McALLEN — The police chief here commended one of his officers Friday for stopping what he said could have turned into a deadly situation after a man pulled out a loaded gun and ended up shooting himself during a struggle with police.
The shooting, caught mostly on dash-cam video, occurred Thursday evening near the 3000 block of Highway 83 in McAllen.
Police received a call about a man who appeared intoxicated and was later identified as Reynaldo Esquivel-Barrera. Police, however, say he may also be known as Ezequiel Barrera or Reynal Esquivel-Barrera.
According to McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez, each of those aliases have lengthy criminal histories. He said that once Barrera is fingerprinted, police will then be able to positively identify the individual.
The caller said the Barrera possibly had a gun and a knife. According to the police report, the caller said Barrera “went into the office and pointed (a) finger like he was going to shoot.”
The caller also claimed to have heard the sound of a gun cocking and said that a cleaning lady had seen Barrera’s gun. The caller was concerned for the woman’s safety.
Police were able to locate Barrera about 11 p.m. near Ware Road and Business 83.
According to a police report, when police attempted to stop Barrera, he said, “Here we die” in Spanish. When Officer Noe Guerra, a 19-year veteran of the department, approached him, Barrera “reached into his front waistline, drew a handgun from his waistline, and began to turn towards the Responding Officer.”
Guerra tackled Barrera and wrestled him to the ground. During the struggle, Barrera discharged his gun and shot his own left hand.
Police were able to place Barrera in custody and seized his gun, which was determined to be a semi-automatic, .380 caliber handgun. He was also carrying an Arizona Department of Corrections “Released Offender” ID Card.
Barrera was taken to McAllen Medical Center. His condition was not immediately known Friday, however his injury is not believed to be life threatening.
“We’re very fortunate today to not have a death on our hands,” Rodriguez said Friday afternoon. “The individual clearly indicated that he was dying and that so were officers at that moment in time. It’s the bravery of our officers that resulted in what we call nominal injury to the suspect.
“We’re very, very fortunate for the officer’s actions because clearly we could have one or multiple deaths today.”
Rodriguez said Barrera will be charged with attempted capital murder, as well as retaliation. He said that even after being taken into custody, Barrera continued to threaten police.
“He clearly continued to threaten the officer once he was in custody,” Rodriguez said. “He was saying that he would come back and finish what he started. So we’re going to charge him with those charges.”
Rodriguez commended Guerra’s decision making during the incident.
“Part of decision making is knowing yourself, knowing your capacities, knowing your physical capacities and psychological capacities, and then utilizing that to make decisions,” Rodriguez said. “Only the person at the scene at that moment in time, only that person is the best judge of the situation. He made determination based on his training and what he knows about himself, and we are fortunate that because of that, today we are not dealing with a death of either the suspect or officers.”
