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On 09/29/2021, Columbus Police Officer Andrew Hawkins shot and killed 26-year-old Kyle Anthony Veyon outside a residence at 2469 Kimberly Parkway East after police responded to a domestic disturbance involving Veyon, his former girlfriend and a knife.
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Police were dispatched after a 911 call came from the former girlfriend’s phone without the caller initially providing information to the dispatcher. When officers arrived, the woman told them Veyon had tried to kill her with a knife. She later told investigators that Veyon had called her at work, sent her a photograph of himself holding a knife to his throat, damaged her clothing and threatened to kill her and then himself. She also reported having a stay-away order involving Veyon.
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Body-camera video documented much of the final encounter. Veyon was holding a large knife near his own throat when officers confronted him. Officers repeatedly ordered him to stop and back away. Officer Steve Balmert attempted to use a Taser, but the attempt was unsuccessful.
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Veyon then ran toward his former girlfriend as she fled. After she escaped his immediate reach, Veyon turned back toward Hawkins. The video shows Veyon continuing toward Hawkins with the knife held at his own neck while repeatedly yelling for Hawkins to kill him. Hawkins repeatedly told him to stop before firing his handgun when Veyon had closed to within several feet. Officers immediately provided first aid, and Veyon was transported to Grant Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 10:37 a.m.
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The video and subsequent investigative records make the behavioral-health dimension of the encounter unusually clear. Veyon was threatening suicide, held the knife against himself and repeatedly demanded that police kill him immediately before Hawkins fired. At the same time, the former girlfriend told investigators that Veyon had threatened to kill her, and the body-camera footage shows him running after her while armed with the knife. The shooting therefore occurred during an acute suicidal crisis that also presented a reported threat to another person.
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The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation conducted the independent investigation. BCI collected body-camera footage, dispatch records, physical and forensic evidence, interviewed Hawkins and the other officers, interviewed multiple civilian witnesses and reviewed Hawkins’ personnel and training history. The completed investigative materials were subsequently made publicly available by the Ohio Attorney General.
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The Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office later presented Hawkins’ shooting of Veyon to a grand jury. In 2023, the grand jury voted not to indict Hawkins, ending the criminal review without charges against him.
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Available reporting and investigative records do not establish that Veyon’s family publicly contested the basic events documented on the body-camera footage or filed an encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
BCI’s review of Andrew Hawkins’ personnel file found 12 previous use-of-force entries in his Columbus police record before he killed Veyon. BCI reported that none of those entries showed that Hawkins had been disciplined for his use of force. His records also showed that he had received crisis-intervention training in 2012, making that training particularly relevant to the circumstances of Veyon’s acute suicidal crisis.
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Hawkins remained with the Columbus Division of Police after the shooting and was promoted to sergeant in December 2023.
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The institutional context surrounding the Columbus Division of Police was unusually significant when Veyon was killed. The department had a long history of federal civil-rights scrutiny. A U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division investigation had previously determined that Columbus officers engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force, false arrests and false charges, and improper searches and seizures in violation of the Constitution.
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More immediately, Veyon was killed during an extraordinary period of controversy over Columbus police use of deadly force. In December 2020, Officer Adam Coy shot and killed Andre Hill, an unarmed Black man, within seconds of encountering him in a garage. Coy was fired and criminally charged with murder. In April 2021, Columbus officers were involved in the fatal hospital shooting of Miles Jackson, and later that same month Officer Nicholas Reardon shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant. Those shootings intensified demands for outside review and reform of the department.
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In April 2021, months before Hawkins killed Veyon, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther requested assistance from the U.S. Department of Justice to review the police department and recommend reforms addressing racial bias and other policing concerns. That federal technical-assistance process eventually produced additional reviews of the department, including a later examination of Columbus police use-of-force policies, procedures and training.
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The Veyon investigation itself provides considerably more transparency than many fatal police shootings because the body-camera video, BCI investigative reports, witness interviews and officer personnel-file reviews were ultimately released. Those records establish both the immediate circumstances confronting Hawkins and the fact that Hawkins had accumulated 12 prior documented use-of-force entries before this fatal shooting.

https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/columbus/columbus-police-officer-not-charged-in-2021-shooting/
https://www.wosu.org/news/2021-10-01/columbus-police-release-body-camera-video-of-wednesdays-police-involved-shooting
https://prosecutor.franklincountyohio.gov/press-releases/1542
https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/InvestigativeDocuments
https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/getattachment/3e62e884-8156-4e3a-a5c2-360e91c3b25c/3e62e884-8156-4e3a-a5c2-360e91c3b25c.aspx
https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/getattachment/b1a79cc9-e1ae-4052-887d-5377e92a1a64/b1a79cc9-e1ae-4052-887d-5377e92a1a64.aspx
https://www.justice.gov/crt/columbus-findings-letter
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-releases-report-based-critical-response-review-columbus-ohio-division

On 09/29/2021, four Mesa Police Department officers shot and killed 37-year-old Stephen Phil Franco at an apartment complex at 202 E. Baseline Road in Tempe while attempting to arrest him in connection with a bank robbery two days earlier.
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Mesa detectives had tracked Franco to the apartment complex after identifying him as the person they believed robbed a Desert Financial Credit Union at 1262 N. Stapley Drive in Mesa on September 27. Detectives located Franco inside a parked vehicle and attempted to arrest him.
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According to police, Franco would not leave the vehicle. Tempe police spokesperson Hector Encinas said officers asked Franco whether he was armed and Franco indicated that he was, leading Mesa police to treat the encounter as a barricade. Mesa SWAT officers responded and attempted to negotiate with him.
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When negotiations did not bring Franco out, police escalated to less-lethal weapons. Officers fired beanbag rounds and deployed a chemical agent into the vehicle. The chemical agent caused Franco to exit and walk toward the rear of the car. Police continued firing beanbag rounds, which they said did not stop him, and Tempe police deployed a K-9.
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Police alleged that Franco then lowered a hand toward his waistband as though reaching for a firearm. Four Mesa officers opened fire, striking him. Franco was transported to a hospital and died. Police reported finding a handgun on the ground near the location where Franco had been standing. Early reporting specifically noted that investigators had not yet established publicly whether the recovered gun belonged to Franco.
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The available accounts therefore establish an important distinction in the shooting narrative: police did not report seeing Franco holding or firing a gun immediately before officers opened fire. Their stated justification was that he moved his hand toward his waistband after previously indicating that he was armed. The handgun was reported recovered from the ground after the shooting.
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Tempe Police Department investigated the shooting because Mesa officers fired the fatal shots in Tempe. Mesa police separately continued the underlying bank-robbery investigation.
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An important transparency issue emerged after Franco's death. None of the Mesa SWAT officers involved in the encounter were wearing body cameras. ABC15 subsequently reported that this was not an isolated omission: Mesa's SWAT and Street Crimes Unit officers had historically operated without body-worn cameras. The department had been questioned about the practice after earlier controversial shootings and nevertheless still had not equipped SWAT officers with cameras when Franco was killed. Mesa subsequently said all SWAT and Street Crimes Unit personnel would receive body cameras by the end of 2021.
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Available later reporting does not document Franco's family or an eyewitness publicly challenging the police account of his final movements or an encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Four Mesa Police Department officers fired at Franco. Their identities were not disclosed in the contemporary reporting and could not be reliably established from later publicly accessible coverage reviewed for this update.
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The Mesa Police Department had a substantial and directly relevant record of controversial force incidents when its SWAT officers killed Franco. Just one year earlier, on September 25, 2020, Mesa officers shot and killed 21-year-old Angel Benitez after surrounding his vehicle at another Tempe apartment complex. Police alleged Benitez reached toward his waistband, but he was unarmed. Witnesses said Benitez had his hands raised. His family filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit alleging wrongful death and excessive force.
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The similarity between the Benitez and Franco shootings is notable. Both involved Mesa specialty-unit officers confronting men inside vehicles at Tempe apartment complexes; in both cases police alleged a movement toward the waistband immediately before officers fired. The Benitez shooting became particularly controversial because witnesses said his hands were raised and police subsequently determined that he had no gun.
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Mesa SWAT was also sued over another 2020 encounter in which officers fired beanbag rounds at Lorenzo Jones while video showed him standing with his hands raised near his children. Jones was unarmed. These cases led ABC15 investigators to examine a broader pattern of Mesa specialty-unit force and to discover that neither SWAT nor the Street Crimes Unit routinely wore body cameras.
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The department's force controversies extended considerably further. Mesa Officer Philip Brailsford shot and killed Daniel Shaver in a hotel hallway in 2016 while Shaver was unarmed, crying, pleading with police not to shoot him and attempting to follow officers' commands. Brailsford was prosecuted for murder and acquitted, while the killing became one of Mesa's most nationally prominent police controversies.
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In another widely publicized case, multiple Mesa officers repeatedly struck Robert Johnson in 2018 while he was standing against a wall and was not physically resisting. Surveillance video contradicted important elements of the officers' initial descriptions of the encounter. Mesa ultimately disciplined officers, and Johnson's federal civil-rights case resulted in a $350,000 settlement.
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Mesa also faced a $15 million legal claim following the 2020 killing of Angel Benitez, alleging excessive force, failure to provide adequate medical assistance and negligent hiring. By the time Franco was killed, the department was therefore already confronting litigation and sustained public scrutiny over multiple incidents involving force against people who were unarmed or allegedly had their hands raised.
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The lack of body-camera footage in Franco's shooting is especially consequential against that history. Mesa had already been questioned about why officers in its SWAT and Street Crimes units were exempt from routine body-camera use after previous disputed shootings. Nevertheless, when four SWAT officers killed Franco in September 2021, there was again no body-camera recording from the officers who fired. The department changed that practice afterward.

https://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/tempe/a-shooting-involving-mesa-police-in-tempe-under-investigation-police-say
https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/bank-robbery-suspect-shot-killed-in-tempe-by-police-authorities-say
https://patch.com/arizona/tempe/mesa-police-shoot-kill-man-tempe-apartment-complex
https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2021/10/02/mesa-police-officers-shoot-bank-robber-reaching-for-a-gun/
https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/mesa-faces-lawsuits-for-officers-using-force-on-hands-up-suspects
https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/15-million-claim-filed-against-mesa-police-for-shooting-unarmed-man
https://www.abc15.com/news/crime/lawsuit-mesa-officers-unlawfully-arrested-shot-unarmed-man-in-the-butt
https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/officers-pinned-mesa-man-in-2018-as-he-begged-for-help
https://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/religious-leaders-list-demands-for-mesa-police-following-excessive-force-report

On 09/28/2021, California Highway Patrol Officer Daniel Castaneda shot and killed 24-year-old Leonel Chavez at Medford Street and North Indiana Street in East Los Angeles after CHP officers responded to a traffic collision. Chavez was unarmed.
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Shortly after 3 p.m., Chavez was driving his mother's Honda Civic when it sideswiped a Chevrolet Camaro. His damaged Honda traveled approximately 500 feet before becoming disabled. Witnesses reported that Chavez attempted to leave the collision scene, and the CHP call was upgraded to a reported hit-and-run. A tow-truck operator told arriving officers that Chavez had been agitated and had gestured toward his waistband in a way the witness interpreted as threatening, although the witness did not report actually seeing a weapon.
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Castaneda and trainee Officer Jennifer Sanchez arrived at approximately 3:32 p.m. Castaneda decided to detain Chavez to investigate the reported hit-and-run, a misdemeanor. Video shows Chavez eventually stopping, approaching with his hands raised and then placing his hands behind his head without being instructed to do so. Castaneda decided to frisk him because of the witness's report about the waistband gesture and Chavez's loose clothing.
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According to Castaneda and Sanchez, when Castaneda reached for Chavez's hands, Chavez turned and reached for Castaneda's holstered handgun. Sanchez told investigators that she saw Chavez grip the gun, while Castaneda said Chavez attempted to take it twice and that he struggled to retain it. After Castaneda broke away, both officers drew their firearms and backed away.
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The California DOJ's reconstruction shows Chavez at one point standing with his hands above his head while the officers pointed their guns at him. Police said Chavez then continued toward Castaneda despite commands to stop. Castaneda deployed his Taser, which did not incapacitate Chavez. Police alleged Chavez then moved rapidly toward Castaneda with his fists raised. Castaneda said he believed Chavez would tackle him, take his firearm and shoot him and Sanchez.
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Castaneda fired seven rounds in approximately two seconds. Chavez sustained seven gunshot wounds, several of them fatal. No firearm, knife or other weapon was found on Chavez.
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Officers did not immediately approach the wounded Chavez. The DOJ determined that approximately four minutes and 25 seconds elapsed between the shooting and officers approaching and handcuffing him, and that more than five minutes passed before medical aid began. Chavez had stopped moving for approximately two minutes and 15 seconds before officers approached him, and DOJ noted there was no direct evidence that he had a weapon. DOJ concluded medical aid might have been coordinated more effectively and recommended changes to CHP policy and training.
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The shooting itself was captured by the patrol car's video system, but there was no accompanying audio because Sanchez did not activate the microphones until after the shooting. CHP officers were not equipped with body cameras. DOJ subsequently recommended that CHP equip all patrol officers with body-worn cameras.
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What happened after the shooting raised additional serious concerns. After the microphones were activated, Castaneda and Sanchez muted them at different times. Video showed Castaneda motioning Sanchez aside, where he was recorded telling his trainee, “Don't say shit to anybody.” Sanchez then muted her microphone. Another CHP officer subsequently instructed Sanchez to say nothing because the incident could create civil liability. DOJ concluded that the muting could have prevented collection of valuable evidence and recommended that CHP review the conduct and take remedial action as warranted.
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DOJ also criticized the officers' tactics before the shooting. Its review found that Castaneda and Sanchez had time to formulate a tactical plan but apparently did not do so; that Chavez was alone and not presenting a threat when officers arrived; that Castaneda went hands-on with Chavez with minimal time to evaluate him despite believing he might be armed or under the influence; and that Castaneda and Sanchez failed to adequately communicate with each other. DOJ recommended remedial review of CHP training and tactics.
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There were further evidence-handling concerns. Castaneda told investigators that after firing he performed a tactical reload and retained the partially expended magazine. A responding CHP sergeant subsequently exchanged firearms and magazines with Castaneda and later exchanged them back. Castaneda said the gun he used to kill Chavez was not taken from him as evidence until three to four hours or more after the shooting. DOJ recommended that CHP determine whether its evidence-handling policies had been followed.
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In May 2023, the California Department of Justice concluded that there was insufficient evidence to criminally prosecute Castaneda, finding that prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that his use of deadly force was unlawful. Despite declining charges, DOJ issued eight areas of policy and practice recommendations addressing recording equipment, body cameras, medical aid, communication between involved officers, use-of-force policy, training and tactics, evidence handling and public access to CHP policies.
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Chavez's family vigorously contested the shooting from the beginning. His mother, Maritza Padilla, and family attorneys emphasized that Chavez was unarmed and argued that he posed no deadly threat. Attorney Christian Contreras called the shooting unjustified, while family attorney Humberto Guizar argued that the officers panicked and overreacted. The family continued organizing demonstrations and publicly demanding accountability after Chavez's death.
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The family also filed a civil lawsuit against CHP and Castaneda in January 2022. The case went to an eight-day jury trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court in February 2025. The jury found Castaneda negligent and awarded $6 million in damages, while also finding Chavez 49% comparatively at fault, reducing the recoverable verdict accordingly. After the trial, jurors specifically indicated that they found Castaneda negligent for failing to tell Chavez that he was going to frisk him before going hands-on.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Daniel Castaneda was the sole officer who fired at Chavez. Jennifer Sanchez, who was Castaneda's trainee and had been a CHP officer for approximately three months, drew and pointed her firearm but did not fire. DOJ records state that neither officer had previously been involved in a police shooting.
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The most significant officer-background findings arise from Castaneda's conduct during and immediately after this shooting itself. DOJ found multiple tactical and procedural concerns despite ultimately declining criminal charges: Castaneda initiated a hands-on frisk without an apparent tactical plan, did not adequately coordinate with his inexperienced trainee, delayed approaching and rendering aid to the wounded Chavez, participated in muting police recording equipment, instructed Sanchez not to speak to anyone after the shooting and retained possession of the gun used to kill Chavez for hours while firearms and magazines were exchanged with a supervisor.
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The later civil verdict is also significant to Castaneda's record. Although the California DOJ found insufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution in 2023, a civil jury considering the encounter in 2025 reached a different conclusion under the civil standard of proof and found Castaneda negligent.
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The California Highway Patrol had significant institutional problems directly relevant to this case. At the time Chavez was killed, CHP patrol officers were not equipped with body cameras, leaving the patrol-car camera as the principal police recording of the shooting. DOJ concluded that body cameras could have provided crucial additional evidence and recommended that CHP equip all patrol officers with them.
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The East Los Angeles CHP operation was also embroiled in a major internal corruption investigation during this period. In July 2021, less than three months before Chavez was killed, the California Attorney General announced criminal charges against six former CHP officers from the East Los Angeles station arising from an alleged multiyear overtime-fraud scheme. The investigation later expanded dramatically, with dozens of CHP officers accused of fraudulently claiming overtime.
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CHP's handling of Chavez's shooting itself exposed broader transparency and accountability deficiencies. DOJ found problems involving failure to activate audio, officers muting microphones, communications between involved officers before they were separated, delayed medical aid, tactical planning, use-of-force policy language and evidence preservation. DOJ additionally noted that CHP had elected not to publicly post many standards, policies, practices, procedures and training materials even though comparable local law-enforcement agencies were required to do so, making access to CHP policies unnecessarily difficult for the public.
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The combination of the family challenge, independent video evidence, DOJ's extensive criticism of CHP practices and tactics, and the later jury finding that Castaneda was negligent makes this case substantially different from the sparse initial CHP account of an officer shooting an allegedly threatening person. Chavez was unarmed, the shooting began as a response to a property-damage traffic collision and reported misdemeanor hit-and-run, and the family's civil case ultimately resulted in a jury finding fault in Castaneda's handling of the encounter.

https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/california-department-justice-releases-report-officer-involved-shooting-leonel
https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/ois/report/2023_05_Chavez_AB1506_Report.pdf
https://www.foxla.com/news/el-sereno-shooting-attorney-releases-video-leonel-chavez
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/ca-doj-refuses-to-charge-chp-officers-that-shot-and-killed-unarmed-man-in-el-sereno/
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-29/california-highway-patrol-fatal-shooting-el-sereno
https://laist.com/news/criminal-justice/chp-killing-of-unarmed-man-in-east-la-under-state-investigation-leonel-chavez-humerto-guizar
https://fightbacknews.org/articles/los-angeles-family-holds-protest-1-year-after-california-highway-patrol-killed-beloved-leo
https://deangazzo.com/kimberly-sullivan-promoted-to-partner-2-2-2/
https://oag.ca.gov/node/542666
https://openpayrolls.com/employee/daniel-s-castaneda-9571

On 09/28/2021, Hillsborough Township Police Officer George Kokinakous shot and killed 43-year-old Patrick Chin inside Chin's home at 10 Piedmont Path after five officers responded to a request for a welfare check during a mental health crisis.
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Police arrived at approximately 4:10 p.m. According to the New Jersey Attorney General's subsequent investigation, Chin was inside his home with an approximately three-foot-long sword and had self-inflicted wounds from a sharp object. Officers George Kokinakous, Robert Feriello, Thomas Gurba, Kyle Edmonds and Dylan Ely entered the encounter.
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Police alleged that officers repeatedly ordered Chin to put down the sword but that he did not do so. Feriello deployed OC spray in an attempt to disarm him, but it was ineffective. According to the official account, Chin then moved toward Kokinakous with the sword. Kokinakous fired four rounds, striking him.
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Chin was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and pronounced dead at approximately 5:28 p.m.
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There is no body-camera footage of the shooting. Hillsborough police had not equipped its officers with body-worn cameras at the time. There also is no other video recording that captures the actual shooting. Kokinakous was carrying the microphone associated with his patrol vehicle's mobile video recorder, however, and it captured audio from the encounter. The New Jersey Attorney General later publicly released the recording.
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The absence of video is significant because the critical allegation that Chin moved toward Kokinakous with the sword immediately before the officer fired depends on the officers' and witnesses' accounts rather than a recording of the shooting itself. The Attorney General's investigation included witness interviews, forensic evidence, the mobile-video-recording material, autopsy findings and recorded interviews of the involved officers and other eyewitnesses.
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A state grand jury subsequently reviewed the shooting under New Jersey's independent investigation process for deaths involving police. On February 13, 2023, the grand jury returned a no bill, meaning it declined to indict Kokinakous. No criminal charges were filed against him.
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Chin's family questioned the killing. His mother, Ann Chin, said she believed somebody had made a mistake or an error in judgment and said she could not comprehend police entering her son's home and shooting him. She described Patrick as having recently married and being in what she considered the happiest period of his life, while saying she did not know what had been troubling him before his death.
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The family's challenge did not end with public statements. On May 31, 2023, Susan Elizabeth Chin and the Estate of Patrick Chin filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Hillsborough Township, Police Chief Michael MacMahon, Kokinakous, Feriello, Gurba, Edmonds and Ely. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey under 42 U.S.C. §1983 and demanded a jury trial.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
George Kokinakous was the officer who fired all four gunshots at Chin. Robert Feriello deployed the OC spray. Thomas Gurba, Kyle Edmonds and Dylan Ely were also present during the fatal encounter.
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The later Attorney General investigation is particularly important because the initial public information was extremely limited. The state investigation eventually established the identities of all five officers, identified Kokinakous as the shooter and Feriello as the officer who used OC spray, documented Chin's self-inflicted injuries and provided the state's fuller account of what allegedly occurred immediately before Kokinakous fired.
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The department's lack of body cameras is an important institutional issue in this case. New Jersey had enacted legislation in November 2020 requiring uniformed patrol officers to wear body cameras, but implementation depended upon state funding and rollout. Hillsborough officers still were not equipped with them when Chin was killed in September 2021. Consequently, a fatal police encounter that began as a welfare check during a mental health crisis occurred without body-camera documentation of the officers' actions or Chin's final movements.
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The civil lawsuit filed by Chin's family is also significant because it names not merely Kokinakous but all five officers present, Police Chief Michael MacMahon and Hillsborough Township itself, bringing the conduct of the officers and the municipality into federal civil-rights litigation despite the state grand jury's earlier decision not to criminally charge Kokinakous.
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The case therefore ultimately produced two very different forms of legal scrutiny: a state criminal review that ended without charges against Kokinakous and a subsequent federal civil-rights action brought by Chin's family and estate. The family's position that the encounter involved a serious error in police judgment is especially relevant because police had been summoned to Chin's own home to check on his welfare during a mental health crisis rather than to investigate a reported crime.

https://www.nj.com/somerset/2021/09/man-killed-by-police-during-welfare-check-in-hillsborough.html
https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/somerset-county/2021/09/29/hillsborough-police-shooting-patrick-chin/5907446001/
https://www.couriernews.com/story/news/local/somerset-county/2021/09/29/hillsborough-police-shooting-under-investigation/5907888001/
https://www.nj.com/somerset/2022/01/grand-jury-clears-hillsborough-police-in-fatal-shooting-of-patrick-chin.html
https://www.nj.com/somerset/2021/10/somebody-made-a-mistake-mother-in-disbelief-after-police-fatally-shoot-son.html
https://www.njoag.gov/updated-ags-office-investigating-fatal-police-involved-shooting-in-hillsborough-2021-1018/
https://www.njoag.gov/ags-office-releases-video-from-mobile-video-recorder-in-police-vehicle-related-to-fatal-police-involved-shooting-in-hillsborough-on-september-28-2021/
https://www.njoag.gov/grand-jury-declines-to-file-charges-in-police-involved-shooting-that-killed-hillsborough-man-on-september-28-2021/
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/new-jersey/njdce/3%3A2023cv02949/513023
 

