Oscar Granados Colindres’ mother believes her son would still be alive if trained crisis responders had answered the call instead of armed police.
The 17-year-old Guatemalan-born teen was fatally shot on June 27 after charging at officers with a knife on the Wappingers Creek Bridge in Wappingers Falls, New York, according to bodycam footage released this week by the New York Attorney General’s Office. Multiple police agencies had spent at least 50 minutes trying to talk him down from a ledge, speaking to him in both English and Spanish.
“Life is ugly. It’s not easy. But look at me, I need you to be strong,” one officer said in Spanish during the prolonged standoff, the footage shows.
The officer also appealed to Granados Colindres’ family ties. “This is not going to solve anything. Don’t you think that when the girls grow up, they’re not going to ask, ‘Why did my brother leave?'” he said, referring to the teen’s two sisters.
Officers repeatedly asked Granados Colindres to close the knife while trying to convince him the large police presence was there to help him. He had been kicked out of his home after being accused of rape, sources told the Times-Union, and was in a suicidal state when police responded to the bridge call.
Granados Colindres eventually hopped down from the ledge and ran toward the officers. Shots rang out within a second of his movement. At least 10 shots were fired as he fell near a car, the footage shows. At least one officer appeared to deploy a Taser as well. It remains unclear which officer fired the fatal shot.
An investigation into the shooting is now underway by the Attorney General’s Office.
The teen’s family, represented by lawyers, has pushed back against the police response. His mother contends that trained crisis intervention professionals rather than police should have been dispatched to the scene.
In an obituary, the family remembered Granados Colindres as a high schooler who “loved playing soccer and had great interest in classic cars and automotive hobbies.”
“His dreams included becoming a professional soccer player, joining the US military, and traveling around the world to visit other countries,” the family wrote.
The bodycam footage captures officers attempting to de-escalate while also maintaining distance from the armed teen on the bridge ledge. The rapid transition from negotiation to gunfire has drawn scrutiny from advocates who question whether deadly force was necessary against a suicidal individual.
The case joins a growing number of fatal police encounters with individuals experiencing mental health crises that have prompted calls for alternative emergency response models. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office is continuing its investigation into the circumstances of the shooting.