The power pole does, indeed, do an excellent job of obscuring a goodly portion of the left side of his body, though, so there is no way to tell for sure.
Still not enough information available, though, and I was not there, so...
As the article states there is a 2nd video that is much closer and has a better angle. It has been described as “troubling” as well by a police spokesman. I am betting that if the guy had a weapon they would have released that video by now.