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David G. Wandell

Age : 53

Gender : Male

Race : White

Date : 08/27/2021

Location : 1200 Walnut Street

City : Elmira

County : Chemung

State : New York

Agency : Elmira Police Department; Chemung County Sheriff’s Office; New York State Police; New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision

Officer(s) :William Goodwin; Zachary Hugg; Charles Kennedy; Shawn Reynolds; Matthew Shutter; Amari Hadlock

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during arrest

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/27/2021, New York State Police Investigator Brian Kozemko saw 53-year-old David G. Wandell walking toward Eldridge Park in Elmira and requested uniformed officers to assist in arresting him on a parole-violation warrant. Six days earlier, Elmira Police Sgt. Christopher Zelko had circulated a countywide officer-safety bulletin concerning Wandell.
Elmira Police Officer Amari Hadlock encountered Wandell in Eldridge Park at approximately 11:36 a.m. According to Hadlock, Wandell removed a bandana covering his hands and pointed what appeared to be a black handgun at her. Hadlock fired seven rounds while backing away. Investigators subsequently found no evidence that any of Hadlock's rounds struck Wandell. Hadlock tripped over a parking barrier as Wandell ran away.
The incident created an important piece of misinformation during the developing police response. Elmira Police Sgt. Frank Hillman saw Wandell allegedly point the object at Hadlock, heard Hadlock's gunfire and then saw Hadlock fall. Hillman mistakenly believed Wandell had shot her and radioed that Wandell had fired at police. Dispatch subsequently broadcast a countywide call reporting shots fired at officers. Wandell had not fired at Hadlock.
Officers from the Elmira Police Department, New York State Police, Chemung County Sheriff's Office, Elmira Heights Police Department, West Elmira Police Department, Horseheads Police Department and state parole converged on the area. Wandell continued approximately one mile from Eldridge Park toward Woodlawn Cemetery while police pursued him on foot and established a perimeter.
Inside Woodlawn Cemetery, police surrounded Wandell as he took cover near a tree. The five officers who ultimately opened fire were Elmira Police Investigator William Goodwin, Chemung County Sheriff's Deputy Zachary Hugg, Sgt. Charles Kennedy, state Parole Officer Shawn Reynolds and New York State Trooper Matthew Shutter.
Police alleged that Wandell raised what appeared to be a handgun and pointed it toward officers despite commands to show his hands and drop the weapon. Goodwin, Hugg, Kennedy, Reynolds and Shutter then opened fire. Wandell was struck five times. The medical examiner determined that two of the gunshot wounds were fatal. Ballistic examination could not determine which officers fired the two fatal rounds because the recovered projectile fragments were too damaged for comparison.
After police shot Wandell, officers discovered that the object beside his body was not a firearm. It was an unloaded Airsoft pistol from which the federally required orange tip had been removed, making it resemble a conventional handgun. Police found no ammunition for an actual firearm on Wandell. Contemporary police reporting was also corrected to clarify that Wandell had not fired at officers during the encounter.
No body camera captured the fatal shooting itself. Hugg was the only one of the five officers who fired in the cemetery who was equipped with a body camera, but he told investigators he forgot to activate it when he entered the cemetery and turned it on only after Wandell had been handcuffed. Shutter's New York State Police unit did not yet issue body cameras; Elmira investigators were not required to wear them; state parole did not require them; and Chemung County did not provide them to sergeants. Other officers' cameras captured audio of the shooting and portions of the pursuit and aftermath.
The New York Attorney General's Office of Special Investigation conducted an independent investigation that included officer and civilian interviews, body-camera footage, police radio transmissions, photographs, crime-scene evidence and ballistics testing. Trooper Matthew Shutter, through his attorney, declined the Attorney General investigators' request to be interviewed. Investigators nevertheless examined his weapon and determined that Shutter had fired six rounds from his Glock .45-caliber handgun.
On 09/01/2022, the Attorney General's Office announced that it would not pursue criminal charges against the five officers who shot Wandell. The Office of Special Investigation concluded that prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers' use of deadly force was legally unjustified.
A review of publicly indexed records for Goodwin, Hugg, Kennedy, Reynolds, Shutter and Hadlock did not establish another fatal police shooting involving any of them before Wandell's death. Goodwin remained with the Elmira Police Department and was subsequently promoted to sergeant in the Detective Bureau. Hadlock also remained with Elmira Police and was among the officers nominated for the department's 2024 Mary J. Brunner Award.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.foxnews.com/us/elmira-police-shooting
https://www.weny.com/news/local/police-shooting-elmira-2021
https://www.syracuse.com/crime/2021/08/elmira-man-shot-and-killed-by-police-responding-to-wanted-person-report.html
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2022/attorney-general-james-office-special-investigation-releases-report-death-david
https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/reports/osi-wandell-report.pdf
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/public-safety/2021/08/27/elmira-officer-shooting-suspect