STOCKTON, Calif. — The San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office has released bodycam footage from an incident where officers shot and killed a man while responding to a call at a Stockton hotel.
The shooting happened July 23, 2020, at the Days Inn Hotel in the 4200 block of Waterloo Road in Stockton. In a YouTube video, Sheriff Patrick Withrow described the situation as a "critical incident." He said shortly before midnight dispatch received a call about a man walking up and down the hallway, yelling that someone stole his television. The man was carrying what the caller believed to be a handgun, which was silver and black in color, Withrow said.
Officers can be seen on bodycam video arriving on scene and quickly entered the hotel through a side door. They encountered the suspect with what appeared to be a handgun in his hand.
"As you see, both the officer and the suspect were less than five feet from each other," said Withrow. "There was absolutely no time to hesitate or our officer would have been shot."
The officer can be heard on the video quickly saying what sounds like "I'm sheriff," before firing multiple shots at the suspect.
"Well, you saw how quickly they saw each other, and I was amazed that he had the wherewithal to even get that out," said Withrow.
Withrow said it does matter if the gun was being raised, but said he believes it was.
"If you take it frame-by-frame, and watch the firearm, it's coming up," said Withrow. "And even in the position we freeze it at, he would have been shooting the officer in the legs."
Officers then backed out of the situation, waited for other officers to arrive, and got a ballistic shield to go back in when they saw the suspect was down on the ground and immediately began first aid, Withrow explained in the video.
"Our officers contacted dispatch, requested an ambulance, and a short time later, medical attention arrived," he said.
The man was taken to a local hospital where he later died of his injuries.
Civil right attorney Stewart Katz watched the video released by the San Joaquin County Sheriff's office and said he came away with mixed feelings about what he saw.
"There are a lot of questions that neither the video nor the narration really answer," said Katz.
He agreed the events unfolded quickly but said that might have been avoided.
"The actual situation was very sudden, if you will, but a lot of that suddenness is due, frankly, to maybe a lack of preparation of dealing with a situation you know you're going to encounter," said Katz.
He added the deputies could have done better to assess the situation.
“One would think they would contact the hotel to see at least who the registered guest was there, if there was any way to contact him by telephone," explained Katz. "Now I understand they encountered him outside of the room, but that would to me seem like a lot more prudent step to initially try to contact the person before anyone tries to come face to face with anybody who you think may have a gun."
Katz said the suspect would not have even known what was happening.
“I don’t think he even had a chance to react to the situation candidly," said Katz. "I mean they were there with their guns out, pointed, trained on him. I don’t think he even had time to react to the situation. Look they know, they’re anticipating they’re going to encounter someone. He’s not anticipating that.”
Katz said the unfolding of events were not as clear as was characterized in the video released by the San Joaquin County Sheriff's office.
"I don't see him really raising the gun before they've unloaded the rounds they're shooting," explained Katz. "Now at some point his hands go up, but it wasn't at all clear to me that he was doing anything other than his body reacting to being shot."
He said overall, his perception was deputies were quick on the trigger.
"I'd have to really come down on the view that unless they had additional information, that for whatever reason in their edited version they decided not to share, I think it's probably not justified," said Katz.
Sheriff Withrow said a protocol investigation, including the Department of Justice, San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office, and the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, was conducted and the results are pending.
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