On 09/28/2021, Anaheim Police Officers Catalin Panov, Paul Delgado, Brett Heitmann and Kenneth Weber shot and killed 33-year-old Brandon Lopez following a vehicle pursuit and nearly four-hour barricade in Santa Ana. Lopez was unarmed and experiencing a mental health crisis.
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Anaheim police began pursuing Lopez after officers located him driving a Chevrolet pickup truck that had been reported stolen. Police also knew he had three outstanding warrants, including warrants involving armed robbery and domestic violence. The pursuit continued for approximately 35 minutes through Tustin, Irvine and Santa Ana before the truck became immobilized on streetcar tracks under construction near Santa Ana Boulevard.
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Lopez remained inside the vehicle for hours while Santa Ana and Anaheim police attempted to persuade him to surrender. His family informed police that he was experiencing a mental health crisis and reportedly wanted police to kill him. Lopez's cousin, Santa Ana City Councilman Johnathan Ryan Hernandez, and other family members were at the scene and wanted an opportunity to communicate with him.
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During the standoff, a Santa Ana officer monitoring Lopez from an armored vehicle reported that Lopez appeared to have a handgun. That information was relayed to Anaheim officers and became critically important to their tactical decisions. No gun was ultimately found.
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Less than an hour before the shooting, Anaheim police assumed command of the barricade from Santa Ana police. Rather than continuing to wait, Anaheim SWAT decided to force Lopez from the vehicle. Officers deployed a chemical agent and flash-bang device into the truck.
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Lopez emerged within seconds. Officers shouted commands and then yelled that he had a gun. Panov, Delgado, Heitmann and Weber opened fire. The four officers collectively fired 22 rounds, killing Lopez.
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Lopez did not have a gun. The object officers perceived as a firearm was an empty plastic water bottle inside a small black Guess bag. Police subsequently found a knife and drug paraphernalia inside the vehicle, but neither was the object the officers said caused them to fire.
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The California Department of Justice independently investigated the shooting because Lopez was unarmed. DOJ subsequently concluded in November 2023 that prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the four officers acted without an intent to defend themselves or others from what they reasonably perceived as an imminent threat. DOJ therefore declined criminal charges.
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The DOJ nevertheless identified significant problems with the tactical handling of the encounter. It questioned Anaheim's decision to escalate an otherwise contained situation by deploying flash-bangs and chemical agents and recommended that the department develop additional guidelines, criteria and training addressing when police should initiate a confrontation in a controlled scene. DOJ also made recommendations concerning body-camera equipment and compliance.
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Lopez's family forcefully contested the police handling of the encounter. Hernandez, who watched the operation unfold, said police knew Lopez was experiencing a mental health crisis yet unnecessarily escalated the situation. Santa Ana Mayor Vicente Sarmiento compared the Anaheim officers' actions to a “firing squad” and questioned why police provoked a confrontation by deploying the flash-bang after having hours to pursue other options.
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Family attorneys likewise questioned why police would use a device capable of causing temporary blindness, hearing impairment and disorientation and then shoot Lopez within seconds of his emergence. They argued that officers had ample time to use Lopez's family or mental health personnel to help de-escalate the encounter.
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The family pursued civil action, initially filing a claim alleging excessive and unreasonable force and later suing Anaheim. In June 2024, Anaheim agreed to pay $5.8 million to settle the lawsuit brought on behalf of Lopez's four children.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
All four shooters were eventually publicly identified as Catalin Panov, Paul Delgado, Brett Heitmann and Kenneth Weber. A later Los Angeles Times investigation found that several of the officers had substantial prior shooting histories.
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Paul Delgado had been involved in at least three previous police shootings before killing Lopez. In 2018, Delgado and another Anaheim detective shot Kenneth Yamashita-Magarro after police mistakenly believed Yamashita-Magarro was the person they had been surveilling. Police pursued him by vehicle and on foot and alleged that he reached toward his waistband. No gun was found on him. Yamashita-Magarro was shot in the chest, leg and lower back and was left paralyzed from the waist down. Prosecutors later declined criminal charges against the officers.
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Delgado had also participated in the 2014 fatal shooting of Robert Moreno, who was shot 23 times by three Anaheim officers after police alleged Moreno shot a police dog and fired at officers. Delgado additionally participated in the 2008 nonfatal shooting of Jose Francisco Rodriguez following another vehicle pursuit. Police alleged Rodriguez pointed a shotgun at officers before they fired.
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Catalin Panov had participated in at least two previous fatal police shootings before killing Lopez. In 2008, Panov and another officer shot and killed David Abrams on the 91 Freeway following a pursuit. Two civilian women caught in the officers' line of fire sued Anaheim after one of them was struck by police bullets in the abdomen, hand, back and shoulder. Anaheim settled their case for $300,000.
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Panov also participated in the 2014 fatal shooting of Steen Parker following another hours-long barricade. Police used pepper balls and gas against Parker before the confrontation escalated into gunfire. Panov fired an entire magazine during that shooting.
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Brett Heitmann had been present during at least two earlier fatal Anaheim police shootings, although he did not fire in either. Heitmann was Officer Nick Bennallack's partner when Bennallack shot and killed unarmed Manuel Angel Diaz in 2012. Diaz was running away when police pursued him into an apartment courtyard. A federal civil jury later concluded that Bennallack used excessive force in killing Diaz.
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Heitmann was also Bennallack's partner when Bennallack killed Bernie Villegas in 2012 after mistaking a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun for a shotgun. Thus, before Lopez's killing, Heitmann had already twice been present when his partner fatally shot someone, including one case ultimately found by a federal jury to involve excessive force.
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The officers' histories fit a larger documented pattern within the Anaheim Police Department. A 2017 ACLU of Southern California investigation found that Anaheim police had killed 33 people during arrests between 2003 and 2016 and that the department's rate of arrest-related deaths exceeded those of numerous much larger departments. The report found that nearly 40% of people killed by Anaheim police were unarmed and that Latino and Black residents were disproportionately represented.
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Particularly relevant to Lopez's case, the ACLU found that 55% of Anaheim's arrest-related deaths involved officers who had also been involved in another death and called for an early-warning system to identify repeat shooters. The organization also criticized Anaheim's deadly-force policies and called for stronger de-escalation requirements, independent civilian oversight and greater transparency.
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Those longstanding concerns became unusually concrete in Lopez's shooting: four officers fired 22 rounds at an unarmed man during a known mental health crisis, and at least two of the shooters had already participated in multiple police shootings. Police had hours to manage a contained scene before Anaheim SWAT deliberately escalated it with chemical agents and a flash-bang. The object officers perceived as a gun was an empty water bottle inside a small black bag.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-29/anaheim-police-shooting-brandon-lopez
https://www.ocregister.com/2021/09/29/man-killed-in-anaheim-officer-involved-shooting-identified/
https://abc7.com/anaheim-police-shooting-santa-ana-brandon-lopez/11049274/
https://voiceofoc.org/2021/10/family-of-brandon-lopez-killed-by-anaheim-police-files-claim/
https://voiceofoc.org/2021/09/santa-ana-councilman-watches-police-kill-cousin-he-said-had-mental-health-crisis/
https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/california-department-justice-releases-report-officer-involved-shooting-brandon
https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/ois/report/2023_11_Lopez_AB1506_Report.pdf
https://www.ocregister.com/2023/11/01/state-department-of-justice-clears-anaheim-officers-in-2021-shooting-of-brandon-lopez/
https://www.ocregister.com/2024/06/07/city-of-anaheim-to-pay-5-8-million-in-lawsuit-over-death-of-brandon-lopez/
https://voiceofoc.org/2024/06/anaheim-pays-out-nearly-6-million-to-settle-brandon-lopez-shooting-lawsuit/
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-12-05/anaheim-police-officers-who-killed-councilmans-cousin-have-a-history-of-fatal-shootings
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-11-18/police-mistook-bottle-in-bag-for-gun-in-fatal-anaheim-shooting
https://www.aclusocal.org/publications/anaheim-police-department-use-force-report-2017/
https://www.aclusocal.org/press-releases/aclu-releases-report-excessive-force-used-anaheim-police/

On 09/27/2021, Auburn Police Sgt. Steven Gosselin shot and killed 36-year-old Joseph Arbour on Center Street after police responded to the Value Inn for a report that a woman was being held against her will by a man with firearms.
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Police received the call at approximately 10 a.m. Officer Andrew Shute initially responded to the second-floor motel room and heard a man and woman arguing before they became quiet when he knocked. Police forced entry and discovered that the people inside had left through a window. Security video subsequently showed Arbour and three other people leaving the room by way of the balcony.
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Gosselin encountered Arbour walking away from the motel toward Center Street and believed he might be connected to the reported hostage situation. According to the Maine Attorney General's later investigation, Gosselin repeatedly called to Arbour and asked him to stop. Arbour continued walking, and Gosselin followed and attempted to grab him.
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According to the Attorney General's account, Arbour turned and pointed a black Hi-Point pistol directly at Gosselin. Gosselin drew his handgun and repeatedly ordered Arbour to drop his weapon. Arbour then placed his pistol against his own head and threatened to kill himself, establishing that the encounter had developed into a mental health crisis.
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Arbour subsequently lowered the pistol to his side and continued moving toward Center Street rather than surrendering it. The Attorney General reported that Gosselin followed as Arbour moved toward a busy commercial area. Gosselin later said he feared Arbour might shoot him or another person or take someone else hostage.
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Gosselin fired three rounds. Arbour was struck and died at the scene. The state medical examiner determined that Arbour died from a gunshot wound to the back.
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A handgun was recovered at the scene. Toxicology testing later detected fentanyl and methamphetamine in Arbour's system.
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The initial police portrayal of the incident was challenged almost immediately on a significant point. Brianna Reeve, who identified herself as Arbour's girlfriend, disputed the premise that Arbour had been holding her hostage. Reeve said she had not been held against her will and wanted to know who had made the hostage allegation. She said she had been staying at the motel but had been in a different room from Arbour during the preceding hours.
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Reeve also questioned why police used deadly force. She described Arbour as loving and caring and said he had been trying to protect her following a recent dispute. Her account therefore directly contradicted the allegation that she was Arbour's hostage, although it did not establish that she witnessed the final confrontation between Arbour and Gosselin.
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The Maine Attorney General's Office investigated Gosselin's use of deadly force. The final report was not issued until April 2024, more than two and a half years after the killing. The Attorney General concluded that Gosselin reasonably believed deadly force was necessary to protect himself and others and ruled the shooting legally justified.
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The case later received another independent state-level review. Maine's Deadly Force Review Panel examined Arbour's killing and summarized the encounter in its 2025 annual report. The panel likewise described Arbour pointing the pistol at Gosselin, putting it against his own head and threatening suicide, then moving toward businesses and other people while continuing to possess the gun.
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No encounter-related wrongful-death or federal civil-rights lawsuit by Arbour's family was identified in the later public record reviewed for this update.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Steven Gosselin was the Auburn police sergeant who fired all three shots at Arbour. Later reporting and the Attorney General's completed investigation publicly established his identity and provided substantially more information about the circumstances than was available immediately after the shooting.
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The Auburn Police Department itself had a significant excessive-force case moving through federal court during the period surrounding Arbour's killing. Romelly Dastinot sued Auburn officers Scott Watkins, Tyler Ham and Mark Lemos over a 2014 encounter, alleging unlawful seizure and excessive force. In June 2022, a federal jury found that Auburn Officer Lemos had unlawfully stopped Dastinot and that Officer Watkins had used excessive force by allowing a police dog to continue biting Dastinot after he was on the ground. The jury awarded Dastinot $150,000.
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The federal litigation is significant because it resulted in an affirmative jury finding of unconstitutional conduct by an Auburn officer rather than merely an allegation against the department. The case continued through post-trial proceedings into 2023.
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Auburn's own later internal-affairs reporting also documents continuing citizen complaints against the department. Its 2023 Internal Affairs Summary reported seven citizen complaints that year, including one sustained policy violation. The report said this represented an increase from three citizen complaints in 2021, the year Gosselin killed Arbour.
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The later state review of Arbour's death provides an unusual additional point of context. By 2026, when Maine's Deadly Force Review Panel published its annual report containing the Arbour case, Gosselin's shooting was still being formally examined within the state's broader review system nearly five years after the killing.
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The central conflict in the historical record is therefore unusually clear. Police responded on the premise that Arbour was holding a woman hostage; the woman identified as his girlfriend publicly said she had not been his hostage. The Attorney General nevertheless concluded that, whatever the accuracy of the original hostage report, Gosselin subsequently faced an armed man who pointed a pistol at him and then continued toward a populated commercial area while refusing to surrender the weapon.

https://www.centralmaine.com/2021/09/27/police-officer-involved-in-a-shooting-on-center-street-in-auburn/
https://www.sunjournal.com/2024/04/19/attorney-general-auburn-police-shooting-of-armed-man-in-2021-was-justified/
https://wgme.com/news/local/maine-attorney-general-deems-auburn-2021-officer-involved-shooting-as-justified
https://www.mainepublic.org/courts-and-crime/2021-09-27/maines-attorney-general-is-looking-into-a-possible-officer-involved-shooting
https://www.wmtw.com/article/auburn-maine-office-involved-shooting/37757016
https://www.bangordailynews.com/2021/09/27/central-maine/auburn-police-on-scene-of-officer-involved-shooting/
https://www.bangordailynews.com/2024/04/22/central-maine/central-maine-police-courts/auburn-police-shooting-steven-gosselin-joseph-arbour/
https://www.maine.gov/ag/about-us/special-projects/deadly-force-review-panel/tue-03172026-1641-2025-annual-report-deadly
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/maine/medce/2%3A2018cv00166/53982/208/
https://www.sunjournal.com/2022/06/20/jury-auburn-police-officer-used-excessive-force/
https://www.auburnmaine.gov/Documents/Departments/Police/2023%20INTERNAL%20AFFAIRS%20SUMMARY.pdf

On 09/27/2021, an Allen Police Department officer shot and killed 27-year-old Gloria Marie Strong in the parking lot of a Wendy’s at 601 W. McDermott Drive near U.S. Highway 75 after police responded to a disturbance involving Strong, her estranged wife and another man.
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Police were dispatched shortly before 2:30 p.m. to a reported disturbance at 301 Central Expressway South. Officers did not initially locate the disturbance and began searching the surrounding area. They subsequently encountered Strong in the nearby Wendy’s parking lot.
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The initial police narrative changed materially within approximately one day. Allen police first described the incident as a gunfight or exchange of gunfire between Strong and 24-year-old Michael Anthony Cooper and initially said investigators did not know whether Strong had been fatally struck by Cooper’s gunfire or police gunfire.
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Police subsequently withdrew that account. Allen police said Cooper had not fired his weapon and that the only people who fired guns were Strong and the Allen officer. Police said Strong had shot Cooper several times before officers arrived at the immediate location.
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Strong’s estranged wife, Jonique Strong, witnessed the confrontation and provided an account that supported significant portions of the revised police narrative. She said Gloria Strong shot Cooper, dropped the handgun she had been using and picked up Cooper’s rifle before running from the area. Jonique Strong said Cooper had armed himself because he believed Gloria Strong posed a threat but did not fire his weapon.
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Police said responding officers saw Strong carrying the rifle at her side and heard gunshots. According to the department’s revised account, officers also observed Strong firing her weapon before she began running east while still carrying the rifle toward an area with vehicle and pedestrian traffic. An Allen officer fired at least one shot at her.
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Police found Cooper wounded between two vehicles and Strong collapsed several feet away. Officers provided first aid, and both were transported to a hospital. Strong died from her wounds. Cooper underwent emergency surgery and survived.
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The precise sequence of the fatal gunfire was initially unclear enough that police publicly declined to say who had killed Strong. The department’s later statement said Strong “died from wounds received during the incident,” while confirming that an Allen officer had fired at her. The Texas Rangers assisted with the investigation because an Allen officer discharged a firearm.
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Jonique Strong’s eyewitness account also provided important context preceding the shooting. She said she and Gloria were estranged and planning to divorce and that Gloria had been away from their home for at least two weeks. Jonique was at Wendy’s with her four-year-old daughter and Cooper, the child’s father, when Gloria encountered them. Jonique said jealousy involving Cooper contributed to the confrontation.
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Jonique also said Gloria had previously taken her handgun and that police had recently been called concerning the situation but had not recovered the weapon. She said Gloria used that handgun to shoot Cooper before dropping it and picking up Cooper’s rifle. Thus, the encounter with police followed an extremely serious shooting, but the public record also shows that Allen police substantially revised their initial account after first portraying the incident as an exchange of gunfire between Strong and Cooper.
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No encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit by Strong’s family was identified in the later public record reviewed for this update.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Allen Police Department officer who fired at Strong was not publicly identified in the contemporary coverage, and later publicly accessible reporting reviewed for this update does not reliably establish the officer’s identity. Without that identification, a substantive individual background investigation for prior or subsequent shootings, complaints, discipline or civil litigation cannot be completed.
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The Texas Rangers were brought into the investigation specifically because an Allen officer fired a weapon. The department’s changing account makes that independent investigation particularly important. Police initially told the public that Strong and Cooper had exchanged gunfire and that investigators did not know whose bullets killed her. By the following evening, Allen police acknowledged that Cooper never fired and that the only gunfire came from Strong and the officer.
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There is also relevant institutional context involving Allen police and another high-profile death earlier that same year. On March 14, 2021, Allen police arrested 26-year-old Marvin Scott III at the Allen Premium Outlets after officers encountered him during what they described as erratic behavior and concerns for his safety. Scott, who had a documented history of mental illness, was transported to a hospital and then booked into the Collin County jail. He died hours later after detention officers restrained him, pepper-sprayed him and placed a spit hood over his head. An independent autopsy attributed his death to restraint and asphyxia.
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Scott’s death triggered protests and intense scrutiny in Collin County. Seven Collin County detention officers were fired and an eighth resigned following the sheriff’s internal investigation. Although Scott died in county jail rather than directly in Allen police custody, Allen officers initiated the detention that placed him into the chain of custody preceding his death, making the case relevant to the policing environment in Allen during the months before Strong was killed.
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The most important unresolved officer-background issue in Strong’s case remains the identity of the shooter. Because the officer’s name was withheld from the readily available public record, it is not possible to determine whether that officer had previous or subsequent fatal shootings or other relevant disciplinary or litigation history.

https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/armed-woman-dies-officer-involved-shooting-wendys-parking-lot-allen-texas/
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2021/09/27/woman-armed-with-a-rifle-dead-in-allen-after-officer-involved-shooting/
https://www.fox4news.com/news/woman-shot-dead-by-allen-officer-during-argument-with-man-identified
https://www.fox4news.com/news/allen-officer-fires-at-woman-involved-in-shootout-with-man-at-wendys-parking-lot

On 09/27/2021, Long Beach Unified School District School Safety Officer Eddie Francisco Gonzalez shot 18-year-old Manuela “Mona” Rodriguez in the back of the head as she sat in a car leaving a parking lot near Millikan High School. Rodriguez suffered catastrophic brain injuries and died on October 5 after being removed from life support. The database date remains September 27, the date Gonzalez shot her.
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Gonzalez was on duty conducting school safety patrol near Millikan High School when he encountered a fight between Rodriguez and a 15-year-old girl in a shopping-center parking lot about a block from campus. Rodriguez was not a student at Millikan. Gonzalez stopped and intervened in the altercation.
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After the fight ended, Rodriguez got into a car with her boyfriend and another person. Cellphone video shows Gonzalez approaching as the car began leaving the parking lot. Gonzalez drew his handgun and fired two shots toward the rear of the moving vehicle. One bullet entered the car and struck Rodriguez in the back of the head.
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Rodriguez was unarmed. The widely circulated video became particularly important because it showed the vehicle moving away as Gonzalez fired and provided independent evidence of the shooting rather than leaving the circumstances dependent on the shooter's account.
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Gonzalez later maintained that he fired because he believed the vehicle was going to strike him. Prosecutors rejected that explanation. At a 2022 preliminary hearing, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Daniel Lowenthal ruled that the murder case could proceed and concluded that Gonzalez had no reasonable basis to believe he was in danger when he fired into the back of the departing car.
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Gonzalez's actions also violated the school district's own firearms policy. LBUSD policy prohibited firing at a fleeing person or at a moving vehicle except as a final means of defense when circumstances clearly warranted deadly force. Following an internal review, the Long Beach Board of Education unanimously fired Gonzalez on October 6. Superintendent Jill Baker said the district concluded that Gonzalez had violated its use-of-force policy.
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Rodriguez remained hospitalized with irreversible brain damage. Her family said she was declared brain dead and fought to keep her on life support long enough to permit organ donation. She died on October 5, approximately eight days after Gonzalez shot her. Her organs were donated to five recipients.
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Rodriguez's family challenged Gonzalez's actions immediately and repeatedly demanded criminal prosecution. Her mother, Manuela Sahagun, brother Oscar Rodriguez and other relatives held demonstrations and public appearances arguing that Gonzalez had no justification for shooting into the fleeing vehicle. The family emphasized that Rodriguez was an 18-year-old mother whose five-month-old son would grow up without her.
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Long Beach police investigated the shooting as a homicide after Rodriguez died. On October 27, 2021, Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Gonzalez with murder, an unusually serious criminal prosecution arising from an on-duty killing by a school safety officer. Gonzalez was arrested and later released on $2 million bail while the case proceeded.
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The family's civil action produced a major settlement before the criminal case was resolved. In April 2023, Long Beach Unified School District agreed to pay $13 million to settle the family's wrongful-death lawsuit. The settlement provided compensation for Rodriguez's son and other family members and represented one of the largest school-policing-related settlements arising from a fatal shooting in the region.
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Gonzalez went to trial for second-degree murder in April 2024. The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict, producing a mistrial. The jury split 7-5, with seven jurors favoring a murder conviction. The jury foreperson later said she was convinced Gonzalez was guilty of murder.
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Rather than face a second murder trial, Gonzalez pleaded no contest on August 20, 2024, to voluntary manslaughter. On October 8, 2024, Superior Court Judge Richard Goul sentenced him to three years. Because Gonzalez received credit for time spent in jail and on electronic monitoring, the sentence amounted to time already served and he was released.
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The final criminal outcome therefore established legal responsibility for Rodriguez's death even though the original murder prosecution did not produce a unanimous verdict: Gonzalez was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for killing her.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Eddie Francisco Gonzalez was a school safety officer employed by the Long Beach Unified School District rather than a sworn Long Beach police officer. He was armed and authorized by the district to perform school-safety enforcement duties but was not a school resource officer assigned from a municipal police department.
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Gonzalez's conduct was found to violate his employer's use-of-force policy within days of the shooting. The Long Beach Board of Education unanimously terminated him after its internal review, specifically concluding that firing into the departing vehicle violated district policy governing deadly force against moving vehicles.
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The criminal proceedings produced further independent scrutiny of Gonzalez's decision-making. Prosecutors argued that Gonzalez unnecessarily escalated an incident involving young people and fired into the back of a fleeing vehicle when he could instead have recorded the license plate and contacted police. At the preliminary hearing, a judge found no reasonable basis for Gonzalez's claim that he needed to fire because the vehicle endangered him. Seven of twelve jurors at his later murder trial voted to convict him of second-degree murder, and Gonzalez ultimately pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter.
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The shooting also exposed broader questions about why an armed school-district security force was policing conduct beyond school grounds. Gonzalez encountered Rodriguez in a shopping-center parking lot about a block from Millikan High School while conducting what the district described as “safe passage” patrol. At the time, LBUSD employed armed school safety officers who could detain people and respond to incidents around district facilities even though they were not municipal police officers.
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That structure was already under scrutiny before Rodriguez was killed. Long Beach's racial-equity planning process had recommended reducing the use of school police and reviewing alternative school-safety models. Rodriguez's killing intensified those concerns and generated demands that the district reconsider the role, authority, training and arming of its school safety personnel.
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The district's own response ultimately acknowledged that Gonzalez's shooting was outside its standards. Unlike cases in which a department clears its employee internally despite a disputed fatal shooting, LBUSD fired Gonzalez approximately nine days after he shot Rodriguez. The subsequent $13 million civil settlement and Gonzalez's voluntary-manslaughter conviction reinforced that institutional finding with both civil and criminal consequences.

https://da.lacounty.gov/media/news/long-beach-safety-officer-sentenced-shooting-death-18-year-old-woman-near-millikan-high
https://lbpost.com/news/mona-rodriguez-eddie-gonzalez-shooting-death-sentencing/
https://abc7.com/post/mona-rodriguez-shooting-ex-long-beach-school-safety-officer-walks-free-after-being-sentenced-time-served/15406069/
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/family-of-mona-rodriguez-reaches-13m-settlement-with-school-district-in-shooting-death/3128754/
https://www.foxla.com/news/mona-rodriguez-case-13m-settlement-announced-in-fatal-shooting-involving-long-beach-school-officer
https://lbpost.com/news/crime/mona-rodriguez-settlement-13-million-lbusd-safety-officer
https://people.com/crime/calif-teen-shot-dead-school-safety-officer-13m-settlement/
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/long-beach-family-awarded-13-million-settlement-for-fatal-school-resource-officer-shooting-mona-rodriguez/
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/mistrial-declared-in-shooting-death-of-young-mother-in-long-beach/3389999/
https://lawandcrime.com/crime/family-of-teen-shot-by-school-resource-officer-announces-13-million-wrongful-death-settlement/
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-06/long-beach-school-district-officials-fire-school-safety-officer-after-internal-review-of-shooting
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-19/murder-charge-upheld-against-ex-long-beach-school-security-officer-in-teens-death
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-10-09/long-beach-school-officer-convicted-manslaughter-sentenced
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/former-long-beach-school-safety-officer-to-be-sentenced-for-womans-shooting-death/

