Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Four Houston police officers involved in the shooting death of a 27-year-old man experiencing a mental health crisis in April have been fired following an investigation that determined their discharging of 21 bullets during the incident to be "objectively unreasonable," Police Chief Art Acevedo said.
The officers were relieved of their duties following an administrative investigation into the April 21 shooting that resulted in Nicolas Chavez's death, Acevedo told reporters during a press conference.
The shooting occurred at around 9 p.m. when police responded to five 911 calls concerning a man, possibly suicidal, jumping before cars on the I-10 freeway.
During the roughly 15-minute incident, police attempted to calm the man and when that failed they used non-lethal bean bags and tasers to subdue him before discharging their weapons a total of 24 times, Acevedo said.
The police department released body camera footage on Thursday that shows a distraught Chavez in a vacant parking lot with a metal object in his hand.
In the footage, the first discharge of shots occurred when Chavez moves toward the officers, and one of them fires two bullets, striking the man.
The second discharge occurred when Chavez gets up from the ground and moves toward another officer.
These three shots were deemed "objectively reasonable," Acevedo said.
However, the third and final volley of 21 shots fired by the four officers was considered indefensible, he said.
The officers fired the shots after Chavez picked up a taser one of the officers had dropped during the incident.
"I don't consider them objectively reasonable, the general command does not consider them objectively reasonable and I believe that anyone that watches this tape and sees this would see that they had a lot of opportunities and a lot of other options available to them," he said.
Following an autopsy, the coroner identified a combined 29 entry and exit wounds, which includes those caused by bullet fragments, Acevedo said.
Acevedo said he found the 21 shots fired to be "inexplicable" as Chavez had shown he was unable to get up from the ground after having already been shot multiple times.
"I cannot defend that," he said.
An emotional Mayor Sylvester Turner told reporters that it was a difficult day, that they stand with the officers who risk their lives for the city and the decision to fire the four officers does not lessen their respect for the rest of the force.
"But the action being taken today does say in our city we hold everyone accountable, that there are consequences for certain actions, that every person, every person in our city has value and is important, whether they are healthy or whether they are vulnerable. Whether they are in substance abuse crisis or facing mental health issues," he said. "Everyone, every life is important."
Sgt. Benjamin LeBlanc and officers Omar Tapia, Patrick Rubio and Luis Alvarado were the four officers identified as having fired their weapons during the incident and have been relieved of their duties.
The Houston Police Officers' Union rejected Acevedo's decision to fire the officers as "unjust" and "deplorable" in its own press conference earlier Thursday, during which President Joe Gamaldi described the shooting of Chavez as tragic but justified.
Gamaldi defended the four officers by saying they did not want to shot Chavez and did "everything that everyone across this country are asking law enforcement to do."
"They de-escalated and retreated for 15 minutes," he said. "They used every non-lethal option available to them."
The shooting of Chavez occurred a month after George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, sparking protests nationwide against racial inequality and law enforcement reforms.
