Dallas police release video of officer shooting armed robbery suspect

DALLAS - Dallas police released video of the shooting of an armed robbery suspect last week.

The incident happened outside an illegal game room on South Lancaster Road in East Oak Cliff in the early hours of Thursday morning.

A woman called police to report an armed robbery.

Surveillance video shows 34-year-old Timothy Jefferson, who has an extensive criminal history, and three other armed suspects round up people in the parking lot of the game room and forcing them inside.

Timothy Jefferson

"At least one person was pistol whipped in this process," said Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia on Monday.

Jefferson stayed in the parking lot while the two other suspects, 21-year-old Kyvarian Banks, 20-year-old Dominique Lee-Bolin and another unidentified suspect, went inside.

Police say Jefferson spotted officers arriving and jumped a fence.

That's when he came face-to-face with Senior Corporal Ruben Martinez, who was working undercover nearby and got to the scene first.

Chief Garcia said Martinez did not have time to put on his ballistic vest or activate his body-worn camera, but the deadly encounter was captured on nearby security camera.

The portion of the video that was released to the public was slowed down by Dallas Police.

"Sr. Corporal Martinez announced he's a police officer and raising his handgun," explained Chief Garcia. "The two briefly point their guns towards each other then Jefferson ducks and drops his weapon."

"You can see Martinez pull his weapon away from Jefferson to his side but he sees Jefferson make movements and reaches towards the gun and Martinez fired hitting Jefferson," Garcia said.

Jefferson was killed.

That's when Banks is seen running by. He was arrested and officers grabbed a bag of cash and a handgun.

Officers also arrested Lee-Boldin in the parking lot of the gambling room.

Police said he had a gun too.

A fourth suspect got away. Police are asking for help finding the man.

"We're once again lucky that our officers were not injured or killed and no one was injured in this incident," Garcia said.

Lee-Bolin and Banks are each charged with three counts of aggravated robbery.

Dallas police have also arrested and charged the owner of the business, 38-year-old Mohommad Ghali with keeping a gaming place.

Mohammad Ghali

The shooting is being investigated by the DPD Special Investigations Unit and the District Attorney's Office.