A convicted felon will spend 40 years in prison for assaulting two Garland police officers in 2020.
NBC 5 obtained never before released video showing the moment one of the officers was run over by the suspect.
The encounter happened in June of 2020.
Garland police were called to a convenience store along S. First Street for a report of an intoxicated man with guns.
Get DFW local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC DFW newsletters.
“He’s sloppy drunk, got two guns, shootin’ them in the air,” said a man who called 911.
Video shows two officers trying to talk the suspect down, repeatedly asking for him to show them his hands.
The man argued with police that he had done nothing wrong.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
The officers are captured on body camera trying to keep the man from leaving.
Despite that effort, Gabriel Cobarrubias is seen getting into his car and putting it in reverse.
Officer Bradley Hanks was dragged a short distance but was able to get out of the way.
Lt. Matt Green, however, was pinned in the driver’s side door, dragged backward, fell to the ground, and was run over by the suspect’s car.
Cobarrubias was caught a short time later and faced life in prison.
The case stalled in Dallas County due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Dallas County jury has now convicted and sentenced the 31-year-old to 40 years in prison for aggravated assault on a peace officer and 15 years for evading and using his car as a weapon, to be served concurrently.
Det. Robert Duncan of the Garland Police Department led the investigation.
“I know both officers. They’re both friends of mine so there is an emotional connection. Does it change how I investigate this case? No… We want justice no matter who does the crime,” said Duncan on Wednesday one day following the sentencing. “In my opinion, in over 31 years, he is a violent felon who needs to be off the street. Which is ultimately what the jury decided.”
As for how both officers are doing, Hanks made a full recovery. Despite undergoing several surgeries over two years, Lt. Green won’t be able to return to the streets in uniform, according to Duncan.
“He will be doing desk work and he will have permanent disabilities from his injuries,” said Duncan. “It will affect him and his family for the rest of their lives.”
Garland police hope this case sends a message about duty and sacrifice.
“I hope they see officers are people. They’re not a robot. We have families that we want to go home to every night. We don’t want to be permanently injured from doing this profession,” said Duncan. “There’s an inherent risk in our job, but it doesn’t mean we should be drug across the parking lot and ran over and left in the street as you’d run over a piece of trash on the road. That’s not who we are. We are people.”
Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot’s office released a statement Wednesday afternoon regarding the conviction and sentence, thanking assistant district attorneys Nadin-Sarah Salkic and Jason Hermus, as well as investigators Raul Obregon and Lee Esquivel.
‘Special thanks also go out to Detective Duncan with the Garland Police Department who worked diligently with the District Attorney’s Office to secure justice for Lt. Green and Officer Hank.
‘This conviction was a major win for our Office and for the community because an extremely dangerous and violent individual has been taken off the streets for a very long time,’ said prosecutor Salkic in the press release.
