Man Shows Up With Molotov Cocktails At North Carolina Police Station, Dares Police To Blow Him Away, Make A Wish Granted

Newly released camera footage shows how the Raleigh police officer who came closest to being injured on May 7—as Reuel Rodriguez-Nunez, 37, threw Molotov cocktails at police—goaded Rodriguez-Nunez into continuing his attack just before he was shot and killed.

Master Officer P.W. Coates, who was wearing body camera 3 and standing closest to Nunez, shouted at him to “Do it! Do it!” as Rodriguez-Nunez held a Molotov cocktail in his hand.

“Go ahead, go ahead motherf***er do it! Do it!” Coates shouted, his gun drawn. “Go a-f***ing-head. Go right f***ing ahead. Go ahead motherf***er, do it, do it.”

Coates tells the other officers to “give me the go ahead,” presumably referring to the go ahead to shoot Rodriguez-Nunez.

Ordered by Coates (although ignoring other police officers who were ordering him to stop and take his hands out of his pockets), Rodriguez-Nunez indeed “does it,” lighting a Molotov cocktail and preparing to throw it toward the officer.

Raleigh police officers opened fire as Rodriguez-Nunez drew his arm back, letting fly with more than 30 rounds in a series of rapid gunshots. As Rodriguez-Nunez fell the ground, the Molotov cocktail landed near Coates, missing him as he ran out of the way.

Coates was one of four Raleigh police officers to surround Rodriguez-Nunez, guns drawn, toward the end of a roughly 7-minute confrontation early last month.

The video, which includes surveillance, dash camera, and body camera footage, was released to the public Thursday afternoon, after Rodriguez-Nunez's family had a chance to review it. A judge ordered the footage released during a hearing last week in which both the family, represented by Emancipate NC, and the police petitioned for its publication.

Whether Rodriguez-Nunez struggled with his mental health is unclear. One family member told WRAL that Rodriguez-Nunez had recently been incarcerated and suffered from mental health issues.

Kerwin Pittman, a local activist, says the camera footage shows “this was clearly a man in distress.”

“It was like he went there with the intention of his demise,” Pittman told the INDY, adding that a mental health crisis response unit may have been able to mitigate the situation. “The ACORNS unit (Raleigh’s crisis team) responds after a crisis has happened. If it was proactive instead of reactive it could have saved this man’s life.”

Dawn Blagrove, executive director of Emancipate NC, expressed similar concerns, saying Rodriguez-Nunez “is clearly in crisis.” At one point during his confrontation with the officers, Rodriguez-Nunez says “Today... is my day... to... move on.”