JUST IN: Bodycam footage released of Paris officer-involved shooting of Coco Carico
File / Screengrab via YouTube
Almost exactly one year after the shooting, the bodycam footage from a Paris police officer who shot and, subsequently, paralyzed a man has been released.
According to Curtis Garrett of the Paris Police Department, officers responded to a single-vehicle accident in the 1600 block of 34th Street N.E. around 9:30 p.m. Garrett said the driver, who was the sole occupant of the vehicle, walked away from the scene prior to the officer’s arrival.
“Officers located the owner/driver of the vehicle at his residence and conducted a welfare check on him,” Garrett said.
During the investigation, Garrett said the man pulled out a firearm which “resulted in an officer-involved shooting.”
“The suspect was provided first aid at the scene by officers and emergency medical responders, and was subsequently transported by Care-Flight to a Dallas-area hospital,” he added.
The man was later identified as Colton “Coco” Carico, a local musician in the Paris area.
As seen in the bodycam footage, Colton came out of a home with a gun, saying he was going to “blow [his] head off.” In response, both responding officers pulled out their weapons and demanded Coco put his down. Instead, Coco turned his back to the officers and began walking back inside. At this time, Officer Derek Bristow fired a shot into Coco’s back. He immediately dropped to the ground inside the home. As seen in the video, officers immediately handcuffed him. They then began administering first aid.
eExtra News reached out to Paris Police Chief Richard Salter, but received no response by publication time. We also reached out to the Texas Rangers, who are leading the investigation, and received no response by publication time.
This is an ongoing investigation, and we will update readers with more stories as more information becomes available.
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You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/V9JXbeEflko. Please note: Some viewers may find the footage very disturbing as this video has graphic images and language.
Charges should be filed against the police officer that shot him in the back!!
Why would you shoot a man in the back that is threatening suicide. This is unacceptable of anyone in our society especially the men/women that wear LEO uniforms. This officer needs to be charged with attempted homicide like any of our civilians would have been. If we let this go on without any repercussions then we are enabling those bad actors in blue to get away with breaking the law. Just because you wear the uniform does not make you above the law. This man appears to been in need of mental health assistance not a bullet to the back. What a shame.
They told him to stop and drop the gun but he didn’t. It’s a bad idea to let someone who pointed a gun at someone, including himself, take cover or barricade himself inside. A suicidal man can quickly become a homicidal man and many people have been killed by letting a person like this go back into some cover where a much more dangerous situation could arise. Especially if she followed him in (Which appeared to be what was going to happen)
This isn’t to say police *should* shoot in this case, rather that it is at least a reasonable response from someone trying to prevent further harm and ensure no innocent people get hurt. And if it’s a reasonable response, the officer should not be blamed or punished for responding that way. This is the USA. Small town police officers don’t have the very extensive training found in many other places, around the world, and must use their discretion and best judgement during very dangerous situations on a regular basis. When put in that position, this response seems the one with the best chance no innocent people would get harmed.
Mental health issues or not, a gunman is a gunman.
What kind of logical family and friends leaves guns around someone who has “mental health issues”.
Deflect the blame all you want but this isnt the cops fault. This man came out to officers armed with a weapon and then proceeded to ignore commands to put the gun down and proceeded into his house to do who knows what. What if he takes cover and fires upon the cops. Family said it themselves he has mental health issues so who’s telling what hes going to do.
Unfortunate cops had to shoot, but it was for their own safety and should have never come to that. Dont leave guns around someone with mental health issues, and dont blame the cops because you did so.
AMEN
Formally from Paris, I don’t believe the man should have been shot in the back. He didn’t point the gun at any officer only his throat for a second then walked back into his home only to get shot in the back. The dad should have been tossed for his actions. Why was the woman handcuffed.
Justified shooting family always after the fact have allot to say…. take the guns away get them help so they do not pull a gun out on officers . The father the son the girlfriend all need some rehab
NOT REALLY; THE MAN SHOULD HAVE OBEYED THE ORDERS OF THE POLICE, THEN HE WOULD NOT BE CAUSING HIS ALMOST SUICIDE. WHEN THE LAW SAYS STAND, YOU DO NOT PLAY WITH A GUN,
Me and my family were considering moving to Paris, Texas, but after watching this decided that moving to a city where public servants can shoot you in the back even though they obviously had tasers is fucking bullshit. I was hoping that dad beat the shit out of that cop but glad he didn’t. He was flipping out about his boy being shot and instead of de-escalating the situation and understanding that’s his boy, the cop did nothing but escalate and talk shit. Then putting the girl in handcuffs. I hope they sue the shit out of them. I love and respect officers, but this one was trigger happy and waiting for a chance to shoot someone. He gives all officers a bad name. You won’t hear about this on mainstream media though because the victim is white.
Police are in the wrong!
It doesn’t matter what the police say they were thinking at the time, what this officer did was clearly illegal and as a result the officer who fired and maybe his colleague should lose qualified immunity and suffer the full criminal and financial consequences of ruining someone’s life with callous gunfire.
Yeah, you have no idea how the real world works.
Let’s consider how this entire thing could have been avoided:
The man “Coco” could have not drank alcohol, drove his vehicle, crashed it, then flee the scene.
If the man had mental health, then he and/or his family could have sought help. (Did they?)
At the very least, the family could have temporarily removed the guns from the property since Coco was depressed/suicidal.
Coco could have chosen to NOT walk out with a firearm when police were clearly present for a VALID reason (crashed vehicle w/ occupant(s) who fled scene).
It doesn’t matter if Coco pointed the weapon at someone or not – it’s a tense situation and Coco escalated – on top of all the other “mistakes” Coco chose to do that night.
Want to blame someone? Then blame Coco. All of this could have been avoided by Coco himself. This ridiculous armchair quarterbacking about “using a taser instead”, “his back was turned”, “gun wasn’t pointed at officers”, etc.; none of that matters in a life/death situation when an unstable person w/ a firearm chooses to escalate matters.
Had he gone inside and killed himself (and others before offing himself), then these same people would be screaming, “Why didn’t the police do something!”
Stop commenting and go play Call of Duty or watch John Wick movies – all these tactical know-it-alls seem to get their “knowledge” from that. Real life is very different and it’s so very easy to sit back in the comfort of your home and play “what if’s” and “should have’s” when your butt isn’t on the line.
Before any nitwits assume something incorrect: I want officers to be held accountable b/c there are clearly times when they do/did commit an offense and nothing was done; but this situation isn’t one of them.