Body camera footage shows Annandale man reach for officer’s weapon before police shoot him – WTOP News
The Annandale, Virginia, man who was grazed by a shot from a Fairfax County police officer in late July after reaching for the officer’s gun mocked the officer for having bad aim and said, “I wish you would have hit me,” according to body camera footage released Wednesday.
Nehemia Fuentes Banegas, 26, is charged with attempted disarming of a law enforcement officer in connection to the events that occurred July 28.
Police responded that morning to a home in the 7000 block of Sutter Lane in Annandale for the report of a domestic disturbance involving a man armed with a knife. When officers arrived, Fuentes Banegas’ wife told police they had gotten into an argument, that Fuentes Banegas was armed with two knives and that he had stabbed himself before running away from the home.
With the assistance of a police helicopter and the K-9 Unit, officers honed in on Fuentes Banegas’ location in a heavily wooded area near Americana Drive and the Capital Beltway.
There, body camera footage shows Fuentes Banegas emerge from heavy brush and reach for and grab the officer’s weapon. The officer then backs away and fires several shots toward Fuentes Banegas while another officer deploys his taser.
As the officers cut off Fuentes Banegas’ shirt to check for wounds and treat his injuries, he said in Spanish, “You didn’t hit me, you have bad aim. I wish you would have hit me.”
He was grazed by a bullet and hit twice by the other officer’s taser. Fuentes Banegas was taken to the hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injures. The involved officers are now back on full duty.
Fairfax County police Chief Kevin Davis said the officers followed their training.
“The suspect has his hand wrapped around the firearm that’s in the possession of our police officer. The top of his hand is around the barrel and the bottom of his hand is around the frame. So when a police officer is in a scenario just like this one, it’s an absolute deadly force scenario,” Davis said. “That gun could have been in the possession of this suspect in a microsecond.”
It wasn’t until later that officers learned Fuentes Banegas had ditched his knives before the encounter with police.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a news release Fuentes Banegas entered the U.S. illegally through Texas in 2022 and is originally from Honduras. ICE said it has lodged a detainer in the case.
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