Fontana police on Friday, May 6 released an edited video that shows officers shooting a bank robbery suspect who was armed with what turned out to be a replica gun.On the afternoon of April 7, police received calls about a man with a gun robbing the Bank of America at 15092 Summit Avenue. A 911 tape of a Bank of America official confirming the robbery was released along with the video on Friday.
After the robbery, the suspect fled north in the parking lot towards a dumpster enclosure near a Wendy’s, said Fontana Police Chief Billy Green.
Body camera footage from one officer begins as police spot the man running through the parking lot towards the enclosure. The video includes several bodycam angles showing officers surrounding the enclosure and ordering the suspect to surrender.
At one point, an officer perched on the sidewalk along Beech Avenue overlooking the dumpster announces the man is armed with what appears to be a handgun.
The suspect is then seen exiting the enclosure with the apparent weapon drawn after refusing several commands to surrender, and “pointed (the handgun) at four officers,” Green said.
Police then fired on him. The suspect, identified as Travis Shane Tarrants, 45, of Indiana, died at the scene.
Tarrants later was found to have been holding an airsoft gun.
Tarrants had two out-of-state felony warrants for armed bank robbery and for disarming a law enforcement officer, according to Green.
The shooting is being reviewed by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and the California Department of Justice. The police department is investigating whether the shooting was within policy.