The public will have to wait longer to see body-camera footage from the August police shooting that killed 57-year-old Francisco Aparicio-Munoz in Bel Air.
State investigators said they need more time to interview witnesses before releasing the video. No new release date has been announced.
What We Know: The shooting happened Aug. 15 during a traffic stop on Franklin Street. Bel Air Police Officer Christopher Birch shot Aparicio-Munoz after police said the two got into a physical fight. Aparicio-Munoz was flown to the University of Maryland R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, where he died.
The Independent Investigations Division of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office has been investigating the shooting. Birch had joined the Bel Air Police Department about two months earlier and had three years of police experience.
Confirmed Information: Aparicio-Munoz was shot in the back. Paramedics reported the location of the gunshot wound, and cell phone video of the shooting confirms the shot came from behind.
Birch was wearing a body camera during the encounter, and investigators have that footage. The Attorney General’s Office said its release is being delayed because investigators need additional time to complete interviews.
The division generally releases body-camera or dashboard-camera footage within 20 business days. Its rules allow investigators to take longer when interviews remain unfinished, when video needs to be edited to protect privacy or safety, or when family members or officers need time to view it before its public release.
Going beyond that 20-business-day window is not unique to the Bel Air investigation. In a November 2025 fatal police shooting in Salisbury, investigators also said they needed more time for witness interviews. The delay was announced Dec. 3, and the footage was eventually released Jan. 21, about seven weeks later. The investigation continued after the video was released, and the Attorney General’s Office ultimately declined to charge the officers in March.
Investigators gave the same reason for delaying video after a December 2024 police shooting in White Plains. That investigation continued for months before the Attorney General’s Office announced in September 2025 that the officers would not be charged.
Other delays have been much shorter. Video from a September 2025 shooting in Riverdale was delayed so people involved could view it first, then released two days after the delay was announced. Investigators later completed that case without charging the officer.
A March 2025 police pursuit and fatal crash in Capitol Heights had its video delayed for a similar reason. Investigators later declined to prosecute the officers in that case as well.
Those cases do not show how long the Bel Air delay will last. They do show that a delay by itself has not predicted the eventual outcome of previous Independent Investigations Division cases.
Unconfirmed Information: Authorities still have not publicly explained why Birch stopped Aparicio-Munoz, what started the physical confrontation or what each man did during the fight before Birch fired.
Town officials previously said Birch was treated at a hospital for injuries from the confrontation, released and later returned for additional treatment related to those injuries. Officials have not released further details about his condition.
The unreleased body-camera footage may provide a clearer account of what happened before the shooting, but investigators have not yet made that portion of the evidence public.
Speculation: Some residents commenting online about the delay are treating it as evidence that investigators are hiding something, that the video reflects badly on Birch or that disciplinary or criminal action may be coming.
There is no confirmed evidence for any of those conclusions. The Attorney General’s Office has said only that investigators need more time to complete interviews. Previous Maryland cases have also had footage delayed for unfinished interviews or other investigative reasons, and the delay itself did not establish whether officers had committed wrongdoing or predict whether charges would eventually be filed.
The same applies to speculation from the other direction that the delay means the footage clears Birch. Investigators have not said what the body-camera footage shows or announced any conclusion about whether the shooting was legally justified.
For now, the reason for the delay that can be established is the one given by state investigators: interviews are not yet complete.