‘It was just me and one of the bad guys’
Video shows deputy talking about shooting Salaythis Melvin
Orange County Deputy James Montiel took a couple phone calls and made small talk with the deputy driving him to a substation shortly after he shot Salaythis Melvin in the parking lot of the Florida Mall.
The footage of Montiel was among hours of additional video released Thursday in the Aug. 7 shooting. All of the newly public clips were recorded by deputies who responded to the scene after the shooting and none captured Melvin’s killing by the deputy.
“It was just me and one of the bad guys,” Montiel said on the phone, apparently talking to someone about the shooting.
Melvin’s killing has sparked outrage, with activists leading demonstrations at the mall calling for full transparency by the Sheriff’s Office and accountability for Montiel.
Attorneys representing Melvin’s family have also said they plan to sue the agency.
In another video, Vanshawn Sands — the man deputies were seeking to arrest on a warrant that day — told a deputy he was having trouble breathing, information the deputy relayed to a detective while laughing.
The deputy filming then talked with other deputies and a detective about who should ride to the hospital with Sands and Christopher Bennett. An unidentified detective said of Sands, “they’re probably going to want him handcuffed, and he’s a very bad guy.”
Throughout the video, a deputy referred to Sands and his friends as “pretty bad people” and “super bad people.”
Sands repeatedly asked a deputy why he was being detained.
“What’s going on?” Sands asked. “What’s the reason all this [is] happening. I’m just walking
out the store and y’all run at me. … Am I going to jail?”
“You’re definitely in custody right now,” the deputy answered.
“But for what, though?” Sands asked again. “Y’all got me in handcuffs detained and all I’m doing is walking out a store. Y’all laid me down, y’all shoot around me, everything — I’m just laying down.”
The deputy told Sands he was arrested under a felony warrant for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The warrant stemmed from a July 7 shootout, in which authorities said Sands, described as “second in command” in the 438 gang, fatally wounded a member of a rival gang.
Though records indicate Sands fired in self-defense, as a felon he was prohibited by law from having a firearm.
On Aug. 7 about noon, Montiel and other plain-clothed deputies converged on Sands, Melvin and two others as they left the Dick’s Sporting Goods. Melvin took off running. According to deputies, he had his hand on a handgun in his waistband.
An affidavit said Melvin ran from Montiel when the deputy exited an unmarked vehicle, and Montiel chased him.
At one point, Melvin “turned his head and started to face [Montiel] while still holding his firearm,” the affidavit said, prompting the deputy to shoot him in the back.
Melvin later died in a hospital. Deputies said the gun he had was stolen and loaded.
The only body camera footage released so far that showed the seconds before Melvin was shot came from a deputy driving toward Melvin, still about 50 yards away from him, captured through the windshield. Melvin was shown running through the parking lot, with no one immediately behind him for about 25 feet, when he fell to the ground mid-stride.
This week, Sheriff John Mina pledged that his agency would release “any video” it had from the shooting, but the Sheriff’s
Office denied a public records request from the Orlando Sentinel for surveillance camera footage from the mall’s parking lot, citing an exemption that protects the layout of security systems. The cameras on the building’s exterior are plainly visible.
The attorneys representing Melvin’s family said the agency has also denied their request for that video.
About 10 days after the shooting, OCSO released six bodyworn camera videos from Melvin’s killing, which it said in a statement at the time was “all of the body worn camera footage from this case.”
But on Wednesday, the agency released 10 new clips, saying in a statement that its records department was continuing to process “more than 10 hours” of footage captured by deputies’ body cameras.
There was no video from Montiel’s perspective, because Montiel, a member of the agency’s Juvenile Arrest and Monitor unit, was never outfitted with a body-worn camera.