A Fresno court saw dramatic footage Friday of city police officers responding to a domestic violence call only to find the quadruplex they were called to engulfed in flames, KTRK reports.
The October 2019 incident began with a report that Jose Cisneros had slashed the tires of his estranged wife’s truck and thrown a beer bottle through the window. But that’s not what Officer Rebekah Wells and the other Fresno officers dealt with first.
Wells’s body camera video follows as she hurriedly bangs on doors and calls for people to get out. At one point, a mother hands her toddler out a window. “Come on out,” Wells tells her. “Get him out. Come on.”
The stairs to second floor units are ablaze, and residents jump to safety, captured on the video.
“They had to jump because the stairwell that leads down to the ground floor was engulfed in flames,” Wells said in court.
“It is dramatic and this is stuff they go through every day,” prosecutor Andrew Janz told reporters outside the court. “They go in not knowing what’s going to happen to them on that shift, and this is an example of officers doing their jobs, stepping up and doing the right thing.”
Officers found Cisneros exiting a first floor window and arrested him, also treating his injuries. He was charged with arson, domestic violence and vandalism and could face more than 20 years in prison if he’s convicted.
Friday’s proceedings were a preliminary hearing in the case; the judge is expected to rule next week if Cisneros must stand trial.
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[Featured image: Screenshot from Fresno Police Department video via KTRK]
