Last month, still attached to hospital monitors, Christopher Grant told CNN’s Chris Cuomo how he was shot on Aug. 3 inside of a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Now, police are saying parts of his story doesn’t reflect what’s on surveillance footage.
In the CNN interview, Grant described seeing the shooter’s face, hearing people prayed in Spanish for their safety, how a Customs and Border Protection officer saved his life and how he attempted to deter the shooter by throwing bottles of soda at his direction.
Grant was indeed shot twice near his rib cage, according to The El Paso Times, and his sister shared on Facebook that he underwent at least two surgeries. “God Bless the families that lost their loved ones, my heart is breaking for them,” she wrote.
Grant was celebrated for his actions, and covered by media outlets nationwide, including a short mention by TIME.
Beto O'Rourke praised him. “Chris is a hero. When he heard gunshots, he ran toward the killer—distracting him even though he knew it meant he would be in the line of fire. El Paso will always be defined by people like Chris. I am so proud he calls our community home.”
Grant and his family were invited to The White House so that he could be recognized for his alleged act of heroism. As he and his family arrived to meet the President on Monday, the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) arrested him.
What’s more, the EPPD says Grant’s story about throwing bottles at the shooter doesn’t align with surveillance footage of the events that day.
“Mr. Grant’s actions were captured on video, but they do not reflect his account to the media outlet [CNN],” Carrillo said. “It contradicts his statements, in fact… [H]e did not take any action towards the shooter.”
Carrillo said surveillance footage shows Grant acting in “a manner of self-preservation, as best as I can describe it, and nothing else.”
“I’m not demeaning his actions,” he added.
At the Monday White House ceremony honoring five heroic El Pasoans and six police officers who responded to Dayton, Ohio, mass shooting, Grant’s mother stood in for her son to accept a certificate of Heroic Commendation. There, President Donald Trump praised Grant for the actions he described to CNN.
“Chris grabbed — listen to this — soda bottles and anything else in front of him and began hurling them at the gunman distracting him from the other shoppers and causing the shooters to turn towards Chris and fire at Chris,” President Trump said at the ceremony. “Whereby Chris suffered two very serious gunshot wounds, but he is recovering well and we wish him the best, his family is here.”