Police release bodycam video of 2014 San Jose shooting

Police have just released bodycam footage of the moment they shot dead a knife-wielding suspect at a California university five years ago. 

The video of police shooting 38-year-old Antonio Guzman Lopez at San Jose State University back in 2014 was only released on Friday following a public records request.

It was released under California’s new police transparency law, which now requires law enforcement to make records about shootings public. 

After finally being able to view the footage, Lopez’s family now believe they can prove what they have long claimed – that the father-of-one’s death was unjustified. 

Lopez, who was an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who spoke limited English, was killed in February 2014 when police responded to reports of him walking near campus with a knife. 

The bodycam footage shows the two officers approaching Lopez with their guns drawn.

When Lopez continued to walk along a sidewalk, one of the officers used a taser on him. 

The video showed Lopez trying to run away after being tazed, before the officer opened fire and shot him in the back twice as his colleague yelled: ‘Shoot him!’. 

Lopez was filmed lying on the ground as the officers handcuffed him and called for help. 

The bodycam footage shows the two officers approaching Lopez with their guns drawn following reports he was armed with a knife. When Lopez continued to walk along a sidewalk, one of the officers used a taser on him (pictured above)

The video showed Lopez trying to run away after being tazed, before the officer opened fire and shot him in the back twice

Lopez was filmed lying on the ground as the officers handcuffed him and called for help. He was pronounced dead when he arrived at the hospital

He was pronounced dead when he arrived at the hospital. 

Witnesses had said Lopez was acting strangely in the lead up to the incident and officers said they deemed him to be a threat. 

An autopsy later determined that Lopez had meth in his system at the time of the shooting. 

Following an investigation, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office declined to press charges against the two officers involved. 

They were cleared of any wrongdoing in May 2015 but authorities declined to release the footage at that time. 

Lopez’s family believe the footage shows that the shooting should never have happened. 

Lopez, who was an undocumented Mexican immigrant, had a four-year-old son with his girlfriend Laurie Valdez

His girlfriend, Laurie Valdez, told CBS that relieving his death was a nightmare. Valdez, who has vowed to keep fighting to clear her boyfriend’s name, is demanding that dispatch tapes and the 911 call be released as well.

His girlfriend, Laurie Valdez, told CBS that relieving his death was a nightmare.  

‘Seeing him alive again hurt me because I knew in a minute I would see him dead again,’ she said. 

The couple shared a four-year-old son Josiah and Lopez helped raise his girlfriend’s 11-year-old daughter Angelique.

‘You took my son’s father, his sense of safety, his childhood and somebody has to pay for five years of hell.’

Valdez, who has vowed to keep fighting to clear her boyfriend’s name, is demanding that dispatch tapes and the 911 call be released as well. 

‘The officers who were the perpetrators, they were the perpetrators and Antonio is the victim. Because Antonio was not aggressive, he did not do what they were saying,’ she told ABC affiliate KGO.