On 09/27/2021, Clackamas County Sheriff’s Deputy Janson Bento shot and killed 26-year-old Nathan Thomas Honeycutt following an attempted traffic stop, tire-deflation deployment, vehicle pursuit, PIT maneuver and physical struggle in Happy Valley.
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Deputy Evan Sanders first noticed Honeycutt’s older white Ford Ranger at approximately 2 a.m. because its tailgate was down and Sanders believed it had no license plates. Sanders then observed the truck repeatedly drift across the center line and estimated it was traveling approximately 50 mph in a 35 mph zone. Sanders later testified that he decided to initiate the traffic stop because he suspected Honeycutt might be driving under the influence and because of the speeding and missing license plates. At that point, police did not yet know the truck had been reported stolen.
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When Sanders activated his emergency lights and siren, Honeycutt accelerated away. Because the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office had changed its vehicle-pursuit policy only nine days earlier, Sanders deactivated his emergency equipment rather than immediately pursuing. He continued driving in the same direction and provided updates to other deputies.
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Sanders later saw the truck turn onto dead-end Southeast Scouters Mountain Road and placed spike strips across the road. Honeycutt drove over the strips and continued on damaged tires. Deputy Matthew Roach subsequently saw the truck traveling approximately 40 mph and then accelerating to approximately 50 mph while entering the oncoming lane. Roach activated his emergency lights and attempted another stop.
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Roach then performed a PIT maneuver near Southeast 145th Avenue and Southeast Ridgecrest Road. Honeycutt’s truck swerved, struck a traffic barrier and stopped. Roach positioned his patrol vehicle against the truck.
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Honeycutt exited and ran. Roach tackled him, and Bento and Samuel Tharp joined the attempt to restrain him. According to the deputies, Honeycutt struggled on the ground, said that he had a gun and would not show his hands.
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Police alleged that Bento freed one of Honeycutt’s arms and saw a revolver in his hand. According to the official account, Bento ordered Honeycutt to drop it, but Honeycutt did not comply and pointed the revolver inches from Bento’s chest. Bento fired three rounds into Honeycutt’s chest. Honeycutt died at the scene. Police recovered a loaded .357 Magnum revolver near his body.
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The Clackamas County District Attorney presented the shooting to a grand jury on October 22, 2021. Jurors reviewed deputy and civilian witness testimony, photographs, dispatch records and dash-camera recordings and unanimously concluded that Bento’s use of deadly force was legally justified. No criminal charges were filed.
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The circumstances acquired substantially greater scrutiny through later civil litigation. Nathan’s father, Danny Honeycutt, as personal representative of his son’s estate, filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Clackamas County, the Sheriff’s Office and deputies Bento, Sanders, Roach and Tharp. The suit alleged Fourth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment violations, municipal liability, negligence, assault and battery.
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The lawsuit challenged more than Bento’s final gunshots. Honeycutt’s estate argued that the deputies improperly escalated an attempted traffic stop into the series of police actions that culminated in his death and specifically challenged the deputies’ conduct under the Sheriff’s Office’s newly tightened pursuit policy. The estate also argued that Bento had enough control of Honeycutt’s gun hand and sufficient time to warn that deadly force would be used before firing.
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Federal court records reveal an important detail absent from the original reporting: just nine days before Honeycutt was killed, Sheriff Angela Brandenburg had imposed a substantially more restrictive pursuit policy. Deputies were instructed to pursue only when they reasonably suspected a person had committed a felony person crime or when the person’s driving before initiation of the stop demonstrated a willful disregard creating an immediate danger of serious bodily injury or death.
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That change followed another Clackamas County pursuit on September 16, only 11 days before Honeycutt’s death, in which a pursuit of a shoplifting suspect resulted in a fatality. Contemporary OPB reporting specifically questioned whether the actions leading to Honeycutt’s death complied with the new pursuit restrictions.
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In March 2025, U.S. Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman granted summary judgment to the deputies and county defendants. The court concluded that Bento’s fatal use of force was objectively reasonable under the circumstances documented by the evidence and rejected the estate’s constitutional and state-law claims.
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The litigation did not end there. Danny Honeycutt appealed the judgment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in April 2025. The federal appellate docket remained active later that year.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Janson Bento was the deputy who fired the three fatal shots. Evan Sanders initiated the attempted traffic stop and deployed the spike strips. Matthew Roach performed the PIT maneuver and tackled Honeycutt after he ran from the crashed truck. Samuel Tharp joined Bento and Roach in physically restraining Honeycutt.
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The later federal lawsuit uncovered a particularly important fact about Bento: Honeycutt was not his first lethal-force incident. Bento had already participated in the fatal police shooting of 54-year-old Timothy Barker on April 11, 2020, approximately 17 months before he killed Honeycutt.
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In the Barker case, deputies responded to a Milwaukie-area home after Barker’s wife reported that her husband had been drinking, acting irrationally and was armed. Deputies Nate Ariel, Tanner Davis and Janson Bento entered the home and encountered Barker with a shotgun. The three deputies fired a combined ten rounds, killing him. A grand jury later concluded that the deputies’ use of deadly force was justified.
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Thus, despite Bento having begun full-time employment as a Clackamas County deputy only in 2019, Honeycutt’s death was already at least the second fatal police shooting in which Bento had participated.
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The Sheriff’s Office itself was facing serious questions about its traffic-enforcement and pursuit practices when Honeycutt was killed. An Oregon Criminal Justice Commission review of 51 law-enforcement agencies had identified the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office as the only agency deficient in two of the three statistical measures used by the state to assess possible racial or ethnic disparities in traffic and pedestrian stops.
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The department also had a strikingly recent history of fatal traffic-stop encounters. In June 2021, only three months before Honeycutt’s death, Clackamas County Deputy Casey Newton shot and killed 44-year-old Jeremiah Lee Wright following another Happy Valley traffic stop that began because Wright’s vehicle did not have a license plate. Police subsequently learned that vehicle was stolen.
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Then, on September 16, 2021, another Clackamas County pursuit ended in a death after deputies pursued a shoplifting suspect. Sheriff Brandenburg responded by imposing the new restrictive pursuit rules on September 18. Honeycutt was killed nine days later after another attempted traffic stop escalated through spike strips and a PIT maneuver.
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The agency was also coming out of a major controversy involving Deputy Mark Nikolai during the 2020 Oregon wildfires. Video showed Nikolai repeating false claims that antifascists were starting fires and telling armed civilians that if they shot someone, they could place a knife in the person’s hand afterward. The Sheriff’s Office placed him on administrative leave after the recording became public.
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Honeycutt’s case therefore occurred amid documented problems involving traffic-stop disparities, controversial pursuit practices, multiple fatal traffic-stop encounters and serious questions about individual deputy conduct. Particularly important to the individual officer history is that Bento had already participated in another fatal shooting before becoming the deputy who fired the three shots that killed Honeycutt.

https://www.koin.com/local/clackamas-county/deputies-shoot-kill-man-in-happy-valley/
https://www.opb.org/article/2021/09/27/clackamas-county-deputy-shoots-kills-person-during-traffic-stop/
https://katu.com/news/local/deputy-justified-in-deadly-shooting-of-hillsboro-man-during-traffic-stop
https://www.clackamas.us/da/reports
https://dochub.clackamas.us/documents/drupal/ffe050b9-7d83-46ff-bd03-c47ae09af68b
https://www.kxl.com/grand-jury-says-clackamas-county-sheriffs-deputy-justified-in-fatal-shooting/
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/oregon/ordce/3%3A2023cv00953/173978/35/
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-ord-3_23-cv-00953/pdf/USCOURTS-ord-3_23-cv-00953-0.pdf
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/circuit-courts/ca9/25-2259
https://ktvz.com/news/crime-courts/2020/06/09/grand-jury-clears-3-deputies-who-shot-killed-man/

On 09/26/2021, 19-year-old Gabriel Salazar and his three passengers were killed in a fiery crash during a Crystal City Police Department pursuit on U.S. Highway 83 in Zavala County. Salazar, a San Antonio resident known online as “Gabenotbabe,” was driving a white 2014 Chevrolet Camaro north toward La Pryor.
.
The pursuit began at approximately 1:20 a.m. when a Zavala County sheriff’s deputy heard a Crystal City police officer initiate a traffic stop on U.S. 83 at FM 3292. The Crystal City officer soon radioed that the Camaro was continuing north and that the officer was pursuing it. Contemporary authorities and news reports did not disclose the specific traffic violation or other reason Crystal City police initially attempted to stop Salazar. That initiating reason remains an important unresolved part of the encounter.
.
A Zavala County sheriff’s deputy joined the police effort and attempted to deploy a tire-deflation device. Initial accounts described the deployment as unsuccessful. However, a later Human Rights Watch investigation of Operation Lone Star pursuit deaths reported that the stop device damaged Salazar’s vehicle before it continued out of control.
.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Camaro left the roadway, Salazar overcorrected, and the vehicle crossed the highway into the west ditch. It struck several trees, rolled multiple times and caught fire. Salazar and all three passengers were pronounced dead at the scene. The ruptured fuel tank reportedly complicated attempts to extinguish the fire.
.
The three passengers were Jose Luis Jimenez Mora, 41, Jose Molina Lara, 23, and Sergio Espinoza Flores, 36, all Mexican nationals from Zacatecas. Authorities subsequently said they were undocumented immigrants and opened a separate investigation into whether Salazar had been transporting them as part of a human-smuggling operation. Homeland Security Investigations assisted in that investigation. The suspected smuggling was identified after the fatal crash; available reporting did not establish that Crystal City police knew this when the officer initiated the traffic stop, and authorities did not identify it as the original reason for attempting to stop Salazar.
.
The broader context of this pursuit became substantially clearer after the initial reporting. Zavala County had joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star approximately two months before Salazar and his passengers were killed. Human Rights Watch later examined this crash as part of its investigation of deaths associated with aggressive vehicle pursuits under Operation Lone Star and characterized the four deaths as part of a broader pattern of preventable pursuit fatalities involving young drivers and migrants in Texas border counties.
.
Salazar’s family and friends publicly mourned him and established a memorial fundraiser. His sister Danna Salazar wrote that she would give anything to have her younger brother back and described the family’s profound loss. The later Human Rights Watch investigation strongly challenged the broader law-enforcement pursuit practices that produced deaths such as these, but available reporting does not document the Salazar family itself publicly alleging that police caused the crash or filing an encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit.
.
OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Crystal City police officer who initiated and continued the pursuit has not been publicly identified in the records and reporting located for this update. The Zavala County deputy who attempted to deploy the tire-deflation device also has not been publicly identified.
.
The departmental context is significant because the pursuit occurred shortly after Zavala County joined Operation Lone Star. Human Rights Watch subsequently documented a broader pattern of dangerous and deadly law-enforcement vehicle pursuits connected with the border-enforcement program and specifically included the Salazar crash in its investigation. The organization concluded that Operation Lone Star pursuit practices endangered both migrants and Texas residents and documented cases in which stops for minor or poorly articulated reasons escalated into high-speed pursuits and fatal crashes.
.
Crystal City Police Department also has a documented history of serious misconduct predating this pursuit. Former Crystal City police officer Jimmy Aguilar was convicted by a federal jury on civil-rights charges after repeatedly assaulting a handcuffed man, including choking him, forcing a handgun barrel into his mouth and threatening to kill him, then providing a false statement to the FBI and encouraging other officers to give false accounts. The prosecution was brought by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
.
Serious problems have continued at the department since Salazar’s death. In 2025, Crystal City police officer Abel Hernandez resigned in lieu of termination and was arrested during an investigation in which authorities alleged he made inappropriate comments to children he encountered while on duty and improperly disclosed sensitive law-enforcement information, including warning a wanted person about an active arrest warrant. In 2026, a parent filed a police report against two Crystal City officers after teenagers alleged that officers pointed firearms at them and aggressively detained children during execution of an arrest warrant; the department disputed portions of the teenagers’ account.
.
The most consequential unresolved issue in Salazar’s individual case remains much simpler: despite four deaths, contemporary authorities never publicly explained why the Crystal City officer initiated the traffic stop that escalated into the pursuit.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/09/30/texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-killed-in-fiery-police-pursuit-crash-in-zavala-county/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10042021/TikTok-star-Gabriel-Salazar-19-three-passengers-die-fiery-crash-high-speed-chase.html
https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/TikTok-Gabenotbabe-Gabriel-Salazar-fiery-car-crash-16493178.php
https://www.eonline.com/ca/news/1304481/tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-dead-at-19-following-police-chase
https://www.insideedition.com/tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-aka-gabenotbabe-dies-in-car-crash-following-police-chase-in-texas-cops
https://www.univision.com/local/san-antonio-kwex/muere-texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-accidente
https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/11/27/so-much-blood-ground/dangerous-and-deadly-vehicle-pursuits-under-texas-operation
https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2004/September/04_crt_601.htm
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/03/28/crystal-city-police-officer-resigns-arrested-amid-child-exploitation-investigation-authorities-say/
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2026/04/18/report-filed-against-crystal-city-police-officers-for-being-so-aggressive-woman-says/

On 09/26/2021, 19-year-old Gabriel Salazar and his three passengers were killed in a fiery crash during a Crystal City Police Department pursuit on U.S. Highway 83 in Zavala County. Salazar, a San Antonio resident known online as “Gabenotbabe,” was driving a white 2014 Chevrolet Camaro north toward La Pryor.
.
The pursuit began at approximately 1:20 a.m. when a Zavala County sheriff’s deputy heard a Crystal City police officer initiate a traffic stop on U.S. 83 at FM 3292. The Crystal City officer soon radioed that the Camaro was continuing north and that the officer was pursuing it. Contemporary authorities and news reports did not disclose the specific traffic violation or other reason Crystal City police initially attempted to stop Salazar. That initiating reason remains an important unresolved part of the encounter.
.
A Zavala County sheriff’s deputy joined the police effort and attempted to deploy a tire-deflation device. Initial accounts described the deployment as unsuccessful. However, a later Human Rights Watch investigation of Operation Lone Star pursuit deaths reported that the stop device damaged Salazar’s vehicle before it continued out of control.
.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Camaro left the roadway, Salazar overcorrected, and the vehicle crossed the highway into the west ditch. It struck several trees, rolled multiple times and caught fire. Salazar and all three passengers were pronounced dead at the scene. The ruptured fuel tank reportedly complicated attempts to extinguish the fire.
.
The three passengers were Jose Luis Jimenez Mora, 41, Jose Molina Lara, 23, and Sergio Espinoza Flores, 36, all Mexican nationals from Zacatecas. Authorities subsequently said they were undocumented immigrants and opened a separate investigation into whether Salazar had been transporting them as part of a human-smuggling operation. Homeland Security Investigations assisted in that investigation. The suspected smuggling was identified after the fatal crash; available reporting did not establish that Crystal City police knew this when the officer initiated the traffic stop, and authorities did not identify it as the original reason for attempting to stop Salazar.
.
The broader context of this pursuit became substantially clearer after the initial reporting. Zavala County had joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star approximately two months before Salazar and his passengers were killed. Human Rights Watch later examined this crash as part of its investigation of deaths associated with aggressive vehicle pursuits under Operation Lone Star and characterized the four deaths as part of a broader pattern of preventable pursuit fatalities involving young drivers and migrants in Texas border counties.
.
Salazar’s family and friends publicly mourned him and established a memorial fundraiser. His sister Danna Salazar wrote that she would give anything to have her younger brother back and described the family’s profound loss. The later Human Rights Watch investigation strongly challenged the broader law-enforcement pursuit practices that produced deaths such as these, but available reporting does not document the Salazar family itself publicly alleging that police caused the crash or filing an encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit.
.
OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Crystal City police officer who initiated and continued the pursuit has not been publicly identified in the records and reporting located for this update. The Zavala County deputy who attempted to deploy the tire-deflation device also has not been publicly identified.
.
The departmental context is significant because the pursuit occurred shortly after Zavala County joined Operation Lone Star. Human Rights Watch subsequently documented a broader pattern of dangerous and deadly law-enforcement vehicle pursuits connected with the border-enforcement program and specifically included the Salazar crash in its investigation. The organization concluded that Operation Lone Star pursuit practices endangered both migrants and Texas residents and documented cases in which stops for minor or poorly articulated reasons escalated into high-speed pursuits and fatal crashes.
.
Crystal City Police Department also has a documented history of serious misconduct predating this pursuit. Former Crystal City police officer Jimmy Aguilar was convicted by a federal jury on civil-rights charges after repeatedly assaulting a handcuffed man, including choking him, forcing a handgun barrel into his mouth and threatening to kill him, then providing a false statement to the FBI and encouraging other officers to give false accounts. The prosecution was brought by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
.
Serious problems have continued at the department since Salazar’s death. In 2025, Crystal City police officer Abel Hernandez resigned in lieu of termination and was arrested during an investigation in which authorities alleged he made inappropriate comments to children he encountered while on duty and improperly disclosed sensitive law-enforcement information, including warning a wanted person about an active arrest warrant. In 2026, a parent filed a police report against two Crystal City officers after teenagers alleged that officers pointed firearms at them and aggressively detained children during execution of an arrest warrant; the department disputed portions of the teenagers’ account.
.
The most consequential unresolved issue in Salazar’s individual case remains much simpler: despite four deaths, contemporary authorities never publicly explained why the Crystal City officer initiated the traffic stop that escalated into the pursuit.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/09/30/texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-killed-in-fiery-police-pursuit-crash-in-zavala-county/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10042021/TikTok-star-Gabriel-Salazar-19-three-passengers-die-fiery-crash-high-speed-chase.html
https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/TikTok-Gabenotbabe-Gabriel-Salazar-fiery-car-crash-16493178.php
https://www.insideedition.com/tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-aka-gabenotbabe-dies-in-car-crash-following-police-chase-in-texas-cops
https://www.univision.com/local/san-antonio-kwex/muere-texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-accidente
https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/11/27/so-much-blood-ground/dangerous-and-deadly-vehicle-pursuits-under-texas-operation
https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2004/September/04_crt_601.htm
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/03/28/crystal-city-police-officer-resigns-arrested-amid-child-exploitation-investigation-authorities-say/
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2026/04/18/report-filed-against-crystal-city-police-officers-for-being-so-aggressive-woman-says/

On 09/26/2021, 19-year-old Gabriel Salazar and his three passengers were killed in a fiery crash during a Crystal City Police Department pursuit on U.S. Highway 83 in Zavala County. Salazar, a San Antonio resident known online as “Gabenotbabe,” was driving a white 2014 Chevrolet Camaro north toward La Pryor.
.
The pursuit began at approximately 1:20 a.m. when a Zavala County sheriff’s deputy heard a Crystal City police officer initiate a traffic stop on U.S. 83 at FM 3292. The Crystal City officer soon radioed that the Camaro was continuing north and that the officer was pursuing it. Contemporary authorities and news reports did not disclose the specific traffic violation or other reason Crystal City police initially attempted to stop Salazar. That initiating reason remains an important unresolved part of the encounter.
.
A Zavala County sheriff’s deputy joined the police effort and attempted to deploy a tire-deflation device. Initial accounts described the deployment as unsuccessful. However, a later Human Rights Watch investigation of Operation Lone Star pursuit deaths reported that the stop device damaged Salazar’s vehicle before it continued out of control.
.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Camaro left the roadway, Salazar overcorrected, and the vehicle crossed the highway into the west ditch. It struck several trees, rolled multiple times and caught fire. Salazar and all three passengers were pronounced dead at the scene. The ruptured fuel tank reportedly complicated attempts to extinguish the fire.
.
The three passengers were Jose Luis Jimenez Mora, 41, Jose Molina Lara, 23, and Sergio Espinoza Flores, 36, all Mexican nationals from Zacatecas. Authorities subsequently said they were undocumented immigrants and opened a separate investigation into whether Salazar had been transporting them as part of a human-smuggling operation. Homeland Security Investigations assisted in that investigation. The suspected smuggling was identified after the fatal crash; available reporting did not establish that Crystal City police knew this when the officer initiated the traffic stop, and authorities did not identify it as the original reason for attempting to stop Salazar.
.
The broader context of this pursuit became substantially clearer after the initial reporting. Zavala County had joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star approximately two months before Salazar and his passengers were killed. Human Rights Watch later examined this crash as part of its investigation of deaths associated with aggressive vehicle pursuits under Operation Lone Star and characterized the four deaths as part of a broader pattern of preventable pursuit fatalities involving young drivers and migrants in Texas border counties.
.
Salazar’s family and friends publicly mourned him and established a memorial fundraiser. His sister Danna Salazar wrote that she would give anything to have her younger brother back and described the family’s profound loss. The later Human Rights Watch investigation strongly challenged the broader law-enforcement pursuit practices that produced deaths such as these, but available reporting does not document the Salazar family itself publicly alleging that police caused the crash or filing an encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit.
.
OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Crystal City police officer who initiated and continued the pursuit has not been publicly identified in the records and reporting located for this update. The Zavala County deputy who attempted to deploy the tire-deflation device also has not been publicly identified.
.
The departmental context is significant because the pursuit occurred shortly after Zavala County joined Operation Lone Star. Human Rights Watch subsequently documented a broader pattern of dangerous and deadly law-enforcement vehicle pursuits connected with the border-enforcement program and specifically included the Salazar crash in its investigation. The organization concluded that Operation Lone Star pursuit practices endangered both migrants and Texas residents and documented cases in which stops for minor or poorly articulated reasons escalated into high-speed pursuits and fatal crashes.
.
Crystal City Police Department also has a documented history of serious misconduct predating this pursuit. Former Crystal City police officer Jimmy Aguilar was convicted by a federal jury on civil-rights charges after repeatedly assaulting a handcuffed man, including choking him, forcing a handgun barrel into his mouth and threatening to kill him, then providing a false statement to the FBI and encouraging other officers to give false accounts. The prosecution was brought by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
.
Serious problems have continued at the department since Salazar’s death. In 2025, Crystal City police officer Abel Hernandez resigned in lieu of termination and was arrested during an investigation in which authorities alleged he made inappropriate comments to children he encountered while on duty and improperly disclosed sensitive law-enforcement information, including warning a wanted person about an active arrest warrant. In 2026, a parent filed a police report against two Crystal City officers after teenagers alleged that officers pointed firearms at them and aggressively detained children during execution of an arrest warrant; the department disputed portions of the teenagers’ account.
.
The most consequential unresolved issue in Salazar’s individual case remains much simpler: despite four deaths, contemporary authorities never publicly explained why the Crystal City officer initiated the traffic stop that escalated into the pursuit.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/09/30/texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-killed-in-fiery-police-pursuit-crash-in-zavala-county/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10042021/TikTok-star-Gabriel-Salazar-19-three-passengers-die-fiery-crash-high-speed-chase.html
https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/TikTok-Gabenotbabe-Gabriel-Salazar-fiery-car-crash-16493178.php
https://www.insideedition.com/tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-aka-gabenotbabe-dies-in-car-crash-following-police-chase-in-texas-cops
https://www.univision.com/local/san-antonio-kwex/muere-texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-accidente
https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/11/27/so-much-blood-ground/dangerous-and-deadly-vehicle-pursuits-under-texas-operation
https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2004/September/04_crt_601.htm
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/03/28/crystal-city-police-officer-resigns-arrested-amid-child-exploitation-investigation-authorities-say/
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2026/04/18/report-filed-against-crystal-city-police-officers-for-being-so-aggressive-woman-says/

On 09/26/2021, 19-year-old Gabriel Salazar and his three passengers were killed in a fiery crash during a Crystal City Police Department pursuit on U.S. Highway 83 in Zavala County. Salazar, a San Antonio resident known online as “Gabenotbabe,” was driving a white 2014 Chevrolet Camaro north toward La Pryor.
.
The pursuit began at approximately 1:20 a.m. when a Zavala County sheriff’s deputy heard a Crystal City police officer initiate a traffic stop on U.S. 83 at FM 3292. The Crystal City officer soon radioed that the Camaro was continuing north and that the officer was pursuing it. Contemporary authorities and news reports did not disclose the specific traffic violation or other reason Crystal City police initially attempted to stop Salazar. That initiating reason remains an important unresolved part of the encounter.
.
A Zavala County sheriff’s deputy joined the police effort and attempted to deploy a tire-deflation device. Initial accounts described the deployment as unsuccessful. However, a later Human Rights Watch investigation of Operation Lone Star pursuit deaths reported that the stop device damaged Salazar’s vehicle before it continued out of control.
.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Camaro left the roadway, Salazar overcorrected, and the vehicle crossed the highway into the west ditch. It struck several trees, rolled multiple times and caught fire. Salazar and all three passengers were pronounced dead at the scene. The ruptured fuel tank reportedly complicated attempts to extinguish the fire.
.
The three passengers were Jose Luis Jimenez Mora, 41, Jose Molina Lara, 23, and Sergio Espinoza Flores, 36, all Mexican nationals from Zacatecas. Authorities subsequently said they were undocumented immigrants and opened a separate investigation into whether Salazar had been transporting them as part of a human-smuggling operation. Homeland Security Investigations assisted in that investigation. The suspected smuggling was identified after the fatal crash; available reporting did not establish that Crystal City police knew this when the officer initiated the traffic stop, and authorities did not identify it as the original reason for attempting to stop Salazar.
.
The broader context of this pursuit became substantially clearer after the initial reporting. Zavala County had joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star approximately two months before Salazar and his passengers were killed. Human Rights Watch later examined this crash as part of its investigation of deaths associated with aggressive vehicle pursuits under Operation Lone Star and characterized the four deaths as part of a broader pattern of preventable pursuit fatalities involving young drivers and migrants in Texas border counties.
.
Salazar’s family and friends publicly mourned him and established a memorial fundraiser. His sister Danna Salazar wrote that she would give anything to have her younger brother back and described the family’s profound loss. The later Human Rights Watch investigation strongly challenged the broader law-enforcement pursuit practices that produced deaths such as these, but available reporting does not document the Salazar family itself publicly alleging that police caused the crash or filing an encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit.
.
OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Crystal City police officer who initiated and continued the pursuit has not been publicly identified in the records and reporting located for this update. The Zavala County deputy who attempted to deploy the tire-deflation device also has not been publicly identified.
.
The departmental context is significant because the pursuit occurred shortly after Zavala County joined Operation Lone Star. Human Rights Watch subsequently documented a broader pattern of dangerous and deadly law-enforcement vehicle pursuits connected with the border-enforcement program and specifically included the Salazar crash in its investigation. The organization concluded that Operation Lone Star pursuit practices endangered both migrants and Texas residents and documented cases in which stops for minor or poorly articulated reasons escalated into high-speed pursuits and fatal crashes.
.
Crystal City Police Department also has a documented history of serious misconduct predating this pursuit. Former Crystal City police officer Jimmy Aguilar was convicted by a federal jury on civil-rights charges after repeatedly assaulting a handcuffed man, including choking him, forcing a handgun barrel into his mouth and threatening to kill him, then providing a false statement to the FBI and encouraging other officers to give false accounts. The prosecution was brought by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
.
Serious problems have continued at the department since Salazar’s death. In 2025, Crystal City police officer Abel Hernandez resigned in lieu of termination and was arrested during an investigation in which authorities alleged he made inappropriate comments to children he encountered while on duty and improperly disclosed sensitive law-enforcement information, including warning a wanted person about an active arrest warrant. In 2026, a parent filed a police report against two Crystal City officers after teenagers alleged that officers pointed firearms at them and aggressively detained children during execution of an arrest warrant; the department disputed portions of the teenagers’ account.
.
The most consequential unresolved issue in Salazar’s individual case remains much simpler: despite four deaths, contemporary authorities never publicly explained why the Crystal City officer initiated the traffic stop that escalated into the pursuit.

