Bodycam video taken by police shows the dramatic moment that a gunman who killed five people on a rampage in central California on Wednesday took his own life.
The video shows Kern County Sheriff’s deputies pointing their automatic rifles at Javier Casarez as he stood near a white SUV in what appeared to be a parking lot in Bakersfield on Wednesday.
As the deputy moves closer to the gunman Casarez, he yells to him: ‘Put the gun down!’
Casarez is heard saying something to the deputy, though it is unclear what it was he said.
He resisted deputies’ repeated demands that he drop the weapon as the police sirens wailing in the background add to the tense moments.
WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT
Bodycam video taken by police shows the dramatic moment that a gunman who killed five people on a rampage in central California on Wednesday took his own life. The gunman is seen aiming his gun at himself while a cop yells at him to drop it. He fired a single shot to his chest
The video shows Kern County Sheriff’s deputies pointing their automatic rifles at Javier Casarez as he stood near a white SUV in what appeared to be a parking lot in Bakersfield on Wednesday
As the deputy moves closer to the gunman Casarez, he yells to him: ‘Put the gun down!’
Casarez then stops talking to the deputies and turns his body away from them, showing only his back. At that point, Casarez takes his gun and shoots himself in the stomach, crumpling to the ground after he pulls the trigger
The deputy and his partner then approach Casarez as he lies on the ground
The deputy wearing the bodycam checks the SUV, which has one of its doors open, while the other deputy keeps an eye on Casarez
A sheriff’s deputy checks Casarez’s pulse after he shot himself in the stomach
Casarez then stops talking to the deputies and turns his body away from them, showing only his back.
At that point, Casarez takes his gun and shoots himself in the stomach, crumpling to the ground after he pulls the trigger.
The deputy and his partner then approach Casarez as he lies on the ground.
Police are still investigating the motive for the shootings. Casarez, 54, is seen in the above mug shot
The deputy wearing the bodycam checks the SUV, which has one of its doors open, while the other deputy keeps an eye on Casarez.
The video was released hours after the five victims involved in the horrifying mass shooting were identified.
Casarez, 54, who first shot his ex-wife, Petra, 45, and 50-year-old Manuel Contreras at T&T Trucking at 5.17pm using a Smith & Wesson 500.
Authorities later said that Casarez and his wife were recently divorced.
He may have forced his ex-wife to accompany him to a trucking business before shooting her and other victims, authorities said on Thursday.
Antonio Valadez, 50 years old, saw the shooting unfold and was killed by Casarez as he fled.
Next, the gunman went to the home of Laura Garcia, 32, and her father, Eliseo Cazares, 57, where he shot them both.
He then hijacked a car from a woman and her baby, drove around a mile and killed himself as cops approached him.
Harrowing bodycam footage shows him aiming his handgun at his own chest then firing as a cop yells at him to put his weapon down.
It remains unclear what motivated the killings and who the other victims are. Police say that none of the shootings were random.
The fact that the gunman spared the woman and her baby after commandeering her car indicates to investigators that he may have had a reason for shooting the people he did, according to authorities.
Laura Garcia, 32, and her father Eliseo Cazares, 57, were shot dead in their home on Wednesday by gunman Javier Casarez
Antonio Valadez, 50, was the third man killed. He was chased out of T&T trucking by Casarez and gunned down nearby
Garcia had several young children. Her family paid tribute to her on social media on Thursday.
‘If everyone can keep my cousins kids in their prayers I’d really appreciate it!
‘People are so cruel and you didn’t deserve this!’ her cousin Alondra Ortega said.
Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said the mass shooting had become ‘the new normal’ around the country.
‘Six people lost their lives in a very short amount of time. This is the new normal.’
The body of Antonio Valadez, 50 years old, lies beneath a sheet outside Bear Mountain Sports, where he was shot
The spree began at 5.17pm at the trucking company (1) where the gunman opened fire, killing his ex-wife.
Witnesses have told how after the first shots rang out, someone yelled in Spanish: ‘Police! Police! There’s a crazy man with a gun!’
Sheriff’s deputies are interviewing some 30 people who witnessed the shootings.
Investigators believe that the gunman acted alone. People were seen late Wednesday night crying in front of Bear Mountain Sports.
This was the scene outside the trucking company where the first shooting took place on Wednesday night
At a nearby home, two people were killed. The police presence for that killing is shown above