{"id":471389,"date":"2026-10-20T07:54:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T07:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/471389\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T07:54:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T07:54:25","slug":"dallas-police-release-video-of-oak-cliff-officer-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/471389\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas police release video of Oak Cliff officer shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Dallas police<\/a> officer shot a man who aimed a rifle at him in an east Oak Cliff<\/a> motel parking lot, police body-camera footage published Friday shows. The man then fatally shot himself.<\/p>\n

Officers were trying to arrest Raul Casas, 41, on outstanding warrants<\/a> after spotting him earlier Wednesday, police said. The department showed edited surveillance and body-camera footage of the encounter at a news conference Friday.<\/p>\n

Chief Daniel Comeaux cited the confrontation as an example of the \u201csplit-second decisions\u201d officers must make every day. He said the attempted arrest was part of a broader push to arrest people wanted on felony warrants or accused of repeated offenses.<\/p>\n

The footage and newly released details provide a fuller account of the department\u2019s 11th shooting by officers this year. No officers were injured.<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s special investigations unit and the Dallas County district attorney\u2019s office are conducting separate investigations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Police identified the officer who fired as Officer James Smith, who joined the department in September 2019.<\/p>\n

Maj. Bobby Epperson said Casas was wanted on four warrants for probation violations related to charges of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, evading arrest in a vehicle, possession of a controlled substance and manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance.<\/p>\n

Epperson said officers located Casas using Flock Safety\u2019s network of roadside license plate cameras, a technology that has drawn scrutiny nationwide.<\/p>\n

Surveillance footage from the Mustang Inn shows Smith\u2019s patrol vehicle pulling into the lot at 11:55 a.m. Minutes later, the door to Casas\u2019s room opens slightly, then closes before the officer can enter. Smith calls for Casas to come outside.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s body-worn camera footage shows Smith walks away and moves behind a car. Casas then opens the door and steps outside, raising a rifle and appearing to aim it toward Smith.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smith fires twice, hitting Casas once, police said. Casas falls to the ground, where police said he then shoots himself in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene at approximately 12:31 p.m., Epperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a police department, one of the things we’re going to do is be proactive in going after as many bad offenders that are committing these repeat offenses,\u201d Comeaux told reporters at Jack Evans Police Headquarters, \u201cand unfortunately, Mr. Casas decided to take his life, but it’s our job to try to protect the city and we’re going to be very proactive in going after individuals that are committing crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Dallas police officer shot a man who aimed a rifle at him in an east Oak Cliff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[732,102,104,103,95603,95,87998,89138,89139,88945],"class_list":["post-471389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-article","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-news-crime","tag-shooting","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-dallas-county","tag-tp-dallas-police","tag-tp-oak-cliff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}