https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/09/30/texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-killed-in-fiery-police-pursuit-crash-in-zavala-county/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10042021/TikTok-star-Gabriel-Salazar-19-three-passengers-die-fiery-crash-high-speed-chase.html
https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/TikTok-Gabenotbabe-Gabriel-Salazar-fiery-car-crash-16493178.php
https://www.insideedition.com/tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-aka-gabenotbabe-dies-in-car-crash-following-police-chase-in-texas-cops
https://www.univision.com/local/san-antonio-kwex/muere-texas-tiktok-star-gabriel-salazar-accidente
https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/11/27/so-much-blood-ground/dangerous-and-deadly-vehicle-pursuits-under-texas-operation
https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2004/September/04_crt_601.htm
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2025/03/28/crystal-city-police-officer-resigns-arrested-amid-child-exploitation-investigation-authorities-say/
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2026/04/18/report-filed-against-crystal-city-police-officers-for-being-so-aggressive-woman-says/

.
REASON FOR POLICE CHASE:
Hill County deputies were attempting to apprehend Randall Anthony Thurman, 34, in connection with the alleged abduction of two children from Walnut Springs. An AMBER Alert had been issued for an 8-year-old girl who authorities said remained in Thurman’s vehicle when deputies located it.
.
EVENT NARRATIVE:
On 09/25/2021, 85-year-old Maureena Charles Reid of Burleson was killed when a vehicle being pursued by Hill County deputies crossed into oncoming traffic on State Highway 171 in Johnson County and struck her Kia head-on. Reid was not involved in the events that prompted the pursuit and was driving in the opposite direction when the pursued vehicle entered her lane.
.
The events leading to the pursuit began the previous night in Walnut Springs, where the Bosque County Sheriff’s Office received a report at approximately 10:45 p.m. that two children, a 7-year-old boy and his 8-year-old sister, were missing. Their mother told deputies she believed the children were with a relative, Randall Anthony Thurman. Authorities subsequently determined that Thurman was a registered sex offender and alerted surrounding law-enforcement agencies.
.
At approximately 1:40 a.m., the boy reached a convenience store along Interstate 35 in Hill County and sought help. Authorities reported that clear packing tape had been wrapped around his throat and arms. The boy told deputies that Thurman had removed him from the vehicle, bound him with tape and driven away with his sister still in the car. The boy was transported for medical treatment, and authorities issued an AMBER Alert for the girl.
.
At approximately 9:15 a.m., Hill County resident Tracy Martin spotted the silver Chrysler 200 identified in the AMBER Alert among trees on his property. Martin said he saw the girl inside the car and Thurman crouching nearby. According to Martin, Thurman got into the Chrysler and attempted to strike Martin with it. Martin followed the vehicle while communicating with the sheriff’s office, pursuing it for approximately five miles and helping deputies locate it.
.
Hill County deputies subsequently located the Chrysler and attempted a traffic stop. Police said Thurman continued driving away and deputies pursued northbound on State Highway 171 toward Cleburne. Bosque County deputies were also involved in the multi-agency search. Public accounts do not provide an exact maximum pursuit speed, pursuit duration, total police-pursuit distance, or identify the individual deputies driving the pursuing vehicles. No use of stop sticks, a PIT/TVI maneuver, roadblock, or police-vehicle contact with the Chrysler was reported.
.
After the pursuit entered Johnson County, deputies reported that the Chrysler was traveling at high speed when it crossed the center line and continued toward Reid’s oncoming Kia. The Bosque County Sheriff’s Office said deputies believed the movement into opposing traffic was intentional. That conclusion was the law-enforcement account of Thurman’s actions; the publicly available reports do not identify independent crash-reconstruction evidence establishing his intent.
.
The Chrysler struck Reid’s Kia head-on near the intersection of State Highway 171 and Johnson County Road 302. Reid and Thurman were both killed. The 8-year-old girl was found conscious in the front passenger seat of the Chrysler and communicated with officers at the scene. Emergency crews extricated her from the wreckage and CareFlight transported her to a hospital. She survived and was later released from the hospital.
.
The Texas Department of Public Safety subsequently publicly identified Reid as the 85-year-old Burleson woman killed in the collision. Available reporting about her death concentrates almost entirely on the abduction and pursuit and provides little biographical information about Reid herself beyond her name, age and community.
.
The fatal collision ended the pursuit and the search for the abducted girl. The individual Hill County deputies involved in the pursuit were not publicly identified in the sources located for this reconstruction.
.
OFFICER BACKGROUND:
The Hill County deputies who initiated and participated in the pursuit have not been publicly identified.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article254520872.html
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/09/25/two-children-safe-suspect-dead-following-abduction-in-central-texas-sheriff-says/
https://www.kwtx.com/2021/09/28/mother-central-texas-children-abducted-by-registered-sex-offender-charged/
https://www.fox4news.com/news/amber-alert-suspect-among-2-killed-in-johnson-county-crash-missing-girl-flown-to-hospital
https://www.kwtx.com/2021/11/09/bosque-county-girl-involved-amber-alert-out-hospital/

.
REASON FOR POLICE CHASE:
Traffic violation. Wichita police said an officer attempted to stop a vehicle for a traffic violation before the driver continued driving away and police pursued.
.
EVENT NARRATIVE:
On 09/25/2021, a woman was killed in Wichita after a Wichita Police Department pursuit ended in a collision near I-135 and East Harry Street.
.
According to the initial police account, an officer attempted to stop the pursued vehicle for a traffic violation. The driver continued driving away while police pursued. The available contemporary reports do not specify the underlying traffic violation, leaving unresolved whether the attempted stop began over speeding, another moving violation, an equipment violation, or another traffic offense.
.
The pursuit continued through southeast Wichita before the pursued vehicle crashed near I-135 and East Harry Street, striking another vehicle. The woman in the uninvolved vehicle was killed in the collision.
.
The available reporting does not provide a documented maximum pursuit speed, total pursuit distance, or a complete second-by-second pursuit timeline. It also does not report police using stop sticks, a PIT/TVI maneuver, a roadblock, or intentional police-vehicle contact before the fatal collision.
.
The pursuit occurred during a period of heightened scrutiny of Wichita Police Department vehicle pursuits. Earlier in 2021, several Wichita pursuits had ended in serious or fatal crashes. In July, WPD publicly explained that its pursuit policy required officers and supervisors to continually weigh the seriousness of the underlying offense against speed, traffic, road conditions and danger to the public. The department reported that approximately 90% of its pursuits were terminated by either the pursuing officer or a supervisor and that most lasted less than five minutes and covered only one or two miles.
.
WPD's pursuit policy also authorized supervisors to terminate pursuits when the danger created by continuing outweighed the need for immediate apprehension. The department had demonstrated that authority in other 2021 pursuits, including a July chase in southeast Wichita in which a supervisor terminated the pursuit when the pursued driver began entering opposing traffic.
.
The woman killed in the September 25 collision was an uninvolved motorist and had no role in the police encounter that initiated the chase. The contemporary sources supplied for this reconstruction identify her as a woman but the accessible indexed material does not establish her name with sufficient reliability to replace “Name Not Disclosed.” No biographical information can therefore be safely attributed to her without risking identification of the wrong person.
.
OFFICER BACKGROUND:
The Wichita officer who initiated the pursuit and the other officers who participated have not been publicly identified in the accessible contemporary reporting.
.

https://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article254521640.html

https://www.kwch.com/2021/07/23/wpd-explains-pursuit-policy-after-recent-deadly-crashes-chases/

On 09/25/2021, a Coshocton County Sheriff’s Office deputy shot and killed 32-year-old Luke Joseph Longeretta during an attempted arrest inside the former Roscoe School at 301 North Whitewoman Street in Coshocton.
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Deputies were dispatched shortly before 11 a.m. after receiving a report that a man was kicking in a door and entering the school building. When deputies arrived, they encountered Longeretta inside and attempted to take him into custody.
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According to the Sheriff’s Office, a physical struggle followed. Police alleged that during that struggle Longeretta gained control of one deputy’s firearm. The Sheriff’s Office said Longeretta continued struggling with deputies and pointed the deputy’s gun toward them.
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Police alleged that another deputy moved to avoid the gun and fired at Longeretta. Longeretta was struck. Deputies began CPR before emergency medical personnel transported him to Coshocton Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
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The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation was called to conduct the investigation. The deputies involved were placed on administrative leave following the shooting, and the Sheriff’s Office initially said their names would be withheld pending the investigation.
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Later reporting added significant forensic information. An autopsy determined that Longeretta died from multiple gunshot wounds. Toxicology testing detected methamphetamine and fentanyl in his system. Those findings were reported months after the shooting and do not independently establish the circumstances surrounding the deputy’s decision to fire.
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Longeretta was a U.S. Air Force veteran who served from 2008 until 2016, including service in Afghanistan, Qatar and South Korea. He was married and the father of three children.
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Despite the passage of nearly five years, the identity of the deputy who shot Longeretta remains remarkably difficult to establish from publicly accessible reporting. The initial promise that officer names were being withheld “pending the outcome of the investigation” did not result in readily accessible later reporting identifying the shooter.
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No affirmative public evidence located for this update establishes that Longeretta’s family or an eyewitness publicly challenged the police account of the final struggle. No encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit arising from Longeretta’s death was identified.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Coshocton County Sheriff’s Office deputy who shot Longeretta has not been publicly identified in the available records located for this update.
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The institutional history of the Coshocton County Sheriff’s Office includes an earlier fatal shooting that resulted in extensive federal civil-rights litigation. Deputy Ernest Snyder shot and killed David W. Stahl II following a 2013 police pursuit. Stahl’s mother, Toni Stahl, subsequently sued Coshocton County, the sheriff and numerous sheriff’s deputies and emergency medical personnel under 42 U.S.C. §1983, alleging unlawful seizure, excessive force and deliberate indifference to her son’s serious medical needs.
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The Stahl litigation examined not only the fatal gunfire but the tactics deputies used before and after the shooting. Deputies intentionally forced Stahl’s vehicle off the road through controlled contact. Snyder then fired through the vehicle’s windows. The lawsuit also challenged the medical response after Stahl was shot, including decisions concerning where he was transported for treatment.
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The federal district court ultimately entered judgment for the county defendants on the federal claims, and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in 2018. The appellate court concluded that Snyder’s shooting did not constitute unconstitutional excessive force because video evidence showed that Stahl was accelerating in Snyder’s direction immediately before the deputy fired.
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That earlier case is relevant to Longeretta’s death because it demonstrates that the Sheriff’s Office had already faced federal litigation over a deputy’s fatal use of force and the subsequent treatment of the wounded person. It also illustrates the difference in transparency between the cases: Snyder was publicly identified and his actions examined extensively in federal court, while the deputy who killed Longeretta in 2021 remains unidentified in readily available public reporting.
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The Sheriff’s Office was also undergoing a leadership transition at the time Longeretta was killed. James Crawford became sheriff in 2021 after Timothy Rogers, who had held the office since 2001. Longeretta was killed during Crawford’s first year as sheriff.
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https://www.whiznews.com/2021/09/26/man-killed-in-officer-involved-shooting-in-coshocton/
https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/coshocton-county/man-killed-in-officer-involved-shooting-in-coshocton-county/
https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/coshocton-county/man-killed-officer-involved-shooting/530-7a5bcb6b-2b3f-4c4e-9c7a-1a3c4c8e7d52
https://www.coshoctontribune.com/story/news/local/2022/04/07/toxicology-report-man-fatally-shot-officers-had-drugs-his-system/9489072002/
https://fox8.com/news/coshocton-sheriff-deputy-fatally-shoots-suspect-who-broke-into-school-took-deputys-firearm/
https://www.coshoctontribune.com/story/news/2021/09/25/one-man-dead-after-altercation-roscoe-school/5871283001/
https://www.whiznews.com/deputy-involved-shooting-in-coshocton/
https://www.fischerfuneralhome.com/obituaries/luke-longeretta
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca6/17-4112/17-4112-2018-10-31.html
https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/18a0544n-06.pdf

On 09/25/2021, Huntington Beach police shot and killed 43-year-old Ronnie Andrew Garcia on Huntington City Beach just south of the pier while large crowds were in the area for the U.S. Open of Surfing.
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At approximately 3:15 p.m., Huntington Beach police received reports of a “suspicious man with a gun” on the beach. Officers responded and encountered Garcia on the sand near Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street.
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Police said officers gave Garcia multiple commands and alleged that he did not comply. Officers then opened fire. Garcia was transported to a hospital, where he died. Police reported recovering a handgun at the scene.
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The initial police account was strikingly incomplete about the critical moment preceding the gunfire. Huntington Beach police did not publicly explain what Garcia was doing immediately before officers shot him, whether he pointed the reported firearm at anyone, whether he reached for it, whether he threatened an officer or civilian, or what specific action caused officers to open fire. Contemporary Los Angeles Times reporting specifically noted that police had not explained what Garcia did when he allegedly failed to comply or what prompted the shooting.
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Multiple civilians witnessed the shooting because it occurred on a crowded beach during one of Huntington Beach's largest annual events. Cellphone video captured portions of the encounter and the gunfire. Witnesses described hearing multiple shots and seeing crowds run from the area. The city subsequently offered counseling and emotional-support services to people who witnessed the killing.
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The Orange County Sheriff's Department handled the investigation into the Huntington Beach police shooting. Because police reported recovering a firearm from Garcia, the case did not fall within California's statutory program requiring the state Department of Justice to independently investigate police killings of unarmed civilians.
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Garcia's family later filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Huntington Beach. On September 21, 2023, Guadalupe Leticia Garcia, Ronnie Andrew Garcia II, Donna Maria Garcia and Jose Jorge Garcia filed Garcia et al. v. City of Huntington Beach et al. in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The case asserted a federal question arising from Garcia's death and demanded a jury trial.
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The existence of that lawsuit is especially important given how little Huntington Beach police publicly disclosed about the shooting itself. The department's original explanation effectively moved from the report of a man with a gun, to alleged noncompliance with unspecified commands, directly to fatal police gunfire without publicly identifying the conduct officers claimed created an immediate threat requiring deadly force.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Huntington Beach police officer or officers who shot Garcia have not been publicly identified in the readily accessible reporting and records located for this update. Contemporary accounts alternately referred to an officer or multiple officers firing, but the department did not publicly provide the shooters' names in those reports.
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The department itself was dealing with several serious officer-misconduct cases during the same year Garcia was killed. In March 2021, Huntington Beach Officer Steven Tennant was criminally charged with two counts of internet impersonation after prosecutors alleged he created online personal advertisements using another Huntington Beach officer's photograph and private cellphone number. The targeted officer had begun dating Tennant's former girlfriend. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer publicly characterized the alleged conduct as disturbing behavior by a sworn police officer that could have endangered another officer.

https://www.ocregister.com/2021/09/26/man-fatally-shot-by-huntington-beach-police-identified/
https://abc7.com/huntington-beach-police-shooting-pacific-coast-highway/11044943/
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/huntington-beach-police-shooting-pch/2702006/
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-25/huntington-beach-police-shoot-suspect-on-the-beach-as-u-s-open-of-surfing-underway-nearby
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/witnesses-describe-chaotic-scene-as-fatal-officer-involved-shooting-unfolds-near-u-s-open-of-surfing/
https://abc7.com/huntington-beach-police-shooting-officer-involved-department/11052490/
https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/story/2021-09-27/huntington-beach-offering-mental-health-services-in-aftermath-of-officer-involved-shooting
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/cacdce/8%3A2023cv01771/899515
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-22/huntington-beach-police-officer-charged-with-impersonating-another-officer
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/former-huntington-beach-police-investigator-charged-with-stealing-drugs-from-attempted-murder-suspects-vehicle/

On 09/25/2021, DeKalb County police encountered Christian Smith after responding to reports of a person walking in the roadway. Police stated an officer offered Smith a ride to a nearby gas station. Police stated that at the gas station they learned Smith had an active warrant and attempted to arrest him. Police alleged Smith produced a firearm during the encounter. Officers fired their weapons. An autopsy later determined Smith died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound rather than police gunfire.

https://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb-man-died-self-inflicted-gunshot-wound-after-police-shooting/
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/dekalb-county/man-dies-after-officer-involved-shooting-dekalb-county/
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/dekalb-county-police-investigating-officer-involved-shooting
https://gbi.georgia.gov/press-releases/2021-09-26/gbi-investigates-officer-involved-shooting-dekalb-county
https://www.ajc.com/news/cops-man-with-gun-shot-killed-by-police-outside-dekalb-gas-station/NQLFQSAHEFDBRIJ74AVLWJDVOQ/

https://www.ajc.com/news/crime/man-who-died-in-dekalb-police-car-shot-himself-medical-examiner-says/FPTSEUOEEVANZIILSTAKKWXESE/

On 09/25/2021, a Delano Police Department officer shot and killed 32-year-old Sandra Ortiz Barajas at a home in the 2000 block of Oxford Street after police responded to a reported verbal disturbance involving Barajas and an eight-year-old girl.
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Dispatch received the call at approximately 9:15 a.m. Police said responding officers were told that Barajas had a knife and was threatening to stab the child inside the residence.
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According to Delano police, officers approached the house, heard yelling and looked through a window. Police alleged that they saw Barajas dragging the eight-year-old girl through the residence while using a knife in a threatening manner.
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Police said an officer opened the window and then fired at Barajas. She was struck by police gunfire and died at the scene. The child suffered injuries and was transported to a hospital in stable condition.
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The publicly released police account left significant questions about the precise moment deadly force was used. Initial reporting did not explain how far Barajas and the child were from the officer, whether Barajas was actively attempting to stab the girl at the moment the officer fired, how many shots the officer fired, or whether officers attempted another means of intervention before opening the window and shooting.
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The Kern County Sheriff’s Office took over the investigation because a Delano police officer fired the fatal shots.
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Barajas’ family immediately challenged the police handling of the encounter and demanded additional information. Her sister, Rosalinda Ortiz, said the family was struggling to understand why police killed her rather than finding another way to intervene. The family questioned whether officers could have used a Taser or another less-lethal method and wanted to see video and other evidence showing exactly what happened inside the home.
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Family members also described Barajas as having struggled with substance use and said her behavior had changed. They did not deny that a serious disturbance had occurred but questioned whether deadly force was necessary and asked police to provide evidence supporting the official account. Their response is important because it did not simply reject every allegation made by police; rather, the family specifically challenged the decision to shoot and demanded a fuller explanation of what officers confronted.
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Later toxicology information concerning Barajas does not resolve the central use-of-force question: what the officer saw and what immediate threat existed at the instant the officer fired. The Kern County Sheriff’s investigation and any associated body-camera, witness and forensic evidence are therefore particularly important to independently evaluating the shooting.
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No encounter-related wrongful-death or federal civil-rights lawsuit filed by Barajas’ family was identified in the later public record reviewed for this update.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Delano Police Department officer who shot Sandra Ortiz Barajas has not been publicly identified in the readily accessible reporting located for this update.
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The lack of an officer identity is particularly significant because Delano Police Department had already faced serious and substantiated excessive-force and civil-rights litigation before Barajas was killed.Delano police had also previously faced federal litigation arising from a fatal police shooting. Reserve Officer Jose Mejia shot and killed Ruben Mesa Morales, leading Morales’ family to sue the City of Delano, Mejia and other officers under federal civil-rights law. The litigation included disputed evidence concerning the circumstances under which Mejia fired and allegations concerning municipal responsibility for officer conduct.
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Thus, by the time a Delano officer killed Barajas in 2021, the department had already faced both fatal-force litigation and a recent ACLU civil-rights lawsuit over officers using force against people recording police. The latter case resulted in an affirmative settlement requiring additional constitutional-rights training.
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The unanswered identity of Barajas’ shooter prevents the same individual-level review that can be performed when an officer is named.

https://bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/family-of-woman-shot-and-killed-in-delano-knife-point-ois-wants-answers-from-police
https://www.kget.com/news/local-news/delano-police-shooting-woman-killed-after-threatening-juvenile/
https://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/woman-killed-in-officer-involved-shooting-in-delano
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-27/delano-police-shooting-woman-killed
https://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/city-of-delano-reaches-settlement-in-use-of-force-lawsuit
https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914f4bcadd7b04934987395

On 09/24/2021, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers Keith Shelton, Joshua Smith, Joseph Reynolds and Dylan Sheets shot and killed 36-year-old Jessie Leonard on the front porch of a residence at 556 Eugene Street. All four officers fired, and Leonard was struck by seven bullets.
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The encounter began approximately an hour earlier when an IMPD officer attempted to stop a Honda Pilot in the 3800 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Street. Contemporary police statements described the initiating reason only as a traffic infraction. The officer did not pursue the Honda when its driver continued away.
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At approximately 2:30 p.m., officers located the Honda parked outside 556 Eugene Street. Police began investigating the vehicle and arranged to have it towed. Officers saw Leonard on the porch and approached to speak with her. Early IMPD reporting could not even confirm whether Leonard was the woman who had driven away from the earlier attempted traffic stop.
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The later federal civil-rights litigation produced a substantially fuller reconstruction. According to the court record and police body-camera evidence, officers approached Leonard while investigating the Honda and learned that she had a handgun at her waistband. Officers ordered her not to reach for the weapon.
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Police alleged that Leonard nevertheless reached toward the gun. Shelton, Smith, Reynolds and Sheets then opened fire. Collectively, the officers shot Leonard seven times. They subsequently provided emergency medical aid, but Leonard died at the scene.
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The critical factual issue later became more precise than the original police description. Leonard's estate disputed whether she actually pointed the handgun at police before they shot her. The officers argued that they did not have to wait for Leonard to point or fire the weapon because she had disregarded their commands and reached for a gun within immediate reach.
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Body-camera footage was central to the subsequent litigation. All four shooting officers were equipped with body cameras, allowing the federal courts to evaluate the officers' movements, Leonard's actions and the timing of the gunfire rather than relying solely on written police accounts.
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The shooting produced a significant public-records dispute. On October 27, 2021, attorney Brandon Tate submitted a records request to IMPD seeking the police reports, witness statements, Internal Affairs and homicide investigative files, training and personnel records for Shelton, Smith, Reynolds and Sheets, and body and dash-camera recordings from the day Leonard was killed. Indiana's Public Access Counselor later reviewed a complaint concerning IMPD's delay in responding to that request.
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Leonard's estate filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit on July 7, 2022. Rae-Jean Reynolds, acting as special administratrix of Leonard's estate, sued Shelton, Smith, Reynolds, Sheets, IMPD, the consolidated City of Indianapolis and Marion County under 42 U.S.C. §1983. The lawsuit alleged, among other claims, that the officers used excessive force in violation of Leonard's Fourth Amendment rights.
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The federal district court granted summary judgment to the officers, finding them entitled to qualified immunity. The estate appealed, specifically arguing that a jury should determine whether the shooting was unreasonable because there remained a factual dispute about whether Leonard actually pointed the gun at officers.
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On October 18, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the judgment for the officers. Importantly, the appellate court did not resolve the disputed evidence by declaring that Leonard pointed the gun. Instead, it concluded that even accepting the estate's position that she did not point it, the officers were entitled to qualified immunity because existing precedent did not clearly establish that shooting someone who disregarded repeated commands and reached for a firearm in those circumstances violated the Fourth Amendment.
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The later litigation therefore sharpens an important distinction obscured by simplified descriptions of the shooting: Leonard was armed, but whether she actually pointed the gun at police before four officers fired was contested by her estate and was a central issue in the federal civil-rights case.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The four officers who shot Leonard were Keith Shelton, Joshua Smith, Joseph Reynolds and Dylan Sheets. Their names were publicly released approximately one week after the shooting.
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Keith Shelton had previously fired his weapon during another major IMPD shooting only months before Leonard's death. In May 2021, Shelton was one of five IMPD officers who returned fire during a gun battle after police said a man shot Officer Ronald Sayles and fired at responding officers. Thus, Leonard's killing was at least Shelton's second shooting incident involving police gunfire during 2021.
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Shelton had also previously been named as an individual defendant in federal civil-rights litigation against Indianapolis. In Mancini v. City of Indianapolis, filed in 2016, plaintiffs sued the city and numerous IMPD personnel, including Shelton, alleging Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment violations and municipal liability. The individual officers, including Shelton, were ultimately dismissed from that litigation, while other claims against the city continued.
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Leonard's own killing subsequently placed all four officers into federal civil-rights litigation. The estate's 2022 lawsuit individually named Shelton, Smith, Reynolds and Sheets and challenged their use of deadly force. That litigation continued through the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals before the officers ultimately prevailed on qualified-immunity grounds in October 2024.
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The case also exposed a transparency problem within IMPD. The identities of the four shooters were eventually released, but obtaining the underlying investigative, Internal Affairs, training, personnel and video records became the subject of a separate Indiana public-access complaint after the department did not promptly fulfill the records request.

