Police release video of officer-involved shooting

Seattle police have released a video of Wednesday’s officer-involved shooting in Des Moines.

It shows members of the U.S. Marshals Task Force, which includes Seattle Police and other law enforcement agencies, boxing in Francisco Luis Rodriguez with their cars as they attempt to take him into custody.

Rodriguez then opened fire and ran across the parking lot to the Safeway before police and a K-9 unit took him down, investigators said.

The video also shows a woman caught in the crossfire hiding behind a concrete pillar.

“It makes total sense to me and this is total protocol to take this guy down,” Jim Fuda said. Fuda is a law enforcement expert with more than three decades at the King County Sheriff’s Office. “The biggest threat here now is to the innocent public that are going about their day and this guy doesn’t want to be arrested.”

Fuda said Rodriguez escalated the situation the moment he pulled out his gun and fired at police. Then by running towards a crowded supermarket, officers had no choice but to pull the trigger. “Now comes and runs a guy in the middle of the store with a gun and cops after him, and they end up with a frickin’ gun battle in the middle of a grocery aisle,” said Fuda. “This is the far better scenario.”

Rodriguez was wanted on assault and kidnapping charges. Court documents state he attacked his girlfriend and forced her into his car.

The Office of Police Accountability told KIRO 7 that “OPA investigators and civilian staff were called out to the scene on the night of the [officer involved shooting]. After reviewing video and officer interviews, OPA has decided not to initiate an administrative investigation, as we did not observe any policy violations. If new information is brought to light and we think there was a potential policy violation, we can initiate an investigation at any time.”

VIDEO: New video shows moments before shootout at Safeway parking lot

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