Police release body camera footage of deadly April SWAT standoff in west El Paso

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — The El Paso Police Department has released body camera footage of a deadly SWAT standoff in west El Paso in April.

EPPD released a video Friday that compiled several body camera videos showing brief but intense moments from the hours-long SWAT standoff that ended in an officer-involved shooting that killed 27-year-old Martin Herrera-Garces in April. 11.

The incident happened at an apartment complex located at 300 Skyview St., near Coronado High School.

RELATED:Suspect dies after SWAT standoff ends in officer-involved shooting

According to police, it all started when Herrera-Garces fired several shots from the balcony of an upstairs apartment.

After EPPD spokesman Officer Adrian Cisneros explains what body cameras are and how officers use them, the video shows an excerpt of a 911 call police received that evening around 6:30 p.m.

At this point, you can hear the caller describe how he heard 10 gunshots just minutes before.

Then the video shows how the patrol team that came to the call comes under fire. As the officer turns the wheel at the corner of Skyview Street and Pamlico Drive, you hear gunfire and then see the officer frantically jump out of his unit and run for cover from both his body-worn camera and its unit dashboard camera.

The EPPD spokesperson then says that by this point in the video, suspect Herrera-Garces had barricaded himself in the apartment, leading to an hours-long standoff with SWAT.

The video then shows camera footage taken later in the night.

The narrator describes that at this point, Herrera-Garces finally discharged his firearm, provoking a shootout.

In this new angle — from the vantage point of an officer standing outside his patrol unit, gun at the ready and aimed at an apartment complex — you can see what appears to be a bullet hitting the unit — inches from the officer’s weapon.

You can then hear a flurry of gunfire and the footage fades as an officer wearing a bodycam ducks for cover and car alarms blare in the background as a loud gunfight ensues.

Officers yelling at each other

are you ok are you ok Is everyone okay?!

Before another shot rang out.

The video then cuts to yet another officer’s point of view.

In this shot, during a flurry of gunfire, that officer appears to return fire before we hear the police announce:

He fell! He fell!

At the end of the video, SWAT officers can be seen approaching Herrera-Garces, who appears to be wounded and lying face down, handcuffed.

The video ends with EPPD spokesman Officer Cisneros explaining that the incident is still under investigation by EPPD’s Internal Affairs Shooting Investigation Team, Crimes Against Persons Unit and the Texas Rangers, saying:

Conclusions about whether the officers’ actions were in accordance with the law and department policy will not be made until all the facts are known and the investigation is complete.

Watch the full video below (viewer discretion recommended):

After the shooting, KFOX14/CBS4 spoke with witnesses who described what they saw and heard during the two tense hours.

Neighbor Blake Stevens said: “I remember hearing the police on the megaphone. He was talking to someone in one of the apartments behind my house. I assume he barricaded himself there. They tried to force him to come out.”

Another resident, Sam Stanford, said he heard police fire tear gas as they tried to chase the suspect out of the apartment, and later a woman he believed to be the suspect’s mother cried as the situation unfolded.

It was a sad situation because they were screaming, heard from his mother and everything from the suspect’s mother. She’s just here crying,” Stanford said.

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