Paris Police releases unseen body camera footage from officer-involved shooting

SHERMAN, Texas (KXII) - The City of Paris released their version, including 20 minutes of unseen footage, from the fateful night an officer-involved shooting left one person paralyzed and another tased and charged.

According to the footage from Paris Police Officer Derek Bristow’s body camera, on the night of June 1st, 2021, he first arrived at a truck rolled over and empty.

“He went up that way like he was headed towards 36,” said a witness to officers on the scene.

Bristow eventually makes it to a Lamar County home, soon to be the scene of a different incident.

“Officer Bristow: You wouldn’t happen to pick anyone up from 34th and Clement over here, would you?

Colton Carico’s girlfriend: No, I haven’t.

Officer Bristow: No? Not anyone...

Carico’s girlfriend: I came home, and I went to bed so...

Officer Bristow: Not a white male wearing all black? Possible bleeding from the head, anything like that?

Carico’s girlfriend: No. No one.”

The footage shows Officer Bristow go back to his car, and Carico’s girlfriend, as she identifies herself in the footage, follows.

“He called me and was like, ‘come pick me up,’ and that’s all I know, and he is my boyfriend, and at the same time, I don’t want to lie. I’m sorry,” said Carico’s girlfriend.

The video shows Bristow returning to the house and eventually making contact with Colton Carico.

“Officer: Have you been drinking any tonight? At all?

Colton Carico: Well, somebody drove me, but they disappeared.”

In the video, Carico said someone else was driving, but police said they traced the car back to him.

Then Bristow asked Carico to put shoes on and step outside.

“Officer: You can quit being a jack*** to me cause I’m trying to come talk to you.

Carico’s girlfriend: No, no one likes being called a **** or a jack***.”

Next, the video shows Carico stepping back inside the house while the police explain to his girlfriend they would like to perform a sobriety test on him.

After a few minutes of conversation, the footage catches up to where Carico’s family starts the video, just before he comes out with a rifle and points it at himself.

“I’m gonna blow my ******* brains out right here.”

The family sent the following statement to KXII:

“The reason we started the video where we did is because my son posted it on YouTube and could only upload 15 minutes of it. It is an entire 15 minutes with no editing. Prior to that is the video of his wrecked truck and people trying to figure out how to tow it out, the drive to my son’s house, the conversation of Derek Bristow trying to get my son to come outside of his house and do a field sobriety test 45 minutes or more after he had already been home. Then the latter part of the videos are just them processing the scene. We have 3 different body cam videos of that night. We didn’t alter, edit, or add context like the police are stating.”

KXII reached out to the Texas Rangers, who found the shooting to be justified in their investigation and the District Attorney’s office.

Both forwarded KXII to the Attorney General’s office, but KXII has not heard back.

And the City of Paris and the police department aren’t making further comments.

They sent the statement below to KXII on Monday:

“It has come to the City’s attention that an edited version of a police officer’s body camera footage in regard to a shooting incident has been released on social media, along with misleading and inflammatory comments. Our Paris police officers, who place themselves at risk every day, and our citizens, deserve a more complete picture.

On June 1, 2021, Paris Police Department officers investigated a motor vehicle rollover accident involving damage to the property of a third party. The driver had fled the scene, but officers traced the abandoned vehicle to Colton Carico. Officers arrived at Mr. Carico’s home, where Mr. Carico eventually appeared at the door. Officers repeatedly and politely requested Mr. Carico come speak with them about the accident which he initially refused to do. When he did eventually exit the home, Mr. Carico did so with a rifle in his hands. Officers ordered him to drop the rifle multiple times, but he would not comply with those commands. As a result of Mr. Carico brandishing a rifle, the officers feared for their safety as well as for the safety of Mr. Carico’s girlfriend, who was also present and in Mr. Carico’s line of fire.

Mr. Carico’s actions created a very clear and present danger that the officers were forced to address in order to prevent Mr. Carico from firing the rifle in his hands. The events that ensued, which resulted in Mr. Carico’s sustaining a gunshot wound, happened in a matter of seconds and occurred only because Mr. Carico created a dangerous situation by introducing a high-powered rifle into an otherwise

nonviolent scene. Moreover, to address misleading comments on social media, this call was not in reference to any mental health issues, and Mr. Carico’s mental health was not in question nor at issue in the call.

In the ensuing weeks, the matter was thoroughly investigated by the Texas Rangers, who found the shooting to be justified. Furthermore, after a presentation by the state attorney general’s office, a Lamar County grand jury also cleared the involved officer by issuing a no bill on the case in December of 2021.

In connection with this statement, and so that a more complete picture is presented, the Police Department will be releasing the officer’s entire body-cam recording with limited editing to protect confidential personal information of 3rd parties, as opposed to the abbreviated version that has been posted elsewhere on social media. The City supports the Police Department and its officers and is confident that both the facts and the law support its officers in this case.

The City will have no additional comment at this time.”

The following video below is the full footage released by the Paris Police Department. Warning: This video is unedited and contains graphic images and language.

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