My turn: Witness questions police shooting
Wrestling with the mere idea of a person being shot repeatedly by multiple individuals in close proximity of homes and families is not ordinarily a topic society discusses at the breakfast table, and for obvious reasons. It’s morbid, barbaric and discerningly incomprehensible taken in sane context. Yet, our movie cinemas, video games and televisions endlessly characterize this exact behavior and much worse, all for the sake of amusement.
At 2:38 a.m. on Monday, March 12, our quiet cul de sac became a virtual movie set, complete with blaring sirens, flashing lights and a cacophony of gunfire. Having been awakened by approaching sirens, my wife was immediately out of bed and pulled our window blinds up as I scrambled from the other side of the bedroom to see what all the commotion was about. Suddenly the roar of gunfire sent us both to the floor below our window. After the shooting had stopped, we witnessed the aftermath of one of the most dramatic and intensely real death scenes we’ve ever seen. Needless to say, our lives have been forever affected by this unfortunate event.
Perspectives and opinions on this subject vary, naturally, and it’s unfair to expect others to understand the brevity of actually witnessing an occurrence of this scope and magnitude. The end result of an obviously intense situation exacerbated by aggressive wills and intents concluded with will and intent. I say this because it is the truth. Not only did we witness the final moments of the incident, our video surveillance captured pertinent details of the fatal shooting.
Reports claim the State Trooper involved was struck by the perpetrator’s vehicle with will and intent to do bodily harm. From our (camera’s) perspective the suspect’s vehicle entered the cul de sac, and upon braking the car’s tires lost traction on the icy pavement and skidded into the neighbor’s road-side grass swale. At this point the fleeing suspect was trapped in a dead end cul de sac and the car’s front end was in a shallow ditch. The ISP vehicle arrived on scene after the first Post Falls police officer had parked and was exiting his vehicle. The Nissan was in reverse and moving backward out of the swale before the ISP officer parked and was able to exit his vehicle.
As the Post Falls officer moved deftly left and toward the Sentra he took a shooter’s stance and volleyed a short burst of bullets and struck the white Sentra’s door at the same time the ISP officer was exiting his vehicle. It is clearly evident from our surveillance video that the Post Falls officer first fired his weapon while the ISP officer and his vehicle were in the line of fire. When the Post Falls officer made the choice to fire his weapon, the Sentra was in reverse and its front wheels were briefly mired in the grass and rime frost coating the ground. No officers’ lives or safety were in dire jeopardy from the suspect or his vehicle when those first shots were fired.
After the first round of bullets had already been fired and hit their intended target, the fleeing suspect’s car eventually found traction and was just beginning to move backward. As the Sentra backed out of the swale and was angling to the north, the Post Falls officer repositioned himself safely out of harm’s way of the reversing car, but he slipped on the icy pavement and had to regain his footing. While the Post Falls officer balanced himself to the driver’s side of the Sentra, the ISP officer ran across the reversing Nissan’s headlight beams and positioned himself approximately 25 feet away and directly in front of the Sentra. The wounded suspect stopped his backward progress and as he was shifting into first gear the Sentra was summarily pummeled with bullets from three separate hand guns.
By all accounts, the driver’s door was struck with bullets no fewer than eight times, the front windshield had no fewer than three bullet holes and shots were fired by another Post Falls officer through the passenger side window of the Nissan Sentra. It leaves to question; was the other Post Falls officer positioned so as both Post Falls officers were in each others’ line of fire? Upon closer scrutiny of the evidence markers, video recording and our live witness details, the ISP and Post Falls police officers put themselves and innocent persons in danger. All three officers involved in the shooting displayed gross negligence to public safety by discharging their firearms in three separate directions and toward nearby homes. After the final hail of gunfire, the white Nissan lurched jerkily forward and then rolled to a stop. The car never came close to striking the ISP officer. The suspect died instantly from numerous gunshot wounds.
The entire shooting incident transpired over a period of 10 SECONDS. It took no fewer than three armed gunmen 10 seconds to kill a man. Ten precious seconds that were carelessly used to end a desperate life in lieu of sanely taking the time to assess an already bad situation and make a different choice. Essentially, trained professional officers of the law chased down a scared jackrabbit, cornered it and killed it in an adrenaline-fueled melee, disregarding any and all possible procedures and alternatives. Had the Post Falls officer first on the scene recognized the situation as a trap in a dead end cul de sac — instead of a first-person video game sequence — the entire ordeal would’ve ended non-violently. Upon review of our video recording in conjunction with our witness accounts, this particular shooting incident was absolutely out of control and completely unnecessary.
There’s no denying the suspect was a wanted felon. Nor is there any dispute that police chases are very dangerous to peace officers and the general public. The liabilities and circumstances of high speed police chases have been scrutinized by governing bodies and policing agencies around the country. Special education and training enforces the police to pursue fleeing suspects as safely as possible. The ISP officer’s vehicle used in the pursuit of Justin Todd was damaged during the 20 minute chase. An unsuccessful “pit maneuver” employed on the Sentra badly bent the front right rim and axle of the pursuing ISP vehicle, thus rendering the Trooper’s car unsafe for high speed pursuit. Obviously this did not deter the resolve of the pursuer, despite the compromise to his equipment.
The details I’ve described are factual and contain zero supposition. There are some things about this casualty that stand out the most to me and my wife: 1. The suspect’s vehicle was trapped in a cul de sac, but he did not exit his car to flee on foot. Instead he opted to remain with his terrified girlfriend. I watched with powerful binoculars as the woman was handcuffed and detained on the icy pavement beside the Nissan Sentra for approximately 5 minutes. Meanwhile another officer removed items from the driver’s side of the stalled Sentra and tossed them to the side; a small cardboard box and an orange knit cap. It appeared this officer was “planting” evidence. Why? 2. The young woman passenger miraculously survived the ordeal without being shot. This young woman is the only civilian person alive besides ourselves to know exactly what really occurred during the shooting. Her testimony is very relevant to the sequence of events that led to the final outcome. 3. Had the pursuing officers known there was civilian video surveillance recording the incident, would the reactions to shoot and kill the suspect have been as urgent as merely disabling the vehicle in accordance with proper training and procedure? The high speed chase was, by all intents and purposes, concluded when the Sentra turned onto our street. Killing the suspect took precedence over blockades and detention. This is clearly evident considering the amount of time expended blocking the street. With no less than four pursuing police officers, not one took the initiative to use his vehicle to blockade the street. Why?
And lastly, but most intriguing to (us) is … Justin Todd died with his foot on the brake pedal.
Troy Evans is a Hayden resident.
Editor's note: The time displayed on the home surveillance video is roughly an hour earlier than the actual time it was recorded on March 12. The home surveillance footage had to be converted to a web-ready video format in order to be shared on this website.