Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis suggested today (Aug. 26) that the man who last month apparently tried to grab an officer’s gun during a mental health crisis may have been attempting “suicide by police.”
Davis’ remarks came at a press conference during which the Fairfax County Police Department released roughly three minutes of body camera footage depicting the officer searching for and ultimately shooting the man, who had fled into the woods near Americana Drive in Annandale on July 28.
Nehemia Fuentes Banegas, 26, of Annandale was brought to the hospital with what appeared to be a graze wound, and was subsequently charged with attempting to disarm an officer of a stun gun, according to court records.
“Our suspect said, when it’s translated to English, ‘I wish you would have hit me.’ So, when we hear that — and he said a couple other things during this interaction — to me, that’s an indication of self-harm,” Davis said. “The colloquial term is suicide by police.”
According to Davis, the officer who shot Fuentes Banegas — identified by the FCPD as Second Lt. Edwin Pastora, a 12-year veteran assigned to the K9 unit — intentionally fired his gun during the interaction, and has returned to his regular duties. The Annandale man was also hit twice with a taser fired by a second unidentified officer.
“The non-fatal shooting is within policy, and it’s a lawful one,” Davis said.
The officers had been called to the Annandale home by Fuentes Banegas’s wife, who reported that he had assaulted her and was threatening to harm himself with knives. K-9 officers and a police helicopter were assisting.
The released body camera footage show two officers walking in a wooded area.
“Do you want me to go high?” one officer asks the other before moving to higher ground near a sound barrier wall along I-495. A gun is visible in his hand.
A police helicopter circling in the vicinity tells the officer that there is a heat source on the ground, meaning the person they’re chasing is close.
“We’re pretty certain it’s him. We can’t see it very clearly because of the tree coverage,” someone in the helicopter says.
After walking for a few seconds, the officer on the ground stops and starts to communicate with the helicopter, but then, he turns and lets out a yell. A man’s hand visibly comes down on the weapon as the officer moves it in Fuentes Banegas’s direction. Footage from the body camera of the officer behind him shows the man’s hand visibly grabbing the weapon.
As the officer falls back, gasping, a second officer is seen close to Fuentes Banegas, weapon extended. Multiple popping noises are heard.
“Taser, taser, taser,” the second officer, who has the non-lethal weapon in his hand, shouts. “Put your hands behind your back!”
As Fuentes Banegas clutches his chest, rolls to the side and puts his hands on the ground in front of him, the officer with the taser again orders him to put his hands behind his back, adding “I swear to god I’ll f—ing shoot you.”
Now lying on the ground and bleeding from his arm, Fuentes Banegas says in Spanish, “my telephone,” and that he wants to stand. The second officer again tells him to put his hands behind his back, and the man is cuffed.
After the video cuts to footage of officers cutting off his shirt to render medical aid, the man says “You didn’t hit me. You have bad aim. I wish you would have hit me.”
As the officers continue to cut off his shirt, the man again tells them they didn’t hit him, and one of the officers says, “OK, it’s fine. But you are cut.”
“When you hear our suspect scream out, I believe that that was based on the impact of the electronic control weapon, a.k.a. the taser,” Davis said during the press conference. “I don’t think it was until after the fact that our suspect even realized that he suffered a grazed gunshot wound. ”
Attempting to disarm an officer is a class six felony in Virginia. If convicted, Fuentes Banegas could face one to five years in prison. The Virginia code also grants a jury — or a judge trying the case without a jury — the discretion to instead send a person convicted of a class six felony to jail for not more than 12 months and/or fine them no more than $2,500.
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger of self-harm, call 911 or the local Northern Virginia Crisis Call Center at 703-527-4077. You can also call the national 24-hour crisis lifeline at 988.
