Man killed by Raleigh police was shot multiple times on the ground, activists say

A week after Raleigh police fatally shot a man following a crash on Interstate 440, activists released new details they say they’ve uncovered about the shooting.

Community advocates from Emancipate NC said 43-year-old Daniel Turcios, a native of El Salvador, was severely disoriented by the crash, in which his car flipped multiple times. He was rendered unconscious in the crash for some time and had a limited comprehension of English.

At a news conference Tuesday, they pushed back on the idea that Turcios may have been intoxicated, as Police Chief Estella Patterson said last week 911 callers had indicated.

“(He) woke up extremely confused and disoriented, so confused and disoriented that he didn’t even respond to his wife when she spoke to him,” said Kerwin Pittman of Emancipate NC.

Pittman said eyewitnesses supported their suspicion that Turcios was shot multiple times, even after he had fallen to the ground.

Dawn Blagrove, executive director of Emancipate NC, said a medical report given to the family “clearly indicates that (Turcios) was shot multiple times.”

Pittman showed a longer video of the shooting on a laptop to reporters and pointed out parts of the video in which he said Turcios was shot again on the ground by the same officer who shot him first.

Raleigh police have not said how many times officers fired their weapons or how many times Turcios was shot.

Patterson said last week that when officers arrived, they found Turcios carrying a knife that he refused to drop.

As he walked away, an officer used a Taser “to try to defuse the situation,” and officers moved to try to subdue him.

A video recorded by a witness showed Turcios shot moments later, as he tried to get up.

Patterson said police shot Turcios after he “swung a knife at officers.”

During a presentation on other police matters to the Raleigh City Council Tuesday afternoon, members asked Patterson briefly about the shooting.

Council Member David Cox, who did not refer to the I-440 shooting explicitly, asked Patterson when officers switch from using a Taser to using a gun.

“Obviously, Tasers have a much greater likelihood of not resulting in death, and so I would like to get clarification on that,” he said.

“Just in a nutshell, Taser, you’re absolutely right, is a less lethal weapon,” Patterson said. “It is used when a person poses a threat, but it’s not a lethal threat necessarily. So we transition to a deadly weapon when there is a lethal threat.”

“When there’s a situation that could be lethal, having a Taser is an option you can use, but with that option you also have to have lethal coverage for that,” she added.

In response to Council member Nicole Stewart’s asking when the police department’s initial findings on the shooting would be filed, Patterson said a report had been completed and would be sent to the city manager on Wednesday.

Knife did not justify shooting, director says

Blagrove acknowledged that Turcios “had a very small pocket knife” but emphasized that did not justify police shooting him.

“Let us be clear that (the knife) is being used to manipulate the tragic outcome,” she said. “Whether (Turcios) had a thumb pin or a kitchen knife ... he was not wielding (it) crazily trying to attack anyone.”

“He was walking, tased, falls to the ground ... and is murdered in front of his family,” she added. “That is the story here. That is what matters.”

Addressing reporters in Spanish, Rosa Jerez, Turcios’ wife, said her children were yelling at the officers not to kill their father.

“They murdered him in front of my children, in front of me,” Jerez said in Spanish. “He wasn’t doing anything to (the police.) I told them to leave him alone because he wasn’t doing anything; they didn’t listen to me! And he didn’t understand anything they told him. My children screamed at them not to kill him. They murdered him as if he was a dog. They didn’t care about him at all.”

Turcios, who immigrated from Olomega, a small town in southeastern El Salvador, migrated to the U.S. in 2003, his wife told The N&O.

He worked as a handyman building and fixing kitchens, bathrooms and chimneys and doing other construction-related work, she said.

Raleigh police report expected soon

The family of Turcios and Durham Rapid Response also attended the news conference, which came in anticipation of a new report detailing the Raleigh Police Department’s initial findings on the shooting.

The police department previously said it would send those findings to the city manager “within five business days.”

The News & Observer has requested a copy of the report.

Blagrove said Emancipate NC did not know what the report would contain.

“If history tells us anything, it is going to tell us that the police are not capable of policing themselves,” she said. “And we need independent, objective individuals to investigate police-involved shootings and any allegations of police misconduct, for that matter.”

Emancipate NC called for a criminal investigation at the Tuesday news conference.

The State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting and will send its findings to the Wake County district attorney, which is the Raleigh Police Department’s procedure when police shoot someone.

“It is our intention to help this family get accountability and get closure,” Blagrove said. “If this was a preventable death, then we want someone to be held accountable.”

She added it’s “too early” to say whether they would consider suing the police.

Raleigh police have not released details about the crash that led to the shooting.

4th fatal shooting this month

It was one of four fatal shootings this month by Triangle law enforcement officers.

Jan. 4: Durham County Sheriff’s Office deputies fatally shot a 28-year-old woman in Bahama after they say she pointed a shotgun at them and refused to drop it.

Jan. 12: Durham police officers killed a 51-year-old man they say was “violently assaulting” a store clerk with a sharp object.

Jan. 14: And on Friday a man in custody of the Durham Police Department at Duke University Hospital was fatally shot by a Duke police officer after university officials say the man attacked and injured an officer and took the officer’s loaded gun during a medical evaluation.

Raleigh officers were wearing active body cameras during the I-440 shooting on Jan. 10, according to the police department. The department said last week it will petition for the release of the footage, but a judge will ultimately decide whether and how the public will be able to view it, per North Carolina state law.

When asked about the shooting of 37-year-old Jason Walker by an off-duty Cumberland County Sheriff’s deputy in Fayetteville earlier this month, Blagrove said law enforcement officers have “an outsized amount of power in any interaction.”

“Whether they are on duty or off-duty, there is a culture within law enforcement of entitlement,” she said. “That is what we have to fight.”

This story was originally published January 18, 2022 at 11:05 AM.