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Officer 'embarrassed' about missing gun in pat down

Wesley Flores still recovering after shot to face during standoff.

CLOVIS - The Clovis police officer who brought Wesley Flores into the Clovis jail on Feb. 1 told a fellow officer he was "embarrassed" that he'd allowed Flores to bring a gun into the facility.

"Very small, that Kimber Micro ... I'm so embarrassed, you cannot even imagine right now," Sanford Wagner told an interviewing officer shortly after Flores began a four-hour standoff with police. "I may have missed something. Well, obviously I did."

The interview was part of video released this month by Clovis police in response to an Inspection of Public Records Act request filed by The News.

Flores ultimately shot himself in the face as police introduced pepper spray into the pre-booking vestibule where he produced the gun he'd hidden in his clothing.

Wagner, who has declined to respond to interview requests from media, is seen on previously released video patting down Flores as he was arrested at his grandfather's house. At the jail, Flores accompanied Wagner into the pre-booking vestibule, where he was met by a jail officer, who began processing Flores into custody as Wagner left the small room.

Records show the jail officer exited the pre-booking vestibule almost immediately, leaving Flores alone, when the gun appeared. Jail Administrator Mark Gallegos described it as a brief "hostage situation," which may factor into the charges still pending from the incident.

"My heart sank to my freakin' feet," Wagner said in the video interview, when he first realized what was happening.

Flores, 28, is recovering from his wounds, and still faces pending charges connected to the standoff.

The video from the standoff shows a small force of law enforcement, armed, with shields and gas masks, breaching the side door of the vestibule where Flores had been isolated.

Officials have said pepper spray was introduced into the pre-booking room, following which Flores shot himself, following which officers entered the room led by a flash-bang diversionary device that makes a bright flash and loud report.

"Bang first," they remind each other on the video as one officer turns the keys to the door. Before that, another officer says he has eyes on the gun and that Flores already has his hands up.

Flores' grandfather John Mares told The News previously that he wanted to know decisively if Flores shot himself before or after the flash-bang was deployed. In the video, there is only one loud bang heard as officers unlock the door and cross the room toward Flores, leaving the issue for debate.

Police Capt. Roman Romero has maintained the sequence of events - gas, gunshot, then flash-bang and entrance.

"We're going to get you some help bro, hold on," an officer then says to a bloody-faced Flores, on the ground and blinking after the gunshot. "Come here, buddy, sit up."

Another command is heard: "Pat him down. Pat him down. Pat him down."

Police have said Wagner's work status is a personnel matter and would not be shared, but records show Wagner has filed unrelated incident reports since the Flores shooting and he was listed as an active patrol division officer on the city's website on Saturday.

Flores' defense attorney Jeremiah Hall said that Flores, who was transported immediately to a Texas hospital after the shooting, needed to relearn how to speak and would be up to a year in his complete recovery, according to court records.

Hall advised again in court early this month that Flores needed more time before a trial date set then for the following week, records show.

Hall told The News last week that he couldn't comment more on the case, but a jury trial would still be scheduled eventually in connection with the standoff.

Mares said his grandson had struggled with substance abuse in the days and weeks prior to his Feb. 1 arrest, and that he emphatically did not want to go to jail.

His arrest that day was on a bench warrant, which has since been quashed out of consideration for his recovery, Romero said.

That warrant was for failure to appear at a January court date on charges of larceny, unauthorized use or theft of the card of another, and possession of a firearm by a felon, all fourth-degree felonies. Currently, it is only a matter of time before he faces a court again on those charges, officials have said.

Curry County Sheriff Wesley Waller said last week that charges from the jail incident are still pending.

 
 
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