KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Body camera video released Monday shows the moment two children ran away from their father, a suspect in a child pornography investigation, before he shot himself in a Kissimmee parking lot last week.
Kissimmee police said they were looking for Luis Valentin, 48, to arrest him on child porn charges before he killed himself.
Detectives Justin Lunsford and Jean Paul Antepara pulled over Valentin at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday and found his two children in the back of the car and Valentin holding a gun to his head.
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“I was going to make sure they were going to go home to mom. That was the main thing,” said Lunsford. “I call out, ‘gun!’ And, he calls out ‘gun’ as well.”
"He then moves the gun from his head down towards his chest and I can see that there's a malfunction. The slide is locked back,” said Antepara.
That malfunction gave Lunsford the moment he needed to rescue the children, who he said were panicking in the back seat.
"I opened the door. As I opened the door, I grab the little girl, pull her out of the car. The little boy is already sliding towards me. I pull him out of the car,” said Lunsford.
He told them to run while Antepara tried to reason with Valentin, who killed himself seconds later.
"It was a very quick. There's no thought at that point. You revert back to what you're trained to do, what your experience tells you, what's the priority. The children were the priority,” said Antepara.
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