A family’s night at the movies in Moore, Okla., took a fatal turn on Feb. 15. After police were called over a possible domestic disturbance involving a mother and daughter, the father had a confrontation with police that ended in his death.
On Tuesday, Nair Rodriguez released a video of the incident that she recorded with her cell phone.
That night at the Warren Theatre, Rodriguez had slapped one of her daughters, saying she was “lying and making bad decisions.” This prompted someone to call police.
When police arrived to respond to the possible domestic disturbance, they approached the Rodriguez family and asked for identification from Nair and her husband, Luis.
Luis became indignant at what he saw as law enforcement intruding on a family matter. When he attempted to bypass the officers, the five police officers on the scene jumped him and restrained him with his face down on the ground.
While Nair demands explanations for the officers’ actions, the officers appear calm. One tells her that he will talk to her once they are finished securing her husband. Then one walks over to the camera and tells her that a medical unit has been called to check on her husband.
The officer says police received a call about domestic violence before confronting her husband.
It wasn’t him, Nair Rodriguez tells him. “I hit my daughter,” she says, asking why they have pinned down her husband.
“He refused to give his ID,” the officer says. “He got combative.”
She notices blood on the officer. “Is he bleeding?” she asks.
“I’m bleeding — that’s me,” the officer says.
“Luis! Luis!” she calls out frantically in the video, but her husband does not respond, does not appear to move.
On the video, Nair’s fearful cries fill the recording.
She calls to the officers to assure her that he is alright.
“Please somebody tell me that he is alive,” she implores. “He is not moving.”
An ambulance can be seen in the background, and Luis Rodriguez is lifted onto a stretcher.
The video ends shortly afterward.
Police said Luis, 44, became “uncooperative when officers questioned him about a possible domestic disturbance,” TV-affiliate KOCO reported.
Rodriguez’s wife and daughter say police then started beating him. Autopsy results are pending.
“Stillings refused to answer a question last week that asked if Rodriguez was breathing when he was handcuffed,” the Associated Press reported, referring to Chief Jerry Stillings of the Moore police.
Rodriguez’s back appears to be moving in the cell phone footage as he lies on his stomach on the ground.
“Police said three officers involved in the incident are on administrative leave,” the AP report continued. “Their names have not been released. Two of the off-duty officers work at the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, and they have not been placed on leave, according to agency spokesman Micah Holmes.”
It is unclear why off-duty officers with a wildlife department were called to help with the situation.
Calls placed separately to Chief Stillings and the Moore Police Department’s public information officer went unanswered on Wednesday.