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2021/09/24/impd-police-shoot-kill-woman-north-side-indianapolis/5864584001/
https://www.wishtv.com/news/crime-watch-8/woman-shot-and-killed-by-police-after-pointing-gun-impd-says/
https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/indianapolis-woman-fatally-shot-by-police-on-porch-of-house/531-c5cc9a11-8599-4728-98f1-62d408e72d0c
https://fox59.com/news/indianapolis-woman-killed-in-police-shooting/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kf5-wTAdJQ
https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/police-identify-officers-in-fatal-shooting-of-woman-on-porch
https://www.wfyi.org/wfyi-news/2021-09-24/officer-involved-shooting-occurs-in-indianapolis
https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/crime/impd-reports-officer-involved-shooting-no-officers-injured
https://www.in.gov/pac/files/advisory/22-FC-20.pdf
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca7/24-1363/24-1363-2024-10-18.html
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-ca7-24-01363/pdf/USCOURTS-ca7-24-01363-0.pdf
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/indiana/insdce/1%3A2022cv01345/201412
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/circuit-courts/ca7/24-1363
https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/crime/impd-identifies-officer-shot-officers-who-returned-fire-in-saturday-shooting
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/indiana/insdce/1%3A2016cv02048/67411

On 09/23/2021, officers and deputies from the Lake Charles Police Department and Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office shot and killed 20-year-old Desmond Louis during a barricade at a residence on 11th Street near Golf Street in Lake Charles. Louisiana State Police investigated the fatal shooting.
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The encounter followed a multiday search for Louis. He was a Louisiana Department of Corrections inmate participating in a transitional work program when he walked away from his restaurant job in Lake Charles on September 20. The Beauregard Parish Sheriff’s Office subsequently obtained a warrant for simple escape.
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On the night of September 22, Calcasieu Parish sheriff’s detectives learned that Louis was broadcasting live on social media while riding as a passenger in a vehicle on Highway 171. Deputies began looking for the vehicle and located what they believed was the same car near Cobb Circle in Moss Bluff. A deputy activated emergency lights and siren to initiate a traffic stop.
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The 16-year-old driver initially pulled over. According to the Sheriff’s Office, when detectives got out of their vehicle, Louis fired at them and deputies returned fire. No one was struck. The car then drove away while police pursued it into Beauregard Parish, where the driver eventually stopped near Jillian Drive. Police discovered that Louis had left the vehicle before the stop.
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The following day, authorities received information that Louis was inside a residence on 11th Street in Lake Charles. Calcasieu Parish SWAT and Lake Charles police surrounded the house and began attempting to bring Louis and the other people inside out of the residence. Three other occupants eventually came outside and were taken into custody.
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Sheriff Tony Mancuso said police attempted to negotiate with Louis and subsequently deployed tear gas when he would not come out. Police alleged that Louis fired multiple rounds from inside the residence toward officers and deputies, including rounds that struck an armored law-enforcement vehicle.
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Louis eventually emerged through the front door. Louisiana State Police reported that Louis fired additional rounds at officers after coming outside. Several Lake Charles officers and Calcasieu Parish deputies then opened fire, striking Louis. He died at the scene.
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The fatal shooting was therefore the second exchange of police gunfire involving Louis in less than 24 hours. The first occurred during the attempted traffic stop on Highway 171; the second occurred after SWAT and police located and surrounded the 11th Street residence.

https://www.kplctv.com/2021/09/23/authorities-continue-search-escaped-inmate-ragley-victoria-acres-area/
https://www.katc.com/news/calcasieu-parish/escaped-inmate-killed-in-shootout-with-officers-in-calcasieu-parish
https://www.katc.com/news/calcasieu-parish/cpso-searching-for-doc-inmate-who-escaped-transitional-work-program
https://www.kplctv.com/2021/10/13/louisiana-workforce-program-prepares-inmates-life-after-prison/
https://www.incarcerationtransparency.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Louis-Desmond-Calcasieu-2021-Article-.pdf

On 09/23/2021, McKinney Police Department officers shot and killed 40-year-old Paul Bryan Stone outside a residence in the 4900 block of Redwood Drive after a family member called 911 because Stone was suicidal, armed with a shotgun and experiencing a mental health crisis.
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Police received the family member’s 911 call at approximately 2:25 p.m. Officers responded to the residence and spent nearly an hour attempting to make contact with Stone. The encounter therefore began as a welfare response to a known mental health crisis rather than as an investigation of a reported crime committed against another person.
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According to McKinney police, Stone eventually came outside carrying a shotgun. Police alleged that he pointed the shotgun toward officers. Multiple officers then opened fire, striking Stone as he stood on the front lawn. He fell to the ground and died.
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The publicly released police account did not establish that Stone fired the shotgun before officers shot him. The stated justification for the police gunfire was the allegation that he pointed the weapon at officers.
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The Texas Rangers assumed responsibility for investigating the fatal shooting. McKinney police did not identify the officers who fired in the initial reporting.
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Stone’s case is important to classify accurately as a mental health crisis killing. His own family summoned police because they feared he was suicidal, and officers knew the nature of that crisis before they arrived. Police then spent nearly an hour attempting to communicate with him before the encounter ended in fatal gunfire.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The McKinney police officers who shot Stone have not been publicly identified in the reporting located for this update.

On 09/23/2021, McKinney Police Department officers shot and killed 40-year-old Paul Bryan Stone outside a residence in the 4900 block of Redwood Drive after a family member called 911 because Stone was suicidal, armed with a shotgun and experiencing a mental health crisis.
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Police received the family member’s 911 call at approximately 2:25 p.m. Officers responded to the residence and spent nearly an hour attempting to make contact with Stone. The encounter therefore began as a welfare response to a known mental health crisis rather than as an investigation of a reported crime committed against another person.
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According to McKinney police, Stone eventually came outside carrying a shotgun. Police alleged that he pointed the shotgun toward officers. Multiple officers then opened fire, striking Stone as he stood on the front lawn. He fell to the ground and died.
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The publicly released police account did not establish that Stone fired the shotgun before officers shot him. The stated justification for the police gunfire was the allegation that he pointed the weapon at officers.
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The Texas Rangers assumed responsibility for investigating the fatal shooting. McKinney police did not identify the officers who fired in the initial reporting.
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Stone’s case is important to classify accurately as a mental health crisis killing. His own family summoned police because they feared he was suicidal, and officers knew the nature of that crisis before they arrived. Police then spent nearly an hour attempting to communicate with him before the encounter ended in fatal gunfire.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The McKinney police officers who shot Stone have not been publicly identified in the reporting located for this update.

On 09/23/2021, Alachua County Sheriff’s Office deputies shot and killed 39-year-old Barry Heckard following an attempted DUI traffic stop, vehicle pursuit, PIT maneuver and armed confrontation on State Road 45/US 27-41 in Newberry. Contemporary reporting identified Heckard as a Gainesville resident and owner of Heckard’s Doors.
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The encounter began at approximately 8:30 p.m. when deputies observed Heckard’s van swerving while traveling on State Road 45 south of Newberry. Deputies suspected the driver was impaired and attempted to stop the van for suspected DUI. Heckard continued driving away while deputies pursued.
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The initiating reason for the attempted traffic stop is therefore specifically documented: deputies observed the van driving erratically and swerving and suspected the driver was intoxicated. This was not an attempted stop for a warrant or a known violent offense.
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During the pursuit, deputies used a PIT maneuver in an attempt to stop Heckard’s van near State Road 45 and Newberry Road. Police alleged that after the PIT maneuver Heckard fired a gun at deputies. At least one deputy returned fire.
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The encounter then developed into an armed standoff. The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team responded, and numerous sheriff’s vehicles surrounded Heckard’s van near the intersection. Police alleged that additional gunfire was exchanged between Heckard and deputies.
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Heckard was struck by police gunfire and died at the scene. Contemporary reporting described at least one deputy firing during the initial exchange, while later accounts described multiple exchanges of gunfire. The publicly available initial reporting did not establish which specific deputy fired the fatal shot.
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A civilian witness recorded video of portions of the confrontation, providing evidence of the police response beyond the Sheriff’s Office’s account.
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The Florida Department of Law Enforcement was brought in to investigate the fatal police shooting rather than leaving the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office solely responsible for investigating its own deputies.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Alachua County sheriff’s deputy or deputies who shot Heckard were not publicly identified in the contemporary reporting located for this update.
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There was another Alachua County deputy shooting only five months before Heckard’s death. On April 12, 2021, an ACSO deputy shot Jeremiah Birrey during a domestic-disturbance response near Gainesville after police alleged Birrey approached his girlfriend while armed with a knife.
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That earlier shooting and Heckard’s death placed the Sheriff’s Office in at least two deputy shooting incidents during 2021. Without the identities of the deputies who fired at Heckard, however, it is not possible to determine whether any of the same personnel were involved in both encounters.

https://www.alligator.org/article/2021/09/gainesville-man-dies-in-newberry-shootout-with-alachua-county-sheriff-deputies
https://www.wcjb.com/2021/09/24/breaking-alachua-county-sheriffs-deputies-fire-an-armed-suspect-newberry/
https://alachuachronicle.com/man-shot-in-newberry-after-opening-fire-at-deputies/
https://www.mainstreetdailynews.com/news/update-newberry-man-flees-deputies-exchanges-fire_id_688439d0-1cd6-11ec-8bf6-d341a98a36d5
https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2021/04/12/deputy-shoots-alachua-man-during-domestic-disturbance-call/

On 09/23/2021, Tate County Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Bryok shot and killed 52-year-old Keith Cole in a wooded area near Mississippi Highway 4 and Lyles Road after Bryok stopped Cole’s vehicle and pursued him on foot. Later federal litigation identified Bryok as the shooter and produced a considerably more detailed record than the initial police account.
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The circumstances leading to the stop are more complicated than contemporary reporting suggested. Sheriff Brad Lance initially said deputies had an active domestic violence warrant for Cole. Later federal court records show that Bryok stopped Cole after seeing his vehicle on Highway 4 in order to facilitate service of a protection order connected to allegations involving Cole’s former girlfriend, Danielle Cook. Cole’s daughter later disputed that Bryok knew of an arrest warrant when he initiated the stop.
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The protection order and warrant arose from serious domestic violence allegations. Cook had accused Cole of kidnapping and assaulting her, and another complaint involved damage to tires. Federal court records state that Bryok himself had previously responded to calls alleging that Cole raped and kidnapped Cook.
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Cole pulled his vehicle off Highway 4 near the wood line, got out and ran. Bryok pursued him on foot through residential and wooded areas. Body-camera footage later became central evidence in the federal civil-rights litigation.
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During the foot pursuit, Bryok ordered Cole to lie down and threatened to shoot him if he did not. The federal court found that video and other evidence strongly indicated that two gunshots were then fired from Cole’s location, although the court specifically noted that it was unclear whether Cole was firing toward Bryok or firing warning shots. Bryok continued pursuing him.
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Bryok eventually found Cole apparently exhausted and kneeling or lying in the woods. Body-camera footage showed Bryok approaching to within approximately arm’s length while pointing his gun at Cole. According to the court’s review, Cole stood and made a movement in the direction of Bryok’s firearm. Bryok fired twice at close range, killing him.
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The original public explanation was less detailed. Sheriff Lance said Cole had been lying behind a tree and that when Bryok approached, Cole jumped up. Lance said Bryok could see Cole’s left hand but not his right and believed Cole’s right hand was near his waistband. The sheriff said Cole then made a movement that caused Bryok to believe he was in danger, prompting the two fatal shots.
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Cole’s family contested the justification for the killing. Sheriff Lance acknowledged meeting with the family, showing them body-camera footage and hearing what he described as their “valid concerns” about Bryok’s actions. The family did not accept that the circumstances required Bryok to fatally shoot Cole.
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The case took an extraordinary turn three days after Cole was killed. On September 26, deputies conducted a welfare check at Danielle Cook’s mobile home off Highway 305 and found her dead inside. Her body had apparently been there for an extended period. Later federal court records state that Cole had returned to Cook’s residence after the earlier alleged kidnapping and killed her several days before his fatal encounter with Bryok. Bryok did not know Cook was dead when he stopped Cole on September 23.
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Cole’s daughter, Kellisa Jones, subsequently filed a federal civil-rights and wrongful-death lawsuit against Bryok and Tate County. The lawsuit alleged that Bryok used excessive force in violation of Cole’s Fourth Amendment rights and challenged the county’s responsibility for his death.
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The lawsuit produced an important refinement of the original police narrative because the federal court reviewed the body-camera recordings directly. The evidence showed that the fatal encounter did not simply consist of Bryok seeing an obscured hand at Cole’s waistband. Rather, Bryok had chased Cole through the woods, approached him at extremely close range with his firearm pointed at him, and fired when Cole stood and moved toward the weapon.
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In July 2025, U.S. District Judge Michael Mills granted summary judgment to Bryok and Tate County and dismissed the lawsuit. The court concluded that the body-camera evidence established an immediate threat when Cole moved toward Bryok’s gun at close range and that Bryok’s use of deadly force was objectively reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The deputy who killed Cole was Ben Bryok. His identity, missing from the initial news coverage, was definitively established through the later federal civil-rights lawsuit.
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Bryok had prior direct involvement with the domestic violence allegations surrounding Cole and Cook. The later federal case establishes that before September 23, Bryok had personally responded to calls alleging that Cole raped and kidnapped Cook. This means the fatal encounter was not Bryok’s first involvement in the conflict between Cole and Cook.
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Court records also place Bryok in other Tate County enforcement activity before Cole’s killing. In January 2021, Bryok stopped another driver for failing to use a turn signal, an encounter that later became part of a Mississippi appellate case challenging the legality of the stop. The conviction was ultimately affirmed.
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The Tate County Sheriff’s Office had a serious documented excessive-force scandal in its institutional history. Former Tate County Sheriff’s Lt. Randy T. Doss was federally prosecuted for unlawfully using a Taser against a pretrial detainee who was standing against a wall with his hands over his head and posed no physical threat. The Taser caused the man to fall backward onto concrete, fracture his skull and require brain surgery.

https://wreg.com/news/local/woman-found-dead-in-mississippi-after-filing-complaints-against-man-shot-dead-by-deputies/
https://thebeatofthecapital.com/2021/09/28/woman-found-dead-in-mississippi-after-filing-complaints-against-man-shot-dead-by-deputies/
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/mississippi/msndce/3%3A2024cv00297/49831/53/
https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/mississippi/msndce/3%3A2024cv00297/49831/53
https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20250718882
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/former-tate-county-mississippi-sheriff-s-deputy-sentenced-unlawful-tasing
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/former-tate-county-mississippi-sheriff-s-deputy-pleads-guilty-unlawful-tasing
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/former-tate-county-sheriffs-deputy-indicted-using-excessive-force-against-pre-trial-detainee

On 09/23/2021, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies shot and killed 34-year-old Barry John Ross at Sierra Highway and West Avenue B near Lancaster after responding to a report of a man with a gun at Deputy Pierre W. Bain Park. LASD’s later investigative summary provides considerably more detail than the initial news reports.
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At approximately 4:10 p.m., Lancaster Station deputies received a call reporting a man with a gun at Pierre Bain Park in the 45000 block of Fifth Street East. The caller reported that the man was standing beside a white BMW.
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Before patrol deputies arrived, an LASD helicopter located a white BMW leaving the park. Police said the helicopter followed the BMW as Ross allegedly drove erratically, went through red lights and stop signs and eventually pulled into a dirt lot on Avenue B just west of Sierra Highway.
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According to LASD, Ross got out of the BMW holding a handgun. Police alleged that he repeatedly pointed the gun toward the sheriff’s helicopter and also pointed it at himself. That latter detail, omitted from much of the initial coverage, establishes that deputies were confronting an armed man displaying suicidal behavior during a mental health crisis.
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Deputies requested both the LASD Mental Evaluation Team and the Special Enforcement Bureau. Using a public-address system, deputies ordered Ross to put down the gun and lie on the ground. Police alleged that he continued holding the weapon and pointing it toward the helicopter.
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The encounter changed when an uninvolved man emerged from a recreational vehicle parked in the dirt lot and began talking with Ross. LASD said deputies feared Ross might harm the man or take him hostage, so they approached in an armored rescue vehicle.
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Deputies called the civilian toward the armored vehicle and brought him inside. LASD alleged that after the civilian was safely inside, Ross assumed a shooting stance and pointed his handgun directly at a deputy positioned in the turret of the armored vehicle. Deputies then opened fire.
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Ross was struck and fell to the ground. Deputies approached him and provided medical aid before paramedics transported him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. LASD reported recovering a loaded Polymer80 9mm semiautomatic handgun at the scene.
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The later LASD account is materially more precise than the first public reports, which generally described Ross as pointing a gun at the helicopter and approaching deputies. The department’s formal investigative summary specifically states that Ross pointed the weapon at himself, that a Mental Evaluation Team was requested, that deputies used an armored vehicle because of concern for an uninvolved civilian, and that police alleged Ross ultimately took a shooting stance and pointed the weapon directly at the deputy in the turret before deputies fired.
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The names of the deputies who fired remain absent from the publicly accessible LASD shooting materials located for this update. LASD’s own transparency database identifies the case as Lancaster Station file 21-15897-11 and provides the investigative summary, coroner material and video, but does not identify the shooting deputies in the public index.
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No affirmative evidence located for this update establishes that Ross’s family or an eyewitness publicly contested the police account of the shooting or filed an encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The deputies who shot Barry Ross have not been publicly identified.
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The institutional background here is unusually important. Lancaster Station was not simply an LASD station with an isolated history of complaints. At the time Ross was killed, policing by LASD in Lancaster and the surrounding Antelope Valley remained under a federal court-enforced settlement arising from a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into unconstitutional policing. The Justice Department alleged a pattern or practice of conduct by LASD deputies in the Antelope Valley that violated constitutional and federal civil-rights protections.
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The federal intervention followed findings involving unreasonable force, discriminatory policing and unlawful stops, searches and seizures affecting Black and Latino residents. The settlement required extensive reforms and independent monitoring of Lancaster and Palmdale station practices. The federal monitoring process was still active when Ross was killed in 2021.
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That oversight did not eliminate continuing concerns about Lancaster Station’s use-of-force review. A later Antelope Valley Monitoring Team report examined twelve use-of-force incidents from the third and fourth quarters of 2021 involving nine deputies, including four Lancaster deputies. The monitors described the findings as greatly concerning and identified deficiencies in management’s critical thinking and thoroughness when reviewing and approving force incidents. In one reviewed case, force initially classified by a watch commander as out of policy was changed by a captain to a training issue and then incorrectly reported as having no issues.
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Ross was also shot during an extraordinary two-day period for Lancaster Station. The night before Ross was killed, Lancaster deputies shot another man, Julio King, after a roughly 90-minute barricade on West Avenue J-12. LASD alleged King pointed a rifle at deputies. King survived. The following afternoon, Lancaster deputies shot Ross. LASD’s own shooting database records the two incidents on consecutive dates, September 22 and September 23, 2021.
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Lancaster Station also had documented history involving deputy cliques or gangs. A January 2021 Los Angeles County report examining LASD deputy gangs specifically discussed the existence of deputy cliques at Lancaster and Palmdale stations and connected such groups with aggressive policing, racial profiling, excessive force, unconstitutional searches and a code of silence used to conceal misconduct.
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There were serious credibility problems within Lancaster Station as well. In 2019, Lancaster Deputy Angel Reinosa falsely reported that a sniper had shot him outside the station, triggering a massive law-enforcement response and search. Investigators determined that Reinosa had fabricated the shooting and his injury; prosecutors subsequently charged him.
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This background does not determine whether the deputies who shot Ross acted unlawfully. It does establish, however, that his death occurred at a station operating under extraordinary outside scrutiny for unconstitutional policing and force, with documented deputy-clique concerns and continuing deficiencies in force review. The individual history of Ross’s shooters cannot be evaluated until their identities are established.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-23/man-shot-killed-by-sheriffs-deputies-in-lancaster
https://abc7.com/lancaster-shooting-deputy-involved-sheriffs-department/11045689/
https://www.foxla.com/news/man-killed-in-deputy-involved-shooting-in-lancaster
https://www.avpress.com/news/man-shot-killed-by-deputies-in-lancaster/article_2a5d8c2e-1c6e-11ec-9e91-0b4d6d5e4a5c.html
https://theavtimes.com/2021/09/27/authorities-id-man-fatally-shot-by-sheriffs-deputies-near-lancaster/
https://homicide.latimes.com/post/barry-john-ross/
https://lasd.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Transparnecy_092321_LAN_DIS_Summary_Ross_Barry_102521.pdf
https://lasd.org/transparency/deputyinvolvedshootingprevious/
https://www.justice.gov/crt/case/united-states-v-county-los-angeles-antelope-valley-cd-cal
https://lasd.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/AVDOJ_15_Semi-Annual_Report_December_2022.pdf
https://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/supdocs/CJLP_Report_LASD_Deputy_Gangs_012021.pdf
https://lasd.org/da-files-charges-on-former-deputy/

