The Cheyenne Police Department released body camera footage Thursday from a March 8 officer-involved shooting between three officers and a man who reportedly held his wife hostage.
The footage is graphic and depicts a minutes-long standoff between an armed and anguished man, reported to be 47-year-old Patrick Flores, and Cheyenne police officers, followed by them shooting the man.
In the video, the female hostage calls Flores “Jesse,” after which the officer trying to negotiate with him also calls him Jesse.
CPD spokeswoman Alexandra Farkas said the department isn’t sure why the name “Jesse” was used.
“These situations are rapidly evolving — officers are given preliminary information when they arrive on scene and work with what they have,” she wrote in a Wednesday email to Cowboy State Daily.
A written timeline preceding the video says officers were dispatched to the 5200 block of Fishing Bridge, near the Cheyenne Workforce Center, at 6:18 the evening of March 8, in response to a report of a domestic disturbance.
Dispatch had told officers the suspect’s wife was screaming and the suspect was shooting a firearm, says the video caption.
What The Video Shows
The video opens to show an officer pointing his rifle and flashlight at the home while jogging up to its front door through a snowy driveway.
“Cheyenne police; open the door,” says another officer.
A woman screams and wails from inside.
“Kick it, let’s go!” yells the officer’s whose body camera is featured throughout most of CPD’s release.
The officer at the door starts donkey-kicking the door as the woman keeps wailing.
“It’s almost there it’s almost there,” encourages a female agent on scene.
The door gives way and officers enter — to a succession of gunshots.
A caption on the video says Flores was shooting his weapon from the staircase. The video slows to magnify what the caption says are two muzzle flashes from the upper half of the angled staircase.
Officers return fire.
“Hold back hold back!” yells a female agent.
Officers retreat briefly. The woman upstairs gasps and screams as officers plunge ahead once again into a heavily decorated home with a central set of angled stairs leading to an upstairs floor blocked from view by the ceiling and the camera angle.
The man upstairs yells a series of unclear words and profanities.
The officer behind the camera asks the woman who is upstairs with her.
“Flores” she calls down. “Jesse, please, why’d you do this? Please why, I don’t have a weapon!” She keeps repeating that she does not have a weapon and pleads for police to help her.
‘Just Talk To Me’
The officer behind the camera tells his dispatch radio that they have a hostage situation.
“Please don’t let him!” the woman screams.
“F***,” the officer whispers under his breath, before commanding Flores to come down. “Talk to me — hey, we’re not comin’ up, just talk to me.”
“No, I ain’t talkin’ to you, you’re a pig, f***in’ – “ Flores begins.
The officer, breathing rapidly, asks for a shield. He keeps calling up to Flores.
“I’ll bust you man, you keep comin’ up the stairs,“ answers Flores.
“We don’t want you to hurt her,” says the officer.
“I don’t want to hurt her either!” says Flores. “So f*** you!”
Glass shatters loudly upstairs, and the woman pleads for officers not to come upstairs.
Another officer asks Flores to let her go.
“Yes sir officer, anything for you sir,” says Flores, in an apparent tone of sarcasm.
The officer tells Flores they don’t want to hurt him and tries negotiating with him.
Flores tells the agents to go away quietly.
If he’ll let the woman go, they will back out of the house, the officer says, assuring Flores that his body camera is on.
“Get me a cigarette too!” says Flores.
“Call my daughter, please,” the woman pleads.
Cigarettes, Now
Agents in the background arrange to get cigarettes for Flores, who insists the officer take off his gun.
The officer declines to do that, asking instead for Flores to give up his gun.
The cigarettes arrive, and the officer throws the cigarettes up the stairs. The video slows to emphasize a bullet casing on the flat between the two levels of stairs.
“You know what it feels like when your old lady goes out with another dude?” asks Flores.
The officer says yes, he does know what that feels like.
Flores says he doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He demands agents shut off the light angling into his back window.
The officer tells them to turn off the light.
“Jesse, get the cigarettes,” says the officer.
Flores refuses, and officers arrange to get another pack of cigarettes to throw to him.
“Talk to me about how you’re feelin’ dude,” says the officer.
“Your voice feels close,” says Flores, who shouts down accusations that the officer is climbing the stairs.
The officer is not climbing the stairs, his camera shows.
“Quit makin’ them MOVES!” Flores shouts.
“Keep talkin’ to me, I’m the one that understands how you’re feelin’. I’ve been there,” says the officer.
Agents throw another pack of cigarettes up the stairs.
“Missed again, homeboy,” yells Flores, again dissatisfied with where the cigarettes landed. “Don’t shoot me; don’t f***in’ shoot me,” he adds.
In a flash of noise and light, agents fire their weapons toward the top of the staircase. The footage slows to magnify a blurry black outline between the upstairs banister pegs, which the caption says is a firearm gripped in Flores’ hand as he walks backward down the hallway.
“It’s pointed in the direction of the woman,” says the caption.
The video slows again to magnify another ill-defined image, which the caption says is the gun in Flores’ hand.
Flores was declared dead on scene; a handgun was found next to him, the caption says.
State Investigating
CPD turned the investigation over to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation for a third-party review, the caption says.
CPD also is conducting an administrative review of the tactics used to ensure they meet department standards.
The case was still under DCI investigation as of Thursday, the video says.
The introductory caption to the video notes that some audio has been muted to protect personal privacy and officer tactics. It advises viewer discretion.
The three officers involved are on administrative leave, lending time for their personal and emotional needs to be addressed and to assure the community the incident is being explored and verified, says the caption.
First DCI, Then District Attorney
After DCI compiles its investigative report on the incident, it will hand the report to either District Attorney Sylvia Hackl or to an appointed prosecutor.
The prosecutor will then have the responsibility of reviewing the investigation and deciding if the officers should be charged criminally or justified.
If Flores were alive, the prosecutor could also determine whether to prosecute him.
This case involves both a forced entry and an officer-involved shooting.
Courts have held that officers may enter a home without a warrant if there are “exigent circumstances” such as a risk of physical harm to someone inside the home.
Wyoming’s self-defense law says a person can use defensive force when a reasonable person in the same situation would judge deadly force necessary to prevent “imminent death or serious bodily injury” either to the person using deadly force, or to another person.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
