Family of man shot, killed by deputies in Rio Linda releases home surveillance video of incident
SACRAMENTO COUNTY - The family of a man shot and killed by deputies last month is now seeking justice and sharing home surveillance video that captured the whole incident on camera.
It happened on March 23 around 8:15 a.m. on the 6500 Block of Campanile Street in Rio Linda.
Sacramento County Sheriff's Office said they were responding to reports of a suicidal subject later identified as 38-year-old Christopher Gilmore.
Bobbie Gilmore, Christopher's sister, reported her brother was suffering from a mental health crisis after she found him unconscious in a bathtub covered in blood. When deputies arrived Christopher had regained consciousness and was standing in the garage appearing to hold some kind of a knife or blade.
The video starts with four Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies gathering in the corner of the driveway. You can hear deputies call out "Drop the knife." Christopher emerges from the garage seconds later naked, holding what the family says is a disposable razor.
He is shot several times by rubber bullets before reaching the end of the red pick-up truck, where it appears a deputy in the street opens fire.
"He didn't need somebody, ya know, to just pull the trigger, they didn't even try, they didn't even give him a chance," Bobbie explained.
Bobbie can be seen standing across the street. She says she was attempting to help deputies get Christopher to come out safely.
"I started coaching him to come out and then they killed him," Bobbie said.
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office said it has tried every mitigating factor before resorting to lethal force but said Christopher kept advancing toward deputies with a knife in hand.
However, Bobbie said her brother has schizophrenia and was suffering a mental health crisis and was not a threat to deputies.
Daniel Del Rio, the attorney representing Bobbie and her family, told CBS13 deputies made a series of mistakes, noting Christopher was suffering from injuries to himself and did not appear to be attempting to attack officers.
"This is not a man looking to engage in a fight, if anything, when he was propelling himself forward faster as they say, he was trying to get away from the person who was shooting him with rubber bullets. A natural reaction any person would have," Del Rio said.
CBS13 reached out to the sheriff's office for comment, but they say they have not seen the video and the department won't have any response until they release all of their videos, which will be within 45 days of the incident.