Bodycam footage shows police shooting a knife-wielding suspect who attacked a police officer in Ceres

CERES – Body camera footage was released Friday showing an incident in which police shot and killed a suspect armed with a knife who attacked a police officer in Ceres on May 10.

Ceres Police said officers responded that day to a report of a man brandishing a knife at family members during an argument at a Dirk Court address.

The man, Alexander Yepez Ortega, 22, fled the scene when officers arrived but was found hiding in a vehicle on 6th Street about a half hour later.

At some point, Yepez Ortega got out of the vehicle and waved the knife at the police officers who tried to get him to surrender. The officers then shot him.

(Viewer discretion is advised: the entire video contains graphic images and can be viewed in full on the Ceres Police Department’s YouTube channel.)

Video released Friday shows police officers pointing their guns at Yepez Ortega as he sits in the passenger seat of the vehicle with the door closed. Officers repeatedly tell him to put his hands up so they can see him and to open the door.

As an officer walks around the vehicle and opens the driver’s door, Yepez Ortega gets out of the passenger side and points the knife at another officer. We see footage of the encounter on that officer’s body camera.

When Yepez Ortega tried to attack the police officer, he was shot several times and fell to the ground. He died at the scene.

The officer suffered injuries in the knife attack and was taken to a nearby hospital.

“I think I was stabbed in the arm,” the officer can be heard telling another officer in the video.

When dispatchers were initially given Yepez Ortega’s name, it turned out that he had an outstanding warrant for assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence in Modesto.

No further injuries were reported.