On 09/23/2021, 34-year-old David Anthony Bocci died after Elk Grove Police Department officers Nathan Meyerdick and Shawn Vargas handcuffed him, took him to the ground and restrained him in a WRAP restraint during a mental health crisis at Laguna Park Drive and Seasons Drive. The Sacramento County coroner determined his cause of death was “mixed drug intoxication during physical restraint” and classified the manner of death as undetermined.
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The encounter did not begin with a reported crime. Shortly before 1 p.m., Cosumnes Community Services District firefighters encountered Bocci sitting in a Toyota Corolla stopped at the intersection. He was sweating heavily, agitated, yelling, swinging his arms and speaking nonsensically. Firefighters took his car keys so he could not drive and called Elk Grove police for assistance with what dispatch described as an “unruly subject.”
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Officer Nathan Meyerdick arrived at approximately 1 p.m. and observed that Bocci was sweating profusely and rambling incoherently. Meyerdick believed Bocci might either be under the influence of drugs or experiencing a mental health crisis. When Meyerdick asked Bocci his name, Bocci did not respond, and Meyerdick believed he appeared to be responding to hallucinations.
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Bocci walked toward his car and reached through an open window despite Meyerdick telling him not to do so. He retrieved a book and held it against his chest. Meyerdick had not searched Bocci and said he was concerned that Bocci could have a weapon concealed in his loose clothing. Meyerdick grabbed Bocci’s left hand and applied a control hold.
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Officer Shawn Vargas arrived at essentially the same moment with Sacramento County Senior Mental Health Technician Janae Schallert. Vargas and Schallert were working together as part of a Crisis Intervention Team specifically intended to assist people experiencing mental health problems. By the time the mental health clinician reached Bocci, however, Meyerdick had already physically restrained his arm.
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Vargas decided to handcuff Bocci. Police alleged that Bocci resisted, repeatedly jumped and kicked backward, striking Vargas near the groin. Vargas then struck Bocci once in the upper back with his forearm and used his body weight to take him to the ground. Meyerdick and Vargas handcuffed him approximately ten seconds later.
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After searching Bocci, officers determined that he had no weapon. Meyerdick rolled him onto his left side, but Bocci continued struggling. Vargas requested additional officers, a supervisor and a WRAP full-body restraint device.
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While handcuffed on the ground, Bocci said something captured differently by the officers’ body cameras. Meyerdick initially interpreted it as “Forgive me, God. Please fix me, God,” while later review indicated Bocci may instead have said, “Dad, I forgive you.” Bocci then struck or fell against the concrete curb with his head. The later DA review concluded that no officer caused his head to strike the curb.
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Additional officers arrived and temporarily placed Bocci on his stomach while applying the WRAP restraint to immobilize his body and legs. Police alleged that he continued kicking while officers secured the device.
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Fire personnel examined Bocci after the restraint was applied. An ambulance transported him to Methodist Hospital of Sacramento with Officer Jazvi Singh accompanying him. Medical personnel reported that his vital signs remained stable during transport and that he did not require chemical sedation in the ambulance.
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Bocci remained in the WRAP restraint after reaching the hospital at approximately 1:37 p.m. Hospital staff described him as screaming incoherently, combative and thrashing. At approximately 1:45 p.m., he began suffering seizures. Hospital personnel administered medication and attempted lifesaving measures after he stopped breathing, but he could not be revived. Bocci was pronounced dead at approximately 3:02 p.m.
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The later investigation revealed especially important information about the nature of Bocci’s crisis. His mother had called 911 on May 31, 2021, reporting that he needed a psychiatric evaluation. Officers found him sweating heavily and apparently hallucinating and placed him on an involuntary mental health hold.
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More significantly, police had been called about Bocci the day before his death. On September 22, his mother told police that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and was not taking his medication. Officers decided he did not meet the criteria for an involuntary hold. Bocci agreed to voluntarily enter Sierra Vista Psychiatric Facility but ultimately did not do so.
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Bocci himself called 911 at approximately 5:22 a.m. on the morning he died because of a dispute with his mother. Then, only about 20 minutes before firefighters encountered him, another person called police about a man running through an intersection and swinging at passing vehicles. Officer Vargas responded but did not locate him. Later traffic-camera review established that the man was Bocci.
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Thus, by the time Vargas arrived with a mental health clinician at Laguna Park Drive, Elk Grove police had accumulated multiple recent indicators that Bocci was experiencing a severe mental health crisis, including direct contact with him the previous day and another call concerning his behavior minutes earlier.
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The autopsy found methamphetamine, amphetamine, marijuana, bupropion and several prescription or medically administered drugs in Bocci’s system. The coroner also found 24 undigested pills in his gastrointestinal tract. Toxicology showed a high concentration of methamphetamine and a bupropion concentration within the range reported in previous fatal overdoses.
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The medical examiner nevertheless did not classify Bocci’s death simply as an overdose. The official cause was specifically “mixed drug intoxication during physical restraint.” The pathologist identified three potentially contributing components: the drug intoxication, Bocci’s prolonged agitation and physical exertion, and his physical altercation and restraint by police. The pathologist said the relative contribution of each could not be determined.
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The Sacramento County District Attorney conducted an independent criminal review that included body-camera footage, dispatch recordings, witness interviews, forensic evidence, toxicology and the coroner’s findings. In October 2022, the DA concluded there was insufficient evidence of criminal negligence or excessive force and filed no charges against Meyerdick, Vargas or the other officers.
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Importantly, the DA expressly limited that determination. Its review addressed potential criminal responsibility and stated that questions of civil liability, police tactics and departmental policies and procedures were not considered.
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Civilian witnesses included the firefighters, the mental health clinician and two school employees who observed the encounter from a vehicle. The DA reported that their accounts were generally consistent with the events visible on police video.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Nathan Meyerdick and Shawn Vargas were the principal officers who physically restrained Bocci. Meyerdick initiated the physical control hold, and Vargas joined him, struck Bocci once in the upper back, assisted in taking him to the ground and requested the WRAP restraint. Other officers assisted in applying the WRAP, and Officer Jazvi Singh accompanied Bocci in the ambulance.
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A substantive search of Meyerdick and Vargas did not establish another fatal shooting or other comparable prior lethal-force incident involving either officer that is sufficiently documented to include here.
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The timing of Vargas’s involvement is nevertheless significant. Vargas arrived with a Sacramento County mental health professional as part of a Crisis Intervention Team, yet Bocci’s encounter moved almost immediately into handcuffing, a takedown and full-body restraint. Vargas had also personally responded only minutes earlier to a call concerning Bocci’s erratic behavior at another intersection but had been unable to locate him.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article254504097.html
https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/elk-grove/man-dies-after-being-restrained-by-elk-grove-police/103-2a3c6d63-5c88-4c2f-9d9a-61b59bce6e5a
https://www.kcra.com/article/elk-grove-police-investigating-in-custody-death/37705166
https://www.elkgrovecity.org/city_hall/departments_divisions/police/news_releases/officer_involved_incident_092321
http://www.elkgrovepd.org/about_us/connect/news/investigation_of_death_while_in_custody
https://www.sacda.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/EGPD-ICD-2021-Bocci-.pdf
https://www.sacda.org/police-use-of-force/
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/caedce/2%3A2021cv02278/404155

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REASON FOR POLICE CHASE:
Vehicle reported stolen and suspected involvement in an attempted burglary. Authorities said the vehicle had been reported stolen from Hideout at approximately 9:00 a.m. and was later linked to an attempted burglary in Midway. Wasatch County deputies located it at approximately 10:20 a.m. and attempted a traffic stop.
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EVENT NARRATIVE:
On 09/22/2021, 19-year-old Daisha Vood Reynolds of Salt Lake City was killed while riding as a passenger in a vehicle pursued by law enforcement from Wasatch County into Summit County. Reynolds was not identified by authorities as the driver of the vehicle or as the person controlling whether the pursuit continued.
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The vehicle had been reported stolen at approximately 9:00 a.m. in Hideout. About an hour later, Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office deputies received a report of a similar vehicle connected to an attempted burglary in Midway. Deputies located the vehicle at approximately 10:20 a.m. and attempted to stop it.
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Police said the driver continued driving away while Wasatch County deputies pursued through Midway. Deputies twice lost sight of the vehicle during the pursuit and subsequently located it again on River Road. The pursuit then continued onto U.S. 40 toward Summit County.
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According to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, pursuit speeds exceeded 95 mph and approached 100 mph on U.S. 40.
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A Utah Highway Patrol trooper deployed tire spikes on U.S. 40 in an effort to stop the vehicle. Contemporary reporting did not establish whether the first spike deployment successfully deflated any tires.
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Several miles farther north, near mile marker 2 on U.S. 40, a Summit County sheriff’s deputy attempted to deploy another tire-deflation device. Police said the driver swerved while approaching or passing the device, lost control of the vehicle and left the roadway.
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The vehicle rolled several times. Reynolds and the 22-year-old driver, Charles Caster of Salt Lake City, were both ejected. Emergency personnel pronounced Reynolds dead at the scene. Caster suffered critical injuries and was flown by medical helicopter to a Salt Lake-area hospital.
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Park City Fire District Battalion Chief Darren Nelson said neither Reynolds nor Caster appeared to have been wearing a seat belt. A 16-week-old dog riding in the vehicle was also seriously injured, suffering a broken pelvis and legs, and was taken into the care of Nuzzles & Co.
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Reynolds was 19 and lived in Salt Lake City. Public reporting about her death focused overwhelmingly on the pursuit and provided little information about her life, family, work, education, or interests beyond her age and residence.
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The Utah Attorney General’s Office investigated the fatal crash, assisted by the West Valley City Police Department, Park City Police Department and Utah Office of the Medical Examiner. The Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office, Summit County Sheriff’s Office and Utah Highway Patrol were among the agencies involved in the pursuit or attempts to stop the vehicle.
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No PIT/TVI maneuver or intentional police-vehicle contact with the pursued vehicle was reported. The principal police intervention immediately preceding the crash was the Summit County deputy’s attempted deployment of the tire-deflation device.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
The Wasatch County deputies, Utah Highway Patrol trooper and Summit County deputy who participated in the pursuit and tire-deflation attempts have not been publicly identified in the available reporting.

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2021/09/22/crash-during-police/
https://www.parkrecord.com/2021/09/22/1-person-killed-in-crash-on-u-s-40-involving-law-enforcement-pursuit/
https://www.ksl.com/article/50247236/police-id-1-killed-1-injured-in-crash-after-summit-county-police-chase
https://www.kpcw.org/local-news/2021-09-22/updated-woman-dead-man-critically-injured-after-high-speed-chase-rollover
https://www.kpcw.org/local-news/2021-09-23/crash-victim-driver-in-high-speed-chase-identified
https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/us-40-closed-near-park-city-due-to-police-incident
https://www.parkrecord.com/2021/12/29/murder-charge-filed-against-driver-in-fatal-september-car-crash-on-u-s-40-near-park-city/
https://www.kpcw.org/local-news/2021-12-29/driver-in-fatal-september-crash-faces-murder-charge
https://www.ksl.com/article/50319659/utah-man-accused-of-crashing-while-fleeing-police-killing-passenger-is-charged-with-murder

On 09/22/2021, 48-year-old Troy Allen Engstrom of Shoreview died after Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Donald Rindal intentionally drove his squad SUV into Engstrom during a police response to a mental health crisis and reported domestic assault in Mounds View.
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The encounter began at approximately 6:20 a.m., when Mounds View police responded to the AmericInn at 2200 Mounds View Boulevard after a hotel employee reported that Engstrom was threatening suicide and might have a gun. Engstrom’s girlfriend had reported that he was threatening to kill himself with her semiautomatic 9mm handgun. Police initially conducted surveillance of the room but left after determining Engstrom was alone and deciding they did not want to escalate the situation.
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According to the subsequent BCA investigation, Engstrom’s girlfriend later returned to the hotel. She reported that Engstrom said he was going to shoot himself and die that day. She said Engstrom pointed the gun at her after she told him he would have to kill her as well. She left the room and subsequently heard a gunshot.
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After Mounds View Deputy Chief Ben Zender learned that a gun had been fired inside the hotel room, he directed officers to arrest Engstrom. Officers returned at approximately 10:40 a.m., but Engstrom had left the hotel on foot.
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Mounds View Officer Nick Erickson located Engstrom near County Road H2 and Jackson Drive. Erickson stopped his marked squad approximately a block away, activated its emergency lights and positioned himself behind the open driver’s door.
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Police reported that Engstrom fired toward Erickson. Sgt. Rindal was approaching in a Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office SUV and reported seeing Engstrom with a gun and hearing shots. Dashcam video from Rindal’s squad, later publicly released, shows Engstrom on the sidewalk holding a handgun as Rindal approaches. Approximately 19 seconds into the recording, Rindal says, “Got a gun; shots fired,” and drives toward Engstrom. Engstrom appears to fire toward the police vehicles. The publicly released video ends immediately before Rindal’s SUV strikes him.
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Rindal intentionally drove the SUV into Engstrom, pushing him through a wooden fence. Engstrom suffered severe blunt-force injuries. Officers provided medical aid, and he was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died later that day.
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The Hennepin County Medical Examiner determined that Engstrom died from multiple blunt-force injuries caused by the pedestrian-motor vehicle collision and classified his death as homicide.
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Investigators recovered a Taurus 9mm semiautomatic handgun and two cartridge cases. BCA firearms testing determined that both cartridge cases had been fired from the recovered handgun. A bullet recovered near Erickson’s squad was also matched to that firearm. Investigators documented bullet-impact evidence on both Erickson’s Mounds View police SUV and the Ramsey County SUV. DNA testing of blood recovered behind the fence matched Engstrom.
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Engstrom was a Shoreview resident and the son of Darwin “Butch” and Judy Engstrom. His father’s later obituary identified Troy as his son and showed that he was part of a family that included his sister Lori and extended family.
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The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigated Rindal’s use of deadly force and submitted its investigative file to the Dakota County Attorney’s Office on 01/25/2022 because the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office requested an outside review.
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On 03/09/2022, Dakota County Attorney Kathryn Keena announced that Rindal would not be criminally charged. Keena concluded that Rindal’s intentional use of the SUV as deadly force was legally justified because the evidence supported his belief that Engstrom presented an imminent deadly threat to Rindal, Erickson and members of the public.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Sgt. Donald Rindal was publicly identified as the Ramsey County deputy who intentionally struck Engstrom with his squad SUV. Rindal had worked for the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office since 1999.
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Rindal previously appeared in federal litigation involving former Ramsey County Sgt. Joyce Shockency’s allegations of political retaliation within the Sheriff’s Office. Court records state that Rindal, a supporter of Sheriff Bob Fletcher, told fellow deputies that Shockency would be removed from her patrol-sergeant position following the election; Shockency was subsequently transferred. Rindal was not a defendant accused of using excessive force against Shockency, and the litigation does not establish that he was personally disciplined or found liable for misconduct.
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The BCA investigated Rindal’s killing of Engstrom. The Dakota County Attorney’s Office subsequently determined that his use of deadly force was legally justified and filed no criminal charges.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/09/29/man-killed-by-police-vehicle-had-history-of-mental-illness
https://www.mncrime.com/latest/rcso-deputys-use-of-force-ruled-justified-in-mounds-view-suspects-death
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/man-fatally-struck-by-squad-car-in-mounds-view-ramsey-co-deputy-identified/89-6687befc-7bfa-41e5-9470-937910cb6570
https://www.startribune.com/ramsey-county-deputy-cleared-after-fatally-running-over-mounds-view-man-who-fired-at-squads/600154474
https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/mn-deputy-who-fatally-rammed-man-who-shot-at-police-wont-be-charged
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/prosecutors-deputy-justified-in-fatally-hitting-armed-man-in-mounds-view/
https://www.fox9.com/news/man-who-died-after-being-hit-by-squad-car-in-mounds-view-identified
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/mounds-view-suspect-deputy-identified/
https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/man-deputy-involved-in-fatal-mounds-view-incident-are-identified
https://www.fox9.com/news/deputys-use-of-squad-to-strike-kill-armed-man-in-mounds-view-justified-couny-attorney-says
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/crime/prosecutor-finds-ramsey-co-deputy-justified-fatally-hitting-armed-man-with-squad-car-moundsview/89-aa59ff16-47eb-40e2-bf1e-72e5450c535c

On 09/22/2021, Chamblee Police Department officers shot and killed 40-year-old Irlin Paz at Chamblee Heights Apartments, 136 Wiggins Way, after responding to a 911 call reporting a domestic aggravated assault. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation subsequently investigated the police shooting.
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At approximately 6:30 a.m., Chamblee officers were dispatched to the apartment complex for the reported domestic assault. When officers arrived, police alleged that they encountered Paz armed with a knife and actively attacking a woman.
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According to the GBI, officers immediately intervened and at least one Chamblee officer fired at Paz, striking him. Paz died at the scene.
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The woman Paz was allegedly attacking also died at the scene. Another man inside the residence suffered multiple stab wounds and was transported to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he underwent surgery. Investigators said their preliminary information indicated that the injured man had been stabbed while attempting to stop Paz from attacking the woman.
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The original police shooting therefore occurred during an extraordinarily violent domestic incident in which two people died and a third person was seriously wounded. The available evidence does not support minimizing those circumstances: police alleged that officers arrived while Paz was actively attacking the woman with a knife rather than confronting him after the violence had already ended.
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The GBI assumed responsibility for independently investigating the police use of deadly force. The Chamblee Police Department separately investigated the original 911 call, aggravated assault and homicide. The GBI said its completed shooting investigation would be forwarded to the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office for review.
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Later public records located for this update still do not identify the Chamblee officer or officers who fired. The GBI's statewide 2021 police-shooting record confirms Paz's death as Chamblee Police Department shooting number 72 investigated by the agency that year, but does not identify the shooter.
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No affirmative evidence located for this update establishes that Paz's family, the surviving wounded man or another eyewitness publicly contested the police account of the final confrontation. No encounter-related wrongful-death or federal civil-rights lawsuit arising from Paz's shooting was identified.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Chamblee Police Department officer or officers who shot Paz have not been publicly identified.
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Paz's killing was not Chamblee Police Department's only fatal police shooting in the period immediately surrounding this case. Approximately 14 months earlier, on 07/12/2020, Chamblee and Brookhaven officers shot and killed 28-year-old Marcos Reyes after police responded to reports of an armed man near Shallowford Terrace and Buford Highway. Police alleged that after officers attempted to communicate with Reyes for an extended period, he fired repeatedly toward them and multiple officers returned fire.
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More significantly, Chamblee officers were involved in another fatal shooting only four months before Paz was killed. On 05/17/2021, Chamblee police responded to a reported kidnapping, located the described vehicle and pursued it from Chamblee into Decatur. The encounter ended with police shooting and killing 21-year-old Tyrone Penny. The GBI again conducted the outside investigation. Thus, Paz was at least the third person killed in a police shooting involving Chamblee officers in roughly fourteen months.
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The department later experienced a serious internal criminal scandal involving one of its supervisory officers. In May 2024, Chamblee Police Lt. Roy Collar was arrested by the GBI and charged with two counts of distribution of child sexual abuse material after investigators obtained a search warrant for his home following a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTipline report.
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Collar was a Chamblee police lieutenant and was relieved of his duties after the arrest. Later reporting indicated that he had been with Chamblee police for approximately a decade and had previously received a reprimand, although the publicly reported material did not explain the underlying conduct.
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That later criminal case does not establish misconduct by the unidentified officer who killed Paz and is not evidence concerning the justification for this shooting. It is nevertheless substantive agency history because it involved a Chamblee Police Department supervisory officer being criminally accused of serious misconduct while serving with the department.

https://gbi.georgia.gov/press-releases/2021-09-22/gbi-investigates-officer-involved-shooting-chamblee
https://www.ajc.com/news/gbi-investigating-police-shooting-at-chamblee-apartment-complex/7IDFNFURQBG2FHDKTNJIQNWUII/
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/chamblee-officer-fires-shots-while-responding-to-domestic-violence-incident-police-say
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/crime/chamblee-police-officer-involved-shooting/85-58344f33-6c56-4080-b1da-4f30cc8658ee
https://gbi.georgia.gov/news/2022-05-20/2021-officer-involved-shootings
https://gbi.georgia.gov/press-releases/2020-07-12/gbi-investigates-officer-involved-shooting-chamblee
https://gbi.georgia.gov/press-releases/2021-05-19/gbi-investigates-officer-involved-shooting-decatur-ga
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/chamblee-police-lieutenant-arrested-on-child-porn-distribution-charges

On 09/21/2021, Auburn Police Department Sgt. Timothy Spingler shot and killed 30-year-old Brandi Rene Baida at her home at 12 Wheeler Street after police responded to multiple 911 calls reporting gunfire in the residential neighborhood. Officer Michael Weeks also fired twice toward Baida earlier in the encounter but did not strike her. A later New York Attorney General investigation established through ballistics that Spingler fired the fatal shot.
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The first 911 call came at approximately 11:19 a.m. from a neighbor who reported hearing about three gunshots. At that point, neither the caller nor police knew where the shots originated; the caller initially speculated that someone might be shooting deer in woods behind the residences. Additional gunfire and 911 calls followed.
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Officers Katelyn Davis and Michael Weeks were initially dispatched. Davis arrived first and spoke with a neighbor who directed her attention toward 12 Wheeler Street. Davis approached the residence, heard a woman shrieking inside, saw a broken second-story window and then saw the barrel of a long gun protrude through the window. She drew her weapon, ordered the person to drop the gun and moved to cover.
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Weeks arrived shortly afterward. According to his later statement, he heard Davis ordering someone to drop the gun and saw a rifle barrel extending from the upstairs window. Police alleged that Baida fired from the window while officers and civilians were in the surrounding residential area.
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Weeks said he saw a muzzle flash and heard a rifle shot. Believing officers and other people were endangered, he fired one round toward the partially visible person in the window. When the rifle and the person's torso appeared again seconds later, Weeks fired a second time. Neither of Weeks' bullets struck Baida.
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The encounter continued for approximately another 13 minutes. Civilian cellphone video recorded three additional shots being fired from the second-story window while officers repeatedly ordered the person inside to drop the weapon and come out. Independent Ring-camera recordings also captured portions of the gunfire.
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Sgt. Timothy Spingler arrived carrying a .223-caliber patrol rifle. Police alleged that Baida continued firing intermittently despite repeated commands to stop. Spingler positioned himself behind a tree with Officer Jeremy Hinman and watched the upstairs window.
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Spingler later told investigators that he believed the shooter might be targeting Weeks and decided he would fire if the rifle appeared again. At approximately 11:40:57 a.m., seconds after another shot had come from the window, Baida appeared there again and Spingler fired once.
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There is an important qualification in Spingler's own account of the fatal moment. He told investigators that when he fired he believed he saw both Baida's torso and the rifle, but he could not say with certainty whether he actually saw the rifle at that instant or only Baida's torso. Hinman said he saw Baida appear in the window and believed she was still holding the rifle, possibly down near her side.
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Spingler's single shot passed through remaining window glass and struck Baida in the chest. It was the final gunshot of the encounter. The medical examiner determined that the bullet damaged both lungs, the pericardium and a branch of the right coronary artery, causing massive internal bleeding.
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Police did not immediately enter the residence because they believed another armed person might remain inside. Officers established a perimeter, attempted to identify and contact other people associated with the home and brought in additional Auburn police, Cayuga County sheriff's personnel, New York State Police and tactical resources.
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A drone finally entered the upstairs window at approximately 2 p.m. and showed Baida lying on the bedroom floor with a rifle on the bed. Police entered the residence at approximately 3 p.m., and paramedics formally pronounced Baida dead at 3:20 p.m. The medical examiner later estimated that she likely died from blood loss within 15 to 30 minutes of being shot.
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Investigators recovered a Mosin-Nagant 7.62x54R bolt-action rifle and eight spent rifle casings from inside the residence. Five casings were in the bedroom, two were in the upstairs hallway and one remained in the rifle chamber. Investigators also documented projectile strikes outside the residence, including in the roadway, a tree and a nearby shed. DNA testing identified Baida as the major contributor to DNA recovered from the rifle.
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Ballistics testing conclusively established which officer killed Baida. Weeks had fired two .40-caliber rounds, neither of which struck her. Spingler fired one .223-caliber round, and forensic comparison matched a bullet-jacket fragment recovered from Baida's body to Spingler's patrol rifle.
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New York Attorney General Letitia James' Office of Special Investigation conducted the independent investigation because Baida's death was caused by police. Investigators reviewed civilian cellphone and surveillance recordings, 911 calls, police radio traffic, witness interviews, police reports, forensic testing and the autopsy.
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On 03/18/2022, the Attorney General announced that Spingler would not be criminally charged. OSI concluded prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that his use of deadly force was unjustified because Baida had repeatedly fired a high-powered rifle from the residence into an occupied neighborhood and continued doing so despite police commands.
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The independent investigation nevertheless identified a significant transparency problem with the Auburn Police Department: none of its officers were equipped with body cameras when Baida was killed. Consequently, investigators had to reconstruct the encounter through civilian cellphone video, a neighbor's Ring camera, radio recordings, witness accounts and physical evidence. The Attorney General formally recommended that Auburn accelerate implementation of body-worn cameras.
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Auburn subsequently implemented the program. City records state that in 2021 it obtained a $120,000 U.S. Department of Justice grant, supplemented with federal ARPA money, to establish the department's body-camera program.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Timothy Spingler fired the single shot that killed Baida. Michael Weeks fired two earlier rounds toward her but missed. Katelyn Davis, Jeremy Hinman and several additional Auburn officers also participated in the response but did not fire the fatal shot.
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The Attorney General's investigation provides unusually strong independent evidence concerning the two shooting officers. Weeks acknowledged immediately over police radio that he had fired, and investigators later recovered two .40-caliber casings associated with his handgun. Spingler fired only once, and forensic testing matched his .223-caliber casing and the bullet-jacket fragment recovered from Baida's body to his patrol rifle.
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The principal documented departmental problem directly connected to this shooting was the absence of body cameras. Despite the seriousness and duration of the armed encounter, no Auburn officer could provide body-camera footage because the department had not yet equipped its officers. The state Attorney General considered that deficiency important enough to make body-camera implementation the formal policy recommendation arising from its investigation.
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Auburn was already engaged in a state-mandated police reform process that year. Its 2021 Police Reform and Reinvention plan addressed use of force, de-escalation, racial bias, crisis intervention, duty to intervene and body-worn cameras, but full body-camera implementation had not occurred by the time Spingler killed Baida in September.
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The evidence surrounding Baida's actions is considerably stronger than in police killings that depend primarily upon officer testimony. Civilian video captured gunfire and smoke coming from the window; Ring recordings captured additional gunfire; investigators recovered eight fired rifle casings; projectile strikes were documented around the neighborhood; and forensic testing connected Baida to the rifle. The important evidentiary uncertainty concerns the precise instant of Spingler's fatal shot: Spingler himself could not state with certainty whether he saw the rifle alongside Baida when he pulled the trigger.
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https://www.syracuse.com/news/2021/09/auburn-police-officer-involved-shooting-brandi-baida.html
https://www.13wham.com/news/local-news/suspect-in-auburn-officer-involved-shooting-identified
https://auburnpub.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/auburn-police-involved-shooting-fatality-investigation-update/article_3f45b61d-40d9-56b0-89ff-a3871f784b63.html
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2021/attorney-generals-office-special-investigation-opens-investigation-civilian-1
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2022/attorney-general-james-office-special-investigation-releases-report-death-brandi
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/21-102_-_brandi_baida_report_final.pdf
https://www.auburnny.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif4131/f/uploads/new_york_state_police_reform_apd_final_draft_02242021.pdf

