Video: Family feared man before shooting
The brother of a man shot to death by Houston police officers in February asked for him to be taken to a psychiatric hospital and said he worried the man would arm himself and hurt people inside the home, according to body camera recording released by police Wednesday.
The video, however, does not show the final moment of Jon Cuong Tran Le’s life or the knife attack that police say happened immediately before the shooting. The eightminute summary video of the incident includes a black and white slide that explains that state privacy laws prevent the department from releasing recording taken inside the house on Agarita Lane, unless the department received permission from the people inside the residence.
Recordings taken from outside the house show Le’s brother and mother telling two responding officers that he might hurt people, as well as a bloodied officer saying he’d been stabbed and receiving first aid for his wounds.
Police on Feb. 18 said Le was fatally shot and two police officers stabbed with a knife during the Saturday morning call to the west Houston home.
A member of Le’s family called 911 around 8:40 a.m. in the 13300 block of Agarita Lane, according to police.
When the officers arrived, Le’s brother came out of the house and told the officers Le was “sick” and had been going through a mental health crisis for a number of days.
“He’s mental, so you guys can’t leave him here,” the brother said. “There’s no possible way.”
The brother said Le’s family had been trying to get him help. The brother was worried about being seen talking to the officers and said he didn’t know was Le was “capable of.” The brother said Le had made their parents and grandparents sit on a living room sofa and had taken away their phones.
“I don’t know what you guys need to do, but you guys need to take him, get him into a pysch ward and we can handle the rest after that,” the brother said. The brother said Le wasn’t armed at the time, but that there was “stuff” in the house and that he didn’t want him to grab any weapons.
The video shows the officers speaking to Le at the door and then meeting with Le’s mother outside. During the conversation with the mother, she said there would be trouble if Le locked the door. The officers check the door, and it appeared to have been locked. The mother goes to the door with a key.
The video at that point stops and a card says what happened inside the home can’t be shown because of state privacy laws. The department said the Texas Occupational Code prevents law enforcement agencies from releasing body camera recordings made in a private space “without written authorization from the person who is the subject of that portion of the recording.”
A police spokesman Wednesday said the department sought permission from the property owner to release video from inside the house. The police didn’t receive that permission, the spokesman said.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner on the day of the stabbing said Le grabbed a knife as the officers were trying to deescalate the situation.
The officers tried to deescalate the encounter but the man grabbed a knife. He stabbed both officers, one in the jaw or neck area and the other in the chin, the chief continued. At some point, one of the officers opened fire and shot Le. He died at the home.
The video released Wednesday begins again as one of the officers run out of the house. People can be heard shouting in Vietnamese and a streak of blood covers the chestmounted camera. The officers shouts into his radio that he had been stabbed and fired his weapon. It goes on to show the officer receiving first aid.
The officers were treated at a hospital and released, police said.
Finner in February said Le had a history of mental illness. In the video, Le’s family said he had been treated in a hospital for mental health issues before and that he wasn’t taking any medications.
The police department regularly releases body camera video of fatal police encounters. The videos have shown the moments officers opened fire, and their actions in the minutes before and after the shooting. Every video also cautions that shooting investigations are in their “early stages” at the time of the public release, and that more evidence about the shooting could be collected and analyzed.