Videos show police search for Marshawn Kneeland before death

The Texas Department of Public Safety released hours of police body camera, dash camera and drone video on Friday detailing the search for Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshon Neeland before authorities found him dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot earlier this month.

The videos show the time period from when law enforcement began pursuing Neyland in his Dodge Charger for speeding, starting after 10:30 p.m. on November 5, until they found his body around 1:30 a.m. on November 6. During a police pursuit, Kneeland crashed his car into a pickup truck and fled on foot.

The DPS footage was collected from 10 soldiers who were at multiple locations throughout the night, as well as from their vehicles and a drone. Some footage shows officers responding to the crash. Some show troopers and other police officers searching parking garages, buildings, wooded areas and water mains at the Dallas Cowboys’ 91-acre campus, an office park area in Frisco near The Star. Some officers were accompanied by K-9s. The drone scanned a wide area for heat signatures.

At the beginning of the search, the officers were apparently unaware of who they were pursuing. At least an hour into their search, some people discovered they were looking for a Cowboys player. Some officers encountered Kneeland’s girlfriend at least once while searching for him. During the search, troopers encountered law enforcement from other agencies who were assisting DPS.

Authorities eventually found Kneeland’s body in a portable toilet located in a parking circle between two office buildings.

ESPN reviewed the footage released by DPS. Some of the encounters captured on video include:

crash site

according to first released In highway surveillance video obtained by ESPN, Kneeland crashed his car at approximately 10:40 p.m. on November 5.

DPS video released Friday shows a trooper responding to the crash scene at 10:44 p.m. and checking on a woman standing outside a Ford F-350 pickup truck. The left front tire of the pickup truck was flat.

“You are in a very large vehicle,” an officer said to the woman whose car was hit by Kneeland. She replied: “I swear this is what saved me.” The woman said that the truck she was driving was hit by a car, the speed of which shocked her. The responding trooper said several times in the video that the driver who hit him was traveling at 160 mph at some points during the pursuit.

The woman told police that she had left dinner with a friend when she was attacked. “He hit me suddenly,” she told a responding officer. She cried for a while and later said: “My heart is beating so hard. I’m going to vomit.”

The woman told police the man who hit her ran up a hill overlooking a meadow where he abandoned his Charger. The DPS footage shows the Charger’s driver’s side door open and an air bag deployed. The woman said the man returned after abandoning his vehicle before taking off again.

The woman also told officers that her car had been hit by a Hispanic man who weighed no more than 175 pounds. (Other DPS video from later in the night shows officers asking witnesses if they saw a Hispanic man of slight or medium build.) At 11:09 p.m., the trooper showed the woman a photo of Neyland after she learned he was registered to the crashed Charger. The crash victim said that Kneeland had the same curly hair and skin tone as the man who hit her.

Neeland’s car had no plates. After running the car’s vehicle identification number, the trooper discovered that Neeland had a custom tag for the Charger: “IDNTSPD.”

At the accident site, officials openly wondered whether the Charger could have been stolen as there were no plates.

Conversation with Neeland’s girlfriend

Around 11:10 p.m., a trooper in a video says Frisco police told him a white Buick was trying to pick up the suspect.

Then around 11:15 p.m., a different DPS trooper pulls up in a white Buick. There was a woman in the car who was later identified as Niland’s girlfriend, Catalina Mancera.

The cop, who apparently does not yet know whether the suspect is Kneeland or the woman is his girlfriend, instructs Mancera to open the car door, get out of the car, and walk backwards toward him. He handcuffs her and says, “You match the suspicious vehicle that came to pick up a man, right?”

He asks her what she is doing and she tells the officer that her GPS has stopped working. The officer puts him in the front seat of his police car and searches the Buick. After clearing the vehicle, he removes Mancera from his car and takes off his handcuffs. Mancera tells her: “I live nearby, but my location – it’s not showing me where I am so I’m… trying to figure out where I am,” and continues to explain that her GPS isn’t working. She then tells the officer that she lives nearby and is not in the area.

The officer walks him back to his car and tells him to stay safe, as police are looking for a vehicle “matching your description.” Mancera never mentioned Kneeland during the entire conversation.

At approximately 11:40 p.m., less than half an hour later, the same trooper meets with a Frisco police officer who tells him that law enforcement again has Mancera and “they’re trying to get him to leave, but he’s saying he’s going to end it all.”

Later that night, at around 1:00 am on 6 November, the same soldier drives to Mansehra to meet a group of officers. When he arrives, he confronts Mancera and says, “What’s happening madam, why are you lying to me?” She replies that she did not lie. A retired police officer asked the soldier to step back and said, “Let’s not do this, we are in a cooperative situation.” The soldier leaves the scene.

Mancera did not respond to a message from ESPN seeking comment. There appears to be no other footage of Mancera in the DPS video.

water pipe

The video shows several officers searching the water duct tube system in the office park at around 11:15 pm to see if their suspect was hiding in it. A Frisco police officer yells into a pipe that opens onto a grassy area, and tells anyone inside to come out and he will send his K-9 to find and mow them down.

“He’s a big man, though, yes?” an officer asks.

In other videos, officers claim they hear coughing coming from inside the pipe. At around 11:30 pm, officers release pepper balls – which emit a chemical irritant – into the pipe system. Around the same time, an officer on scene tells others that the suspect is armed.

Just after midnight, a group of water corps officers received word that police had determined the suspect’s phone was “exactly where we are.”

“We’re literally right on top of it – like, dead center of that circle,” says one officer.

“Look at that tunnel.”

“I mean, he’s around here somewhere – I’m thinking about the tunnel.”

Officials continue to monitor the entry into the water channel for the next 10 minutes, until some people are called in to investigate the heat signature found nearby.

It is unclear when officials stopped monitoring the duct area.

Authorities learned they were pursuing Marshon Kneeland

Several body camera videos reveal to officers that the suspect they are searching for is Neeland.

According to a video, at 11:31 p.m., two soldiers search for Kneeland on the Internet, and one says: “I think he may have played [two nights ago]Neyland scored his first professional touchdown against the Arizona Cardinals on “Monday Night Football” two nights before he died.

In another video, at about 11:55 p.m., a Frisco police officer tells his deputies what he heard over the radio and says Plano police “are on the phone with the NFL, [Kneeland] Sending him and his family a goodbye message.” (According to previous ESPN reporting, Dallas Cowboys security director Cable Johnson called Plano police at 11:40 p.m. to do a welfare check on Neeland and to report the concerning messages.)

“Oh, that’s no good,” replied one soldier.

“It became national news,” says a Frisco police officer. He then locates Kneeland on his phone and shows Kneeland’s photo to the officers present with him, including the K-9.

In another video, at about 1:15 p.m., one trooper tells another the suspect is Neeland, and one trooper says, “If it was anyone else they would be kicking down doors, etc.”

“They don’t want him to die,” answers the other. “That will be broadcast everywhere.”