Kansas City police Chief James Corwin released dashcam video of a fatal police shootout Wednesday after learning that a grand jury cleared the two officers involved in the shooting.
The video from the morning of Sept. 9 shows how dangerous police work can be.
Dozens of shots from two veteran Kansas City officers followed what seemed like a run-of-the-mill fender bender, with nothing to warn the officers of what they are up against.
"It is a wake-up call," Mike Perne, the night shift captain who was the officer's commander at the time, said. "It was just such a routine call."
Officer Eric Turner decided to offer backup to the responding officer, who was heading to a car into a tree in Isler Park in south Kansas City.
That first officer's dash-cam shows the short interaction, the driver of the crashed vehicle casually approaching, then calmly raising a handgun, pulling back its slide and firing.
A second view from the second officer's dashcam shows the first officer hit the ground, not shot, but taking cover behind his patrol car door.
The second officer runs forward to assist, while the suspect continues to point a gun at them even after he had been shot and fallen to the ground.
The driver, 36-year-old Exae Chavez-Gutierrez, died in the exchange. The officers, with 40 years combined experience, survived without a single gunshot.
Corwin commented today in his blog, saying, "I am releasing this video to show you the dangers KCPD officers face daily. We also are committed to being transparent. No officer ever wants to kill another human being, but as you can see in the video, sometimes they are left with no choice."
