Disturbing bodycam footage caught the moments two Missouri police officers found a suicide victim they were called to help and callously left him as he lay dying because they were nearing the end of their work shift.
Bodycam video obtained by First Alert 4 shows former St. Louis Metropolitan Police officers Austin Fraser and Ty Warren responding to a 911 call placed by 29-year-old Urayoan Rodriguez-Rivera, who told dispatchers he planned to kill himself.
That call was placed at 6:13 p.m. on Sept. 10, 2023.
Fraser and Warren arrived at a park at 6:26 p.m., where they found Rodriguez-Rivera beneath a tree, suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. Rodriguez-Rivera is still alive and breathing at this point.
Both officers are seen on Warren’s bodycam video standing over Rodriguez-Rivera as they start discussing his transport to the hospital.
“We need to take this motherf****r then,” Warren tells Fraser.
“We aren’t taking this s***,” Fraser responds. “I get off in 30 minutes. Let’s cruise around and come back.”
After Fraser suggests they leave, the pair walk off and laugh without rendering aid to the dying man.
“They’re (other officers) gonna find this (expletive) and we’re gonna be like, ‘Oh (expletive) you found him,’” Fraser is heard saying.
Eight minutes later, at 6:34 p.m., they return to the scene just before a third officer arrives to search for Rodriguez-Rivera. Bodycam footage shows them joining that officer’s search and appearing to look for Rodriguez-Rivera as if they hadn’t found him earlier.
Once the third officer finds the victim, he calls dispatch for backup and emergency medical services. Rodriguez-Rivera is still breathing.
More officers arrive, tape off the area, and render aid to Rodriguez-Rivera, one of whom says his pulse is “super weak.”
At 6:38 p.m., Fraser and Warren leave the active scene, which doesn’t go unnoticed by their colleagues. One officer’s bodycam video shows the pair walking back to their cruiser and driving off.
“You know what’s f***ed up? Warren and Fraser just left,” one of the officers says in body camera audio.
“Why?” asks the other.
“I don’t know,” he replies.
Another cop is heard saying on bodycam video that he was going to “out the (expletive) out of Fraser” for leaving, telling an officer, “You can’t just leave.”
EMS arrived at the park at 6:53 p.m. and rushed Rodriguez-Rivera to the hospital, where he died a day later. His transport to the hospital took place nearly 30 minutes after Fraser and Warren first arrived at the park and found him.
“It’s disgusting, really disgusting,” former St. Louis Police Chief Tim Fitch said. “You’ve gotta wonder if they would’ve done something right then and there, could he have survived? I think it’s just pure laziness is what it was.”
Fitch, now a police consultant, believes that Warren’s and Fraser’s egregious actions could give rise to a lawsuit, but they likely won’t face criminal charges.
“They just didn’t act at all, which is certainly shameful, but criminal? Probably not,” Fitch said.
A gun was never recovered at the scene and was ultimately listed as stolen by police officers investigating the incident. A medical examiner ruled Rodriguez-Rivera’s death a suicide.
Rodriguez-Rivera’s mother said her son struggled with depression for several years. A week before he died, he saw a psychiatrist and was admitted to a hospital due to suicidal thoughts.
In a text message in Spanish, the 29-year-old’s mother described the officers’ actions as a “lack of humanity,” saying, “I hope the full weight of the law falls on these so-called police officers.”
St. Louis Metropolitan police administrators discovered the body camera footage showing Warren’s and Fraser’s actions during a routine review of the department’s recordings.
When confronted about the incident, Warren told police officials he made a “dumb” mistake and succumbed to pressure from Fraser.
Both officers were fired.
The state filed a disciplinary complaint against Fraser and Warren, calling their inaction “reckless disregard for the public.” As a result of the disciplinary process, Warren’s peace officer license was revoked. A disciplinary hearing for Fraser’s case is set to take place on Jan. 7.
Warren and Fraser began working for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in October 2019.