On 09/21/2021, 50-year-old Jeffrey Lawrence Bishop died from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound after an hourslong Cobb County Police Department SWAT barricade at a home in the 5900 block of Brinkley Road near Powder Springs. Police entered the house after prolonged negotiations and found Bishop dead in one part of the residence and family member Lillian Bishop dead from an earlier gunshot wound elsewhere inside.
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The incident began at approximately 7:55 p.m. following a domestic dispute involving Bishop and family members Michael Bishop, Andy Bishop and Lillian Bishop. Police alleged that the dispute escalated into a physical assault and that Bishop subsequently obtained a firearm and fired at family members.
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Michael and Andy Bishop escaped from the house and went to a neighbor's residence, where they called 911. When police arrived, officers did not know whether Lillian Bishop had escaped or remained inside the residence with Bishop, creating the possibility that she was being held hostage.
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Cobb County Police Department SWAT officers and members of its Crisis Negotiation Team surrounded the residence. Negotiators spent an extended period attempting to persuade Bishop to surrender peacefully while police tried to determine Lillian Bishop's status.
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After hours of unsuccessful negotiations, SWAT officers made a tactical entry into the house. They found Lillian Bishop dead from a gunshot wound that investigators believed had been inflicted substantially earlier in the barricade. Police found Jeffrey Bishop dead in another area of the house from what investigators described as an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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Police did not shoot Bishop. His death nevertheless falls within the database as a suicide under police duress because it occurred while armed police and SWAT personnel had surrounded the residence, were negotiating his surrender and ultimately entered the home following the hourslong barricade.
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The Cobb County Police Department Crimes Against Persons Unit investigated the deaths as an apparent homicide-suicide. The available reporting does not establish that Bishop's family or another eyewitness subsequently contested the police reconstruction of the deaths, and no encounter-related civil-rights or wrongful-death lawsuit was located.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Because Bishop died from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, there is no shooting officer to investigate in this case. The relevant police background is therefore the Cobb County Police Department and its SWAT response.
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The timing is striking. Bishop's barricade occurred during an extraordinary cluster of Cobb County Police Department fatal shootings. Just eight days earlier, on September 13, Cobb County SWAT shot and killed 39-year-old Robert Parks during another barricade at the Concord Crossing Apartments in Smyrna. The GBI said police believed Parks had another man hostage inside an apartment.
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Only four days after the Parks shooting, on September 17, a Cobb County officer shot and killed 41-year-old Matthew Joseph Wilbanks after police responded to a domestic dispute involving a suicidal man. The GBI said Wilbanks was armed with a knife and advanced toward officers. Thus, when Cobb County SWAT surrounded Bishop's home on September 21, the department had already killed two people in police shootings during the preceding eight days, both during crisis or barricade responses.
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That cluster was part of a broader series in 2021. On August 18, barely five weeks before Bishop's death, a Cobb County officer shot and killed 28-year-old Devonte Dawayne Brown following an attempted traffic stop and vehicle pursuit. The GBI said officers attempted to box Brown's vehicle in before an officer fired at him.
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On June 13, Cobb County SWAT officers had also shot and killed 20-year-old Luis Rey Ruiz following another domestic-dispute response and SWAT search. The GBI reported that several SWAT members fired at Ruiz.
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Consequently, Bishop's September 21 barricade occurred against the backdrop of at least four fatal Cobb County police shootings in roughly three months, including two other SWAT/barricade operations. That recent operational history is particularly relevant here because Bishop's encounter likewise escalated into an hourslong SWAT deployment, although officers ultimately did not fire the shot that killed him.
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The department also had documented prior misconduct involving its own supervisory ranks. In 2017, Cobb County Police Lt. Greg Abbott was caught on dash-camera video during a traffic stop telling a White motorist who was afraid to move her hands that she did not need to worry because police “only shoot black people.” The department moved to terminate Abbott after the recording became public; Abbott instead announced his retirement.
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That older incident is not evidence about the officers at Bishop's home, but it is substantive departmental history involving racialized comments about police killings by a Cobb County supervisor. More immediately relevant to Bishop is the remarkable concentration of fatal force and SWAT incidents involving Cobb County police in the months and days directly preceding this barricade.

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/swat-situation-brinkley-road-ends-with-2-dead
https://patch.com/georgia/marietta/2-dead-apparent-homicide-suicide-powder-springs-cobb-pd
https://www.ajc.com/news/2-dead-after-hourslong-swat-standoff-in-cobb-county/PBJXR4NQ6FC4JJYKEZ5J3E26XA/
https://cobbcountycourier.com/2021/09/homicide-suicide-powder-springs/
https://gbi.georgia.gov/press-releases/2021-09-14/gbi-investigates-officer-involved-shooting-cobb-county
https://gbi.georgia.gov/node/24571
https://gbi.georgia.gov/press-releases/2021-08-19/gbi-investigates-officer-involved-shooting-cobb-county
https://gbi.georgia.gov/press-releases/2021-06-14/gbi-investigates-officer-involved-shooting-cobb-county

On 09/21/2021, 39-year-old Noah D. Boswell died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after an approximately 15-hour police pursuit and armed standoff on the William H. Natcher Bridge between Indiana and Kentucky. Police repeatedly negotiated with Boswell while he held a handgun to his head near the edge of the bridge.
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The events began at approximately 1:23 a.m. in Spencer County, Indiana, when a woman called 911 to report a suspicious person around her barn and property. Responding law enforcement saw a passenger car leaving the property and driving through the yard. This suspicious-person/property call was the event that initially brought police into contact with the vehicle.
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Police subsequently stopped the car. The female driver got out, but Boswell, who had been riding in the passenger seat, moved into the driver’s seat. Police ordered him to get out of the vehicle, but he instead drove away, and police pursued him east on State Road 66.
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Rockport police positioned stop sticks near County Road 350 West and State Road 66. Boswell drove over the tire-deflation devices and continued through Rockport toward the Ohio River. His vehicle eventually became disabled on the William H. Natcher Bridge on southbound U.S. 231.
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Boswell got out of the disabled vehicle and continued south on foot onto the bridge. Police closed the bridge in both directions as Kentucky State Police and other responding agencies established a perimeter. KSP's Special Response Team was eventually brought to the scene.
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Police described Boswell as suicidal and armed with a handgun. During the lengthy standoff, he repeatedly held the gun toward his own head while standing near the edge of the bridge. KSP Trooper Corey King specifically said Boswell had not threatened officers during the standoff.
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KSP deployed a BearCat armored vehicle so officers could approach Boswell while remaining protected. Negotiators continued attempting to persuade him to surrender. The bridge remained completely closed as the standoff continued through much of the day.
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The standoff lasted approximately 15 hours. Despite the extended negotiations, Boswell ultimately shot himself. The Daviess County Coroner’s Office later identified him as Noah D. Boswell, 39.
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The circumstances make this a suicide under police duress. Boswell's death occurred after police attempted to detain him, pursued him at high speed, deployed stop sticks that disabled his vehicle, followed him onto the bridge, surrounded him with multiple law-enforcement agencies and a KSP tactical team, deployed an armored vehicle and negotiated with him for hours while he threatened suicide.
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An important later-record finding substantially changes the context surrounding the warrants mentioned in the initial coverage. During the standoff, KSP said Boswell had at least four outstanding Kentucky warrants.
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Just one month before his death, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky announced that a federal grand jury had indicted a 39-year-old Owensboro man named Noah Boswell along with four other people in a federal methamphetamine conspiracy case. The indictment alleged a conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine in the Daviess County area between May 2020 and January 2021. The investigation involved the DEA, Owensboro Police Department, Daviess County Sheriff’s Office and ATF. The federal announcement stressed that the indictment was an allegation and the defendants were presumed innocent.
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That federal indictment is significant because it was returned on August 11, 2021, only about six weeks before Boswell's death, and publicly announced on August 20. However, the available records located for this update do not establish that the officers who first encountered Boswell at the Indiana property knew about the federal case when they attempted to detain him. The initiating police contact remains the suspicious-person call concerning the barn and property, not the federal drug investigation.
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No police officer fired the shot that killed Boswell. The reporting located for this update does not establish a public challenge by his family or an eyewitness to the basic account that Boswell died from a self-inflicted gunshot during the standoff, nor does it establish an encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Because Boswell shot himself, there is no shooting officer to investigate. The relevant police actions were the attempted detention in Indiana, vehicle pursuit, stop-stick deployment, bridge containment and approximately 15-hour tactical and negotiation response.
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The initial Indiana personnel who attempted to detain Boswell and the Rockport officer or officers who deployed the stop sticks were not identified in the reporting located for this update. Kentucky State Police Trooper Corey King served as a public spokesperson during the standoff, but the available evidence does not establish that he was one of the officers directly confronting Boswell.
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One particularly important feature of the police response is documented in KSP's own public description: despite Boswell possessing a handgun, police acknowledged during the standoff that he had made no threats toward officers. Police therefore recognized that the immediate threat presented on the bridge was primarily Boswell's threat to himself. KSP nevertheless maintained tactical containment and used its Special Response Team, negotiators and an armored BearCat during the prolonged mental health crisis.
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The case also provides an unusually clear comparison between pursuit tactics and the subsequent crisis response. Police used tire-deflation equipment during the vehicle pursuit, but once Boswell was isolated on the bridge with the gun directed toward himself, authorities shifted to containment and prolonged negotiation rather than attempting an immediate armed intervention. Those negotiations continued for many hours before Boswell ultimately killed himself.

https://www.tristatehomepage.com/news/local-news/update-daviess-county-coroner-identifies-man-involved-in-natcher-bridge-standoff/
https://www.tristatehomepage.com/news/local-news/authorities-say-man-involved-in-natcher-bridge-standoff-had-warrants-out-for-arrest/
https://www.owensborotimes.com/news/2021/09/ksp-natcher-bridge-shut-down-temporarily-drivers-urged-to-take-detour/
https://wjts.tv/2021/09/new-information-released-about-situation-on-natcher-bridge/
https://wjts.tv/2021/09/traffic-alert-natcher-bridge-shut-down-police-negotiating-with-suicidal-subject/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/man-shot-himself-natcher-bridge-091700663.html
https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdky/pr/seven-individuals-indicted-federal-grand-jury-methamphetamine-conspiracy-cases

On 09/21/2021, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department SWAT Officer Zachary Adam shot and killed 30-year-old Trent Xavier Leach after an approximately five-hour barricade inside a vacant church at 318 South 11th Street in downtown Las Vegas. A later Clark County District Attorney use-of-force review and LVMPD internal review provide substantially more evidence than the original news reports, including video from police tactical vehicles, a drone and two robots.
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The encounter began at approximately 9:23 a.m. after a civilian called 911 about an altercation near 11th Street and Lewis Avenue. According to the later investigation, Leach had been going through a dumpster when a nearby resident confronted him and told him to leave. A second witness reported seeing the resident strike Leach with a metal pole during the ensuing fight and Leach draw a handgun and point it at the resident.
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Downtown Area Command officers arrived and encountered both men. The resident told officers that Leach had a gun. According to the DA's review, Leach kept his hands concealed and told officers to shoot him before running away. That statement indicated potentially suicidal behavior at the beginning of the police encounter.
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Officers pursued Leach on foot and located him in an alley along South 11th Street. Leach entered the property at 318 South 11th Street and disappeared inside the vacant church. Officers established containment around the building and summoned K9 officers, SWAT and the Crisis Negotiation Team.
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Police spent several hours attempting to persuade Leach to surrender. Officers used verbal commands and a public-address system while Leach remained inside. During the barricade, another man emerged from the building and told SWAT officers that he had seen Leach armed and that Leach was saying what the witness characterized as “weird things.”
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At approximately 1:13 p.m., SWAT personnel heard gunfire from inside the building. Additional shots followed. Officers believed at least one round struck a Bear tactical vehicle positioned outside. Later physical evidence and police video documented a bullet strike associated with gunfire from the building.
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Rather than immediately entering, LVMPD deployed surveillance technology into the church. Police sent a drone and robots inside and located Leach hiding in an attic crawl space. Police video showed Leach armed with a handgun, and the drone recorded a muzzle flash while he was inside the crawl space. Police reported that Leach fired multiple rounds at the drone.
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SWAT then deployed tear gas in an effort to force Leach from the crawl space. At approximately 2:16 p.m., he emerged carrying the handgun, approached the drone and disabled it. A police robot subsequently recorded him still carrying the gun and pointing it at the robot before he entered a room beneath a staircase.
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Police deployed additional tear gas to prevent Leach from returning upstairs. At approximately 2:28 p.m., he emerged from the room still armed. Crisis negotiators continued directing him over the PA system to leave the building without the weapon.
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At approximately 2:32 p.m., Leach appeared in an open doorway. Police video from both a robot and a BearCat showed him extending his arm and pointing the handgun toward the armored vehicle, where several SWAT officers were positioned.
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<u>SWAT sniper Zachary Adam fired one rifle round at Leach, striking and killing him. Adam was the only officer who fired during the fatal shooting.</u> Leach fell immediately outside the doorway with the handgun beside him. SWAT officers approached and confirmed that he was dead.
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The later investigation found extensive physical and video evidence corroborating major portions of the police account. Video from the Bear tactical vehicle documented a dust plume and bullet strike from gunfire originating inside the building. Drone footage recorded Leach armed in the attic and captured a muzzle flash. Robot footage showed him armed downstairs and subsequently pointing the handgun toward the BearCat immediately before Adam fired.
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The Clark County District Attorney conducted a legal review of the killing and a Police Fatality Public Fact-Finding Review was held on 08/04/2022. The DA concluded that Adam's shooting was legally justified and that criminal charges would not be filed. The DA expressly noted that its determination concerned criminal liability and did not resolve potential administrative or civil issues.
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LVMPD's Office of Internal Oversight and Constitutional Policing also conducted a Critical Incident Review examining policy, tactics, training and decision-making surrounding Leach's death.
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<u>Adam later killed another person while serving as an LVMPD SWAT officer. On 12/08/2024, Adam shot and killed 26-year-old Cesar Reyes II during a SWAT response at the South Point Hotel and Casino after Reyes's family requested a welfare check because they had found a suicide note. Following hours of attempted negotiations and an explosive breach of the hotel room, police alleged that Reyes emerged carrying a shotgun and moved toward officers. Adam fired the single fatal rifle shot. Investigators subsequently determined that Reyes's shotgun was unloaded.</u>
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No encounter-related wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit by Leach's family was identified in the later records located for this update, nor was an affirmative public family challenge to the documented account of the final shooting located.

https://www.ktnv.com/news/crime/las-vegas-police-say-man-fired-at-officers-before-officer-fired-back-in-deadly-shooting
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2021/sep/23/metro-identifies-officer-involved-in-fatal-shootin/
https://apnews.com/article/police-shootings-las-vegas-7c151cf3760e860585c46535d3b8fcc2
https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/barricade-situation-in-downtown-las-vegas/
https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/robots-drones-protect-metro-officers-in-dangerous-encounters-2513949/
https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/shootings/man-killed-by-las-vegas-police-had-hit-person-shot-swat-vehicle-2446309/
https://www.facebook.com/KTNVLasVegas/videos/update-on-officer-involved-shooting-in-las-vegas/364375625433506/
https://www.clarkcountynv.gov/adobe/assets/urn%3Aaaid%3Aaem%3A354d35b2-6985-4405-a6ff-90affc74b8ad/original/as/legal-analysis-surrounding-the-death-of-trent-leach-on-september-21-2021.pdf
https://www.lvmpd.com/home/showpublisheddocument/1796/638326187116400000
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/department-justice-completes-review-las-vegas-metropolitan-police-department-s-use-force
https://www.lvmpd.com/Home/Components/News/News/1550/263
https://www.ktnv.com/news/officer-identified-in-shooting-that-killed-one-person-at-south-point-hotel-and-casino

On 09/21/2021, Henderson Police Department SWAT officers Logan Tillmon and Mark Street shot and killed 49-year-old Jose Oyuela-Palma following an approximately two-hour barricade at an apartment complex in the 3000 block of East Charleston Boulevard in Las Vegas. Henderson SWAT was operating outside its city through a mutual-aid request from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. A later Clark County District Attorney review identified both shooting officers and reconstructed the encounter in substantially greater detail.
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The encounter began at approximately 2:09 p.m. when a Pep Boys employee called 911 and reported that Oyuela-Palma was pointing a handgun at him and other people from a second-floor apartment balcony. LVMPD officers responded and attempted to communicate with Oyuela-Palma.
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Police alleged that Oyuela-Palma repeatedly moved in and out of the apartment while armed and pointed the handgun toward civilians outside. Officers evacuated or moved civilians away from the immediate area and established containment around the apartment.
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The later investigation documented strong evidence that Oyuela-Palma was experiencing a mental health crisis. His family told investigators that he had been behaving erratically, was suicidal and had significant mental health problems. During the barricade, police also received information that he had expressed suicidal intentions.
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LVMPD requested assistance from the Henderson Police Department SWAT team. Henderson SWAT officers, including Tillmon and Street, responded to the Las Vegas apartment complex and took tactical positions while negotiators continued attempting to persuade Oyuela-Palma to surrender.
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Police alleged that Oyuela-Palma repeatedly appeared on the apartment balcony carrying the handgun. Officers continued communicating with him and ordered him to put down the weapon.
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At approximately 4:29 p.m., police alleged that Oyuela-Palma came onto the balcony and pointed the handgun toward officers positioned below. Henderson SWAT officers Logan Tillmon and Mark Street then fired their rifles at Oyuela-Palma, striking him multiple times and killing him.
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Investigators recovered a handgun associated with Oyuela-Palma. The Clark County District Attorney later reviewed the evidence and concluded that Tillmon and Street reasonably believed Oyuela-Palma presented an imminent threat when they fired. Prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges against either officer.
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There is an important evidentiary limitation in this case. There is no video recording of the actual fatal shooting by Tillmon and Street. Although LVMPD patrol officers used body cameras, Henderson SWAT personnel were not equipped in a manner that produced video of the fatal confrontation. The later public fact-finding review therefore had to reconstruct the precise moment of the shooting through officer statements, other recordings, witness evidence and physical evidence.
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Oyuela-Palma's family subsequently filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the City of Henderson, Henderson Police Department, LVMPD, Logan Tillmon and Mark Street arising from his death. The plaintiffs included members of Oyuela-Palma's family and representatives of his estate. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada in 2023.
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The federal lawsuit directly named Tillmon and Street, meaning the officers' identities and conduct were ultimately subjected to civil litigation rather than ending with the police and prosecutor reviews. In September 2024, the parties stipulated to dismiss the entire case with prejudice, with each side bearing its own attorney fees, costs and expenses. The public dismissal order does not state the terms of any agreement between the parties.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Logan Tillmon and Mark Street were the Henderson SWAT officers who fired the fatal shots at Oyuela-Palma. Henderson Police publicly identified both officers two days after the killing, and the Clark County District Attorney's later use-of-force report independently confirmed that both discharged their weapons.
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The later prosecutorial review concluded there was no factual or legal basis for criminal charges against either Tillmon or Street.
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Both Tillmon and Street were subsequently named personally as defendants in the Oyuela-Palma family's federal civil-rights litigation. The City of Henderson/Henderson Police Department and LVMPD were also defendants. The litigation remained pending until the parties stipulated to dismissal with prejudice in September 2024.
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The Henderson Police Department itself had serious documented disciplinary and accountability problems at the time Oyuela-Palma was killed. A major Las Vegas Review-Journal investigation published only five months before the shooting found Henderson officers with years of sustained complaints, allegations of sexual misconduct and even criminal arrests who remained employed and, in some cases, were promoted. One officer examined by the newspaper had faced approximately 50 misconduct allegations, including nearly a dozen sustained findings, and had violated use-of-force rules, threatened a person while serving a warrant and lied in a police report.
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The department's leadership subsequently became embroiled in its own turmoil. Chief Thedrick Andres eventually announced his retirement after Henderson's police officer and supervisor associations overwhelmingly voted no confidence in him. The unions accused Andres of management problems and specifically complained that he implemented a new use-of-force policy without adequate officer input or training.
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Those departmental problems do not establish that Tillmon or Street acted unlawfully in this shooting. They do provide relevant context for a killing in which two Henderson SWAT officers killed a suicidal man experiencing a mental health crisis, no video captured the fatal shooting itself, and the man's family later brought a federal civil-rights action against both shooters and the involved police agencies.

https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/suspect-pointed-gun-at-officers-before-swat-shot-him-henderson-police-say/
https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/fact-finding-review-of-deadly-henderson-police-shooting-in-2021/
https://news3lv.com/news/local/police-suspect-killed-by-henderson-officers-was-erratic-pointed-gun-at-officers
https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/homicides/man-fatally-shot-by-henderson-police-in-barricade-identified-2446319/
https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/homicides/police-say-man-killed-in-officer-involved-shooting-was-suicidal-2466299/
https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/shootings/no-video-of-fatal-shooting-by-swat-officers-henderson-police-say-2739654/
https://apnews.com/article/police-shootings-las-vegas-7c151cf3760e860585c46535d3b8fcc2
https://www.ktnv.com/news/clark-county-holds-fact-finding-review-in-officer-involved-death-of-49-year-old-man
https://breaking911.com/suspect-on-balcony-pointed-gun-at-officers-before-swat-fatally-shot-him/
https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/henderson-metro-police-investigate-second-officer-involved-shooting/
https://www.cityofhenderson.com/Home/Components/News/News/229/567
https://www.cityofhenderson.com/Home/Components/News/News/231/
https://webfiles.clarkcountynv.gov/Legal%20Analysis%20Surrounding%20the%20Death%20of%20Jose%20Oyuela-Palma%20September%2021%2C%202021%20%282%29.pdf
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/nevada/nvdce/2%3A2023cv00224/160766/44/
https://www.reviewjournal.com/investigations/henderson-officers-with-years-of-misconduct-kept-working-confidential-records-reveal-why-2333394/

On 09/20/2021, Houston Police Department officers shot and killed 30-year-old Deon Ledet during an attempt to execute an arrest warrant at the Timber Ridge Apartments at 5350 Aeropark Drive in northeast Harris County. During the exchange of gunfire, HPD Senior Officer William “Bill” Jeffrey was fatally shot and Sgt. Michael Vance was critically wounded.
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The encounter began at approximately 7:30 a.m. when six HPD Major Offenders Division officers arrived at the apartment to arrest Ledet. The warrant stemmed from bond forfeiture connected to pending felony drug charges. Ledet had been wanted since January 2021 after failing to appear in court.
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The officers established positions around the apartment and knocked on the door. A woman answered and told them Ledet was inside. Officers remained outside the open doorway and called for Ledet to come out.
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According to police and subsequently released body-camera video, rapid gunfire erupted from inside the apartment as officers called for Ledet. Police alleged that Ledet fired through the doorway, striking Jeffrey and Vance before officers returned fire.
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Jeffrey was critically wounded and transported by Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where he died. Vance suffered multiple gunshot wounds and underwent surgery. Ledet was struck by police gunfire and died at the apartment.
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The later release of body-camera recordings is important because the central portion of the encounter was captured rather than reconstructed exclusively from police statements. Video from multiple officers documented their conversation with the woman at the doorway immediately before the shooting and captured the sudden eruption of gunfire.
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Federal investigators subsequently examined Ledet's handgun and said it had been illegally modified with an auto switch allowing fully automatic fire. ATF officials said the sound and rate of gunfire captured by officers' body cameras were consistent with a weapon firing in fully automatic mode.
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An important discrepancy appears in the early reporting concerning precisely who returned fire. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner initially said officers returned fire and killed Ledet, while the Houston Chronicle reported that Jeffrey and Vance did not have an opportunity to return fire and that a third officer shot Ledet. The available public reporting reviewed for this update does not identify that third officer by name.
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Because the shooting occurred outside Houston city limits in unincorporated Harris County, the Harris County Sheriff's Office handled the criminal investigation, while HPD Internal Affairs conducted its administrative investigation.
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Ledet's relatives publicly discussed his life and history after the shooting, identifying him as a father of six who worked as a security guard at a scrapyard. The family comments located for this update do not establish a substantive challenge to the body-camera evidence showing the gunfire at the doorway.
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No encounter-related wrongful-death or federal civil-rights lawsuit by Ledet's family was identified in the later records located for this update.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The two HPD officers shot during the encounter were William “Bill” Jeffrey and Michael Vance. Jeffrey died from his wounds; Vance survived. A third HPD officer reportedly fired the shots that killed Ledet, but that officer's identity has not been publicly established in the sources located for this update.
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The broader Houston Police Department background is unusually significant in a case involving the execution of a narcotics-related felony warrant. Only two years before Ledet's death, HPD's narcotics operations had been engulfed by the Harding Street scandal following a January 2019 no-knock drug raid that killed Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas. Investigators ultimately determined that narcotics officer Gerald Goines had lied to obtain the search warrant that precipitated the fatal raid.
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The scandal did not remain confined to one bad warrant. It exposed broader problems within HPD narcotics enforcement, triggered criminal investigations of multiple officers and forced prosecutors to reexamine large numbers of cases connected to Goines and his unit. Goines was eventually convicted of murder for causing Tuttle's and Nicholas's deaths through the fraudulent warrant and sentenced to 60 years in prison.
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That history does not establish misconduct by the Major Offenders officers attempting to arrest Ledet, and Ledet's warrant was not the fraudulent type of warrant involved in Harding Street. It is nevertheless pertinent departmental context because this fatal encounter also originated in HPD drug enforcement: officers were attempting to execute an arrest warrant stemming from felony narcotics charges when the gunfight occurred.
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The body-camera release provides unusually strong evidence about the immediate circumstances surrounding Ledet's death, but the identity of the officer who actually shot him remains an important unresolved component of the record. Identifying that officer would permit the separate background review of prior or subsequent shootings, complaints, discipline and litigation that cannot reliably be performed while the shooter remains unnamed.
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https://www.khou.com/article/news/crime/new-details-shootout-hpd-officer-suspect-dead-aeropark/285-a18db4b0-cdf1-4033-ac7b-22ac2ebf8460
https://www.houstontx.gov/police/fallen_officers/Senior_Police_Officer_William_Bill_Jeffrey.htm
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/09/20/deon-ledet-this-is-what-we-know-about-the-suspect-in-the-hpd-shooting-of-2-officers-according-to-family/
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/09/20/2-officers-shot-in-northeast-houston-police-say/
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/Two-police-officers-shot-in-north-Houston-16472537.php
https://abc13.com/deon-ledet-william-bill-jeffrey-hpd-officer-killed-shot-to-death/11118157/
https://abc13.com/post/deon-ledet-william-bill-jeffrey-hpd-officer-killed-shot-to-death/11033359/
https://www.fox26houston.com/news/suspect-who-shot-killed-houston-police-officer-identified-as-wanted-fugitive
https://apnews.com/article/44615a811db21398a9820ffc8cbc979e
https://apnews.com/article/1ee81ed2947a72e43ebf9e6f6435e1f1

