-story home and a detached two-story structure behind it.
Before moving to the two-story structure’s exterior stairs, SWAT officers encountered two barking dogs. Officers called for flash-bang devices — diversionary explosives that create a loud noise and bright flash meant to disorient — to subdue the animals, the footage shows. Comeaux said the flash-bang was effective.
One officer yelled “police” as other officers reached double doors on the second floor, the footage shows. One of the doors then swings open, and Leija appears holding a firearm in one hand, with the muzzle pointed outside.
A number of people inside the home were identified as Leija’s family members and were detained for interviews with the DEA, Comeaux said.
After the shooting, SWAT officers found two infant children inside the building. Child Protective Services was called, and the children were later released to their mother. Leija was their father, Comeaux said.
Comeaux said officers recovered a “variety” of drugs, including methamphetamine and pills laced with fentanyl. The police chiefs did not specify how much of each drug officers found in the home.
A firearm reported stolen out of Irving was recovered from the home, police said. Marijuana was also seized.
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