Cop who killed deaf man in Oklahoma City placed on leave

The Oklahoma City police officer who fatally shot a deaf and nonverbal man Tuesday night was placed on administrative leave Wednesday while the Oklahoma City Police department investigates the shooting as a homicide.

Police initially arrived at 35-year-old Magdiel Sanchez’s house after following a vehicle from a hit-and-run down the street, and Sanchez, a suspect in the incident, was sitting on his porch. The officer at the house called for backup once Sanchez walked off the porch carrying a 2-foot metal pipe.

Sgt. Christopher Barnes, the second officer at the scene, shot Sanchez as he continued approaching the officers after they verbally commanded him to get on the ground and to drop his pipe.

Neighbors said they yelled “He can’t hear you,” but Captain Bo Mathews, a spokesperson of the Oklahoma City Police, said the officers did not know Sanchez was deaf.

Mathews, who formerly worked with the homicide unit, said an investigation is underway to determine if the shooting was justified. “It’ll take three to four weeks before the homicide case is completed by our unit,” Mathews told VICE News. “Our homicide unit collects every story, every witness. and all the information they can collect. And they present that in an as unbiased way they can to the Oklahoma District Attorney.”

The Oklahoma County District Attorney’s office will then review the evidence and decide whether to bring charges in the shooting, Mathews said, and then the case will return to the department, where they will internally investigate the shooting.

“This case is a criminal case,” Mathews said during a press conference Wednesday, since that is protocol for all fatal officer-involved shootings. “Sanchez came off the porch and started advancing toward the second officer who was there, and this will be Sergeant Barnes — Sergeant Barnes had a weapon drawn.”

Sanchez, according to the press release, was simultaneously tased and shot by two different officers at the scene, though only Barnes is on leave. While the department is currently working to increase the amount of body cams, neither officer who fired shots wore one — only those who came afterwards had body cams.

The only available footage is a cellphone video by a neighbor after the shooting, and it showed officers trying to provide medical aid to Sanchez. But he was pronounced dead at the scene in front of his parents’ house — his family does not believe the officer should have shot Sanchez and said they will hire an attorney.

“They killed an innocent man,” Julio Rayos, one of Sanchez’s neighbors, said. “He was never aggressive to nobody. He was a real nice guy. I don’t think he deserved to die like that.”

This is the fifth officer-involved shooting in the department this year, though not all incidents resulted in fatalities.