On 09/20/2021, Signal Hill Police Department Officer Jorge Ramirez shot and killed 42-year-old Phillip Lopez on East Willow Street after police responded to a reported stabbing outside a Food 4 Less grocery store. A detailed Los Angeles County District Attorney review released in 2023 identified Ramirez as the shooting officer and reconstructed the encounter using police body-camera video, civilian surveillance video, witness statements, forensic evidence and the autopsy.
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The encounter began at approximately 12:55 p.m. when Lopez became involved in a physical altercation with another man near the loading dock outside the Food 4 Less at 1600 East Willow Street. Surveillance video and a civilian cellphone recording captured the altercation. According to investigators, Lopez stabbed the other man in the back with a knife and then walked west on Willow Street. The injured man called 911 and reported the stabbing.
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Signal Hill Sgt. Russell Hefte and Officers Delia Martinez and Jorge Ramirez responded in separate police vehicles. Martinez contacted the injured man and broadcast a description of Lopez and his clothing while Hefte and Ramirez drove west looking for him. Ramirez located Lopez walking west along the north sidewalk of Willow Street.
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Ramirez pulled alongside Lopez and repeatedly ordered him to stop. Lopez continued walking with a sweatshirt covering his right hand. Ramirez exited his patrol vehicle and continued ordering him to stop. Lopez then began running away. Ramirez drew his Taser and pursued him on foot. The encounter was being recorded by Ramirez's body camera.
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Lopez repeatedly looked back and asked Ramirez “Why?” while continuing away. Sgt. Hefte drove alongside the encounter and instructed Ramirez to use his Taser because police believed Lopez might still be armed. Ramirez fired the Taser, but it did not incapacitate Lopez.
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Ramirez then caught Lopez from behind and deliberately tripped him to the ground. As Lopez fell, the sweatshirt covering his right hand came off and revealed a large kitchen knife. Lopez quickly got back to his feet while still holding the knife.
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The subsequent sequence unfolded extremely quickly. Ramirez stepped toward Lopez and appeared on video to push him forward. Lopez remained standing, turned toward Ramirez, and Ramirez fell backward onto the ground. According to the DA's reconstruction, Lopez then moved toward Ramirez while holding the knife above his head. Ramirez attempted to keep Lopez away by kicking toward him.
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Ramirez drew his Glock 17 and fired six rounds. Multiple bullets struck Lopez, who collapsed on the sidewalk. Only approximately 51 seconds elapsed between Ramirez's first contact with Lopez and the shooting, and approximately three seconds elapsed between Ramirez falling onto his back and firing.
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Sgt. Hefte requested an ambulance and began CPR. Lopez was transported to Long Beach Memorial Hospital and pronounced dead at 1:31 p.m. The medical examiner determined that he died from a gunshot wound to the torso. Two bullets struck him and two additional rounds grazed him. One projectile passed through his arm and chest, penetrating both lungs and his aorta.
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Investigators recovered a large kitchen knife from the sidewalk and subsequently found Lopez's DNA on its handle. Five 9mm cartridge casings from Ramirez's handgun were recovered, although body-camera evidence established that Ramirez actually fired six rounds.
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The later investigation also corrected an important limitation in the original news coverage. Early reports did not identify the officer who killed Lopez, but the Los Angeles County District Attorney's final review definitively identified him as Jorge Ramirez. Sgt. Hefte and Officer Martinez were also present during portions of the response, but Ramirez fired all six shots.
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Ramirez did not provide investigators with a voluntary statement following the killing. The District Attorney therefore evaluated the shooting without a voluntary account from the officer who fired, relying instead on the extensive video, physical evidence and statements of other witnesses and officers.
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On 08/18/2023, nearly two years after Lopez's death, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Justice System Integrity Division concluded its review. Prosecutors determined that Ramirez reasonably believed deadly force was necessary to defend himself from an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury and declined to prosecute him.
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The evidentiary record in this case is unusually substantial. The original stabbing was recorded by Food 4 Less surveillance equipment and a civilian cellphone; all three responding Signal Hill officers wore body cameras; and another business's surveillance camera captured the final physical confrontation. Sgt. Hefte's patrol-car dash camera, however, was not functioning that day.
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No substantive public challenge by Lopez's family to the official reconstruction of the final confrontation, and no wrongful-death or civil-rights lawsuit arising specifically from his killing, was located in the later records reviewed for this update.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Jorge Ramirez was the Signal Hill police officer who shot and killed Lopez. The 2023 District Attorney report is especially important because the initial 2021 reporting did not publicly name him. Ramirez fired six times while lying on his back after the foot pursuit, failed Taser deployment and physical confrontation.
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Ramirez declined to give LASD investigators a voluntary statement after killing Lopez. His body-camera recording nevertheless documented virtually the entire encounter, while Hefte's body camera and independent business surveillance provided additional views of the final confrontation.
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The department's tactical decisions immediately preceding the shooting are also documented unusually clearly. Hefte instructed Ramirez to use his Taser; Ramirez deployed it unsuccessfully; Ramirez then continued the foot pursuit, caught Lopez and tripped him from behind; the fall exposed the knife concealed beneath the sweatshirt; and the encounter escalated within seconds into the fatal shooting.
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Signal Hill Police Department has a particularly significant historical police-misconduct legacy. In 1981, Cal State Long Beach football player Ron Settles died in a Signal Hill jail cell after being arrested for speeding. Police initially characterized his death as suicide, but his family disputed that account, and the case became a nationally known police-brutality controversy. Signal Hill ultimately reached a civil settlement with Settles' family. The city has since formally acknowledged the case and established a memorial to Settles.
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That history is unusually relevant to the department's institutional record rather than merely unrelated historical misconduct: the Settles case became a defining controversy surrounding policing in the small city and resulted in decades of scrutiny over Signal Hill police practices.

https://lbpost.com/news/authorities-identify-man-fatally-shot-by-signal-hill-police/
https://heysocal.com/2021/09/20/man-shot-killed-by-signal-hill-police-willow-st-partly-closed/
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/officer-fatally-shoots-man-suspected-in-signal-hill-supermarket-stabbing/
https://kfiam640.iheart.com/content/2021-09-23-authorities-id-man-fatally-shot-by-signal-hill-police-officer/
https://abc7.com/signal-hill-shooting-officer-involved-lasd-investigation/11033527/
https://www.cityofsignalhill.org/DocumentCenter/View/11789/Signal-Hill-Officer-Involved-Incident-Press-Release-9_21_21
https://da.lacounty.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/JSID-OIS-08-18-23-Lopez.pdf

On 09/19/2021, Jackson Police Department officers shot and killed Dishawn Sanders at the Olive Tree Hotel at 5075 I-55 North Frontage Road in Jackson after responding to a shooting in which another man, Josh Casaus, was found dead. Police alleged that Sanders shot Casaus and then fired at responding officers, who returned fire and killed Sanders. Contemporary reporting did not disclose Sanders' age.
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The initial circumstances were unusually unclear. Police were called to the hotel Sunday morning and discovered Casaus dead from a gunshot wound. JPD identified Sanders as the person who allegedly shot Casaus, but investigators said they had not determined a motive or explained what precipitated the shooting between the two men.
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Police alleged that when officers arrived, Sanders fired at them and officers returned fire, striking and killing him. The publicly available early accounts do not identify how many officers fired, how many shots police fired, where Sanders was positioned when officers encountered him, or the sequence between officers' arrival and the exchange of gunfire.
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The case therefore remains notably thin compared with many other police shootings from the same period. WJTV returned to the scene the following day under the headline “Questions remain after deadly officer-involved shooting in Jackson” and reported that there were still “more questions than answers.” A hotel employee said Sanders was a frequent visitor to the property, while witness Sabriana Beard described hearing the violence but did not provide an eyewitness account contradicting the police assertion that Sanders fired at officers.
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The available later public record does not appear to contain the type of detailed shooting reconstruction found in many cases: no publicly located body-camera release, ballistics reconstruction, prosecutorial shooting report or later investigative report identifies the officers who fired or provides a shot-by-shot account of Sanders' killing.
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Sanders' death is consistently recorded in later national police-killing compilations as a Jackson police shooting, and sources documenting Black people killed by police in 2021 identify him as Black.
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No affirmative later evidence located for this update establishes that Sanders' family publicly contested JPD's claim that he fired at officers, and no encounter-related wrongful-death or federal civil-rights lawsuit arising from his killing was identified.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
The Jackson police officer or officers who shot and killed Sanders have not been publicly identified in the records located for this update. That prevents the mandatory individual review for prior or subsequent shootings, complaints, discipline, lawsuits or other misconduct.
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The institutional background of the Jackson Police Department at the time is more substantial. Only months before Sanders was killed, a former JPD officer, Mark Anthony Coleman, was sentenced in federal court to 30 months in prison for obstructing a federal investigation by destroying evidence concerning his involvement with a 16-year-old girl. Coleman had pleaded guilty in January 2021 following an investigation involving the FBI, Mississippi Attorney General's Office and JPD.
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JPD was also facing significant internal litigation at precisely the time Sanders was killed. Twenty-one current and former JPD employees sued the City of Jackson, Police Chief James Davis and other department personnel in federal court, alleging violations of their federal rights and state-law torts. A federal judge issued a substantive ruling in that litigation on 09/29/2021, only ten days after Sanders' death.
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The department also entered this case with a recent history of fatal force. Three months earlier, on 06/15/2021, Jackson police shot and killed 28-year-old Solomon Jamison at a Northside Drive gas station. Police alleged that Jamison was firing inside the store and then fired toward responding officers before police returned fire.
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The most important unresolved police-accountability issue specific to Sanders' case remains the identity of the officers who killed him. Later reporting confirms Sanders' identity and the basic JPD account, but the publicly accessible record located for this update still does not identify the shooters or provide the detailed independent reconstruction necessary to examine their individual histories.

https://www.wapt.com/article/police-on-scene-of-potential-shooting-at-jackson-motel/37653007
https://www.wjtv.com/news/local/questions-remain-after-deadly-officer-involved-shooting-in-jackson/
https://apnews.com/article/shootings-jackson-dd31b8de2cf359fa037ba338bb419843
https://thebeatofthecapital.com/2021/09/19/murder-suspect-killed-in-officer-involved-shooting-at-jackson-hotel/
https://thebeatofthecapital.com/2021/09/20/questions-remain-after-deadly-officer-involved-shooting-in-jackson/
https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdms/pr/former-jackson-police-officer-sentenced-obstruction-federal-investigation-0
https://www.wapt.com/article/jpd-on-scene-of-north-jackson-shooting/36732761

On 09/19/2021, Chicago Police Department Officer Brandon Rambert shot and killed 28-year-old Turell Brown inside the Englewood apartment Brown shared with his girlfriend in the 6500 block of South Harvard Avenue. Initial reporting did not identify Rambert, but a later Cook County State’s Attorney police-involved-death review definitively named him as the officer who fired the fatal shots.
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Police responded at approximately 10:55 a.m. to a domestic disturbance. Brown’s girlfriend told officers that she and Brown had argued while she was doing laundry and that Brown had struck her. She told police Brown was in a back room and had a knife.
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Body-camera footage subsequently released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability shows the officers initially speaking calmly with Brown’s girlfriend. As an officer moved toward the rear of the apartment, Brown could be heard yelling, and the officers backed toward the apartment entrance.
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Brown then appeared from the rear portion of the apartment holding a knife. Officers repeatedly ordered him to drop it. The body-camera video shows Brown moving toward the officers as they stood near the doorway. At points during the encounter, Brown’s hands and the knife are partially obscured by the apartment walls and the camera angle.
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The fatal encounter unfolded rapidly. Brown moved closer to the officers and appeared to extend his right arm toward the apartment door while the knife was in his left hand. Rambert fired three shots, striking Brown. The knife fell near him after he was shot.
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Officers immediately began providing medical aid, including chest compressions. Brown was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
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The shooting was investigated by COPA, while the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Law Enforcement Accountability Division separately reviewed whether Rambert should face criminal prosecution. Investigators reviewed civilian and police witnesses, 911 and emergency communications, photographs, police reports, medical and autopsy records, forensic evidence, surveillance recordings and body-camera footage.
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The State’s Attorney ultimately declined to prosecute Rambert, concluding that the available evidence was insufficient to support criminal charges against him. The later decision memorandum is particularly important because it supplies the shooting officer’s identity and considerably more detail than the original 2021 news coverage.
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Brown’s family did question the police use of deadly force immediately after his death. His mother, Angela Brown, said the family wanted to know why police killed him rather than using another method to subdue him. Family members emphasized that Brown had recently graduated from welding school and had celebrated his 28th birthday only days before his death.
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The family's questioning is especially relevant because the subsequent release of body-camera footage allowed the public to examine the final seconds independently rather than relying entirely on the original police description. The footage confirms that Brown possessed a knife and that officers repeatedly ordered him to drop it, while also documenting how quickly the confrontation progressed immediately before Rambert fired.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Brandon Rambert was the Chicago police officer who shot and killed Brown. Rambert fired three rounds during the encounter. His identity, omitted from the initial public reporting, was subsequently established in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s formal review.
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The broader departmental context is particularly significant. At the time Rambert killed Brown, the Chicago Police Department was operating under a federal court-enforced consent decree created after the U.S. Department of Justice investigation of CPD found systemic problems involving excessive force, accountability, training, supervision and policing practices. The decree required extensive reforms of CPD’s use-of-force and accountability systems.
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The circumstances of Brown’s killing intersect directly with areas at the heart of those reforms: de-escalation, tactical decision-making and the use of deadly force. Unlike many older Chicago police killings, however, this encounter was captured on body cameras and subsequently released publicly by COPA, creating a substantially stronger evidentiary record of the officers’ actions.
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Brown’s death also came during a period when Chicago’s police-reform process remained unfinished. The consent decree had been imposed precisely because longstanding departmental practices could not be adequately addressed through CPD’s previous internal accountability system. That institutional background does not establish that Rambert’s shooting of Brown was unlawful, but it is directly relevant context for evaluating a fatal use of force by a department then operating under court-ordered reform.
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https://abc7chicago.com/post/chicago-shooting-police-turell-brown-copa/11032958/
https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/man-shot-killed-by-police-during-domestic-incident-in-englewood/
https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2021/9/19/22683578/chicago-police-shooting-englewood-man-killed
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/chicago-police-shooting-englewood-man-killed/
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/police-involved-shooting-reported-in-englewood-officials/2616606/
https://abc7chicago.com/post/chicago-police-shooting-video-turrell-brown-bodycam/11144515/
https://www.cookcountystatesattorney.org/sites/g/files/ywwepo351/files/document/file/2024-08/Turell%20Brown%20Declination%20Memo.pdf
https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/09/21/after-cop-kills-man-in-englewood-copa-urges-witnesses-to-come-forward/

On 09/18/2021, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department SWAT officers Lt. Bob Doke, Lt. Jeff Sanders and Sgt. Josh Black shot and killed 47-year-old Adrian Lamont Cameron during an arrest operation at the Days Inn at 3445 Percy Priest Drive in Nashville. Later reporting and police video identified all three SWAT supervisors as the officers who fired at Cameron.
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MNPD detectives went to the motel because Cameron was wanted on a state parole-violation warrant and police wanted to question him concerning the killing of 50-year-old Josh Evans. Evans had been found shot to death, wrapped in trash bags and dumped in the Cumberland River. Police said Cameron possessed significant information concerning the homicide and had threatened witnesses connected with the investigation.
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Police also believed Cameron was armed. Because of that information, detectives were accompanied by MNPD SWAT officers to execute the arrest and search warrants at the motel. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation later described the operation as involving a person police considered armed and dangerous.
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SWAT surrounded Cameron's second-floor motel room with officers positioned in the parking lot and an armored vehicle nearby. Police used a loudspeaker to repeatedly order Cameron to leave the room and surrender. Police-released video shows multiple tactical officers with rifles trained on the room during the standoff.
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A woman subsequently came out of Cameron's room. During her surrender, an MNPD police dog bit her. Police described the bite as accidental and said the incident would be reviewed.
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After repeated commands to surrender, Cameron appeared in the doorway carrying a rifle. Police alleged that Cameron immediately fired downward toward SWAT officers positioned in the motel parking lot. Doke, Sanders and Black returned fire, striking Cameron.
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Cameron was transported to a Nashville hospital, where he died. All three SWAT officers fired during the confrontation.
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The police account is supported by video evidence released almost immediately after the killing. The footage shows the SWAT deployment outside the room, repeated commands for Cameron to surrender and the eruption of gunfire after he appeared at the doorway. The Metropolitan Nashville Community Oversight Board also responded to the scene and subsequently viewed available body-camera footage with a TBI agent present.
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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation conducted the outside investigation at the request of Davidson County District Attorney General Glenn Funk under the existing agreement governing investigations of fatal MNPD shootings. The TBI's role was to gather evidence and submit its findings to prosecutors rather than determine independently whether the officers' actions were legally justified.
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There was an important later development concerning the homicide investigation that brought police to Cameron's motel room. Police subsequently charged Cameron's 16-year-old son, Adrian Cameron II, with killing Josh Evans. Police alleged Evans had been shot during an attempted drug transaction involving the teenager. Cameron himself was therefore being sought for questioning about Evans' death and on the separate parole warrant; police did not allege that Cameron was Evans' killer.
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No affirmative evidence located for this update establishes that Cameron's family or an eyewitness publicly contested the central police account that Cameron fired toward SWAT officers before Doke, Sanders and Black shot him. No encounter-related wrongful-death or federal civil-rights lawsuit arising from Cameron's killing was identified.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Lt. Bob Doke, Lt. Jeff Sanders and Sgt. Josh Black were the three MNPD SWAT officers who shot Cameron. All three were supervisors, an unusual detail specifically noted by MNPD after their identities were released.
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The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department was experiencing an unusually high number of police shootings during 2021. WPLN's year-end examination identified ten shootings by Nashville police that year, including Cameron's death. The incidents included both fatal and nonfatal shootings and prompted continuing scrutiny of MNPD's use of deadly force.
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That scrutiny had particularly serious context because only months before Cameron's killing, Nashville agreed to pay $2.25 million to settle the civil claims arising from MNPD Officer Andrew Delke's 2018 shooting death of Daniel Hambrick. Delke shot Hambrick while Hambrick was running away, and the settlement resolved the family's federal claims against both Delke and the Metropolitan Government.
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Cameron's killing also occurred under Nashville's relatively new outside-review structure for police shootings. TBI independently investigated the shooting for the District Attorney, while Nashville's Community Oversight Board sent personnel to the scene and reviewed available body-camera footage. The oversight board's September 2021 report specifically records its response to Cameron's fatal shooting and its subsequent review of the video evidence.
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The individual identities of Doke, Sanders and Black are particularly important because the original links alone do not make clear that three separate SWAT supervisors fired. Later reporting establishes that all three shot at Cameron, allowing their names to replace "Not Disclosed" in the database record.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2021/09/19/tbi-investigating-officer-involved-shooting-death-nashville-saturday-night/8410366002/
https://tbinewsroom.com/2021/09/19/tbi-investigating-nashville-officer-involved-shooting/
https://www.newschannel5.com/news/one-man-dies-in-officer-involved-shooting-at-days-inn
https://wpln.org/post/nashville-police-fatally-shoot-man-at-hotel/
https://wpln.org/post/heres-what-we-know-about-the-10-shootings-by-nashville-police-in-2021/
https://davidsoncountysource.com/tbi-investigating-nashville-officer-involved-shooting/
https://www.nashville.gov/sites/default/files/2021-10/COB-210929-ED-Report.pdf?ct=1635172381
https://www.nashville.gov/departments/mayor/news/metro-law-files-council-resolution-settle-civil-claim-estate-daniel-hambrick

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REASON FOR POLICE CHASE:
Investigation of an unexplained 911 call. Dispatchers traced a 911 call to the area of Meadowbrook and Basin roads after hearing indistinct voices and engines revving but receiving no response from the caller. Deputy Zac Kindelan located a parked SUV in the area. Police said the vehicle drove away when Kindelan turned around to investigate, and Kindelan activated his emergency lights and siren and attempted to stop it.
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EVENT NARRATIVE:
On 09/18/2021, 27-year-old James A. Black of Phippsburg was killed after crashing his 2007 GMC Envoy into a utility pole during a Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office pursuit in Phippsburg.
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Shortly after 10:00 p.m., the Sagadahoc County Regional Communications Center received a 911 call originating near Meadowbrook and Basin roads. Dispatchers could hear indistinct voices and engines revving but could not get anyone on the line to answer their questions. Authorities later said the call originated from inside the vehicle Black was driving, although they did not establish who placed the call.
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Deputy Zac Kindelan was sent to investigate and located Black’s GMC Envoy parked on Meadowbrook Road. When Kindelan turned his cruiser around to investigate, police said Black drove away. Kindelan activated his emergency lights and siren and attempted to stop the SUV. Black continued driving away while Kindelan pursued.
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During the pursuit, Kindelan reported seeing numerous baggies being thrown from the SUV. Police said pursuit speeds exceeded 60 mph as the vehicles traveled toward Main Road. Investigators later recovered several of the discarded baggies, including at least one containing a white powder, and described the recovered material as illegal contraband.
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Deputy John Dietlin positioned a spike mat near the intersection of Basin Road and Devil’s Highway in an attempt to stop the SUV. Black drove over the device, puncturing and deflating at least one tire, but continued driving. He turned onto Stoneybrook Road and then traveled north on Main Road.
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Shortly afterward, the GMC left the roadway and struck a utility pole near 610 Main Road. Black was alone in the SUV. Emergency personnel extricated him from the wreckage, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
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No PIT/TVI maneuver or intentional contact between a police vehicle and Black’s SUV was reported. The spike mat deployed by Dietlin was the documented police intervention immediately preceding the final portion of the pursuit. Public reporting does not provide the precise distance between the spike deployment and crash, Black’s speed when he lost control, or whether the deflated tire contributed directly to the loss of control.
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Black was a 27-year-old Phippsburg resident. Available contemporary reporting about his death provides little information about his family, occupation, education, interests, or how he was remembered outside the circumstances of the pursuit.
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Maine State Police conducted the crash reconstruction. Contemporary reporting identified Kindelan as the deputy who initiated and continued the pursuit and Dietlin as the deputy who deployed the spike mat.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
Deputy Zac Kindelan was identified as the Sagadahoc County deputy who initiated the pursuit after responding to the unexplained 911 call. Deputy John Dietlin deployed the spike mat that punctured at least one tire on Black’s vehicle.

https://www.centralmaine.com/2021/09/19/phippsburg-man-killed-in-crash-during-high-speed-police-chase/
https://www.pressherald.com/2021/09/19/phippsburg-man-killed-in-crash-during-high-speed-police-chase/
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/me/maine/news/2021/09/20/maine-man-dies-in-police-chase-after-crashing-into-pole
https://www.bangordailynews.com/2021/09/20/midcoast/maine-man-dies-in-police-chase-after-crashing-into-pole/
https://www.wmtw.com/article/suspect-of-high-speed-chase-dies-after-crashing-into-telephone-pole/37654231
https://www.wabi.tv/2021/09/19/suspect-high-speed-chase-dies-after-crashing-into-telephone-pole/
https://www.pressherald.com/2019/07/15/sagadahoc-county-sheriffs-deputy-arrested-charged-with-aggravated-assault-2/
https://www.centralmaine.com/2025/01/15/man-killed-in-crash-after-police-chase-in-woolwich/