Dashcam videos released this week from two Arizona police cars show an officer speeding up and intentionally ramming into an armed suspect with his cruiser in what the suspect's lawyer called excessive use of force, CNN reported.
On Feb. 19, two police cruisers pursued 36-year-old Mario Valencia as he walked down a road in a town outside Tucson with a .30-30 rifle he allegedly stole from a Wal-Mart that morning. According to one video, the officer said Valencia fired one shot into the air.
The other cruiser suddenly speeds forward across the road and slams into Valencia, sending him flying into the air while the car crashes through a cinder block wall. Valencia was reportedly taken to a hospital in serious condition.
"Everything in the video seems to point towards an obvious excessive use of force," Michelle Cohen-Metzger, Valencia's lawyer, told CNN. "It is miraculous that my client isn't dead."
But police gave a different account of events, saying Officer Michael Rapiejko made a split-second judgment call to take down an armed suspect who had committed a series of crimes that morning and was headed toward an area with hundreds of people, CNN reported.
Valencia also may have been suicidal.
"As Mario Valencia briskly walked towards Sargent Controls (local manufacturer), Officer Michael Rapiejko uses his marked police car to stop the dangerous situation Mario Valencia created," Lt. Tim Brunenkant of the Marana Police Department told CNN.
The morning of the incident, police say Valencia robbed a Tucson 7-Eleven while brandishing a metal object in his hand. He then allegedly set a fire inside a church and stole a car from a residence before driving to a Wal-Mart where he stole a gun.
Officers caught up with the suspect after he fled the Wal-Mart and was walking through a business park, CNN reported. Valencia was ordered several times to drop his weapon but continued walking, Brunenkant said.
Valencia also aimed the rifle several times at his head and threatened to commit suicide before Rapiejko pursued him with the cruiser, Brunenkant told CNN.
Rapiejko will not face charges in relation to the incident, police said.
Valencia has since been released from the hospital and is now in custody. He is charged with aggravated assault, armed robbery and arson of an occupied structure among other charges.
