FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (KSAZ) – Flagstaff Police Officer Tyler Stewart lost his life in the line of duty last month. He was killed while investigating a domestic violence incident.
The Flagstaff Police Department released video from a body camera that Stewart was wearing during the deadly encounter. It shows how the deadly encounter unfolded.
The actual shooting is not shown, but the moments leading up to it are test, dramatic, and some may find them disturbing so we do want to warn you ahead of time that this is tough to watch.
The video shows a typical response to a domestic violence call, it captures the moments leading up to the deadly confrontation with Robert Smith. It starts in his patrol car on the afternoon of Saturday, December 27, 2014. The officer was looking for a suspect in a domestic violence call.
I can’t watch videos like that without screaming at the monitor. I really, really hope the video proves useful in training videos for future and current LEO’s.
My thoughts and prayers are with Officer Stewart’s family and fellow officers.
Such a 180 it almost looked like a training video. Officer Stewart reacted quickly but I assume he or the suspect made space and Stewart never got ahold of suspects right hand. Yet again, some low life destroys other peoples lives.
Yeah, I would say so.
Early in the Officer asked him about his hands in his pockets. I think the guy being so at ease made the Officer think he was safe. I’m no cop, but I would want to see everyones hands the whole time.
I kept thinking he was going to get shot in the house before they made it outside.
Request back up Officer before approaching residence.
Do not let subject out of view.
After contact, do not let subject go back inside vehicle/ structure.
Immediately, pat-down subject suspected in criminal activity.
If someone is going to kill you it will be with their hands. Hands, always watch the hands.
He knew something wasn’t right and that is why he kept asking about his hands or the presence of weapons. Some look down at a .22, but any gun even a small knife can end a life.
Breaks my heart seeing what happened to Officer Stewart.
Hopefully, someone will learn from watching the video footage.
SKidevil said it all… you cant stress enough about hands… no matter what your doing. seeing the hands makes all the difference. never trust anyone that wont show you their hands.
i watched the video before i read everything… and the second that douche walked out of the house i would have ordered him to remove his hands from his pockets. if he didnt comply the less lethal would have come out with support hand while strong hand is ready to draw lethal.
i didnt read anywhere how long this young man had been on the department… but hopefully others learn from this…
This was semi local here. Flagstaff is a small town and this is their 2nd line of duty death in their history. He had about a year on if I remember correctly. My wife is involved with a LE support group and we drove up their recently to put on a family support event. That department has taken this really hard.
Nobody wants to be the overbearing cop who is unwilling to relate to folks on a people level. It’s cold so people put their hands in their pockets and things like that. But if nothing else, that video shows you just how little actual “warning time” you get when things go bad.
You don’t know if you are talking to a regular guy who is having a bad day or a bad guy who is having a regular day. I think we are all about 99% certain when the guy walked away from the officer the first time he was grabbing a gun. From that point on the bad guy had time to plan, organize and decide when and how he was going to use the gun if he felt it became necessary. The officer by contrast had to come up with a “plan” on the fly as things were already in play.
Quite honestly I expected the ambush to happen indoors when the officer lost track of the two guys that he was aware of in the home. I’m amazed he then put his back to the door as he talked to the guy outside. I wonder if this was deliberate staging on the shooters part.
Pretty much everyone has covered the “should have” part already. If you have to ask if a person has any weapons or anything of that nature then you probably should verify it yourself. If a person truly isn’t a threat, they will probably understand you checking pockets and such for your own protection and then they can put their hands back in their pockets if it’s freezing outside. And if the DO have a weapon, their objection to a “quick search” will give you a LOT more warning than what this officer got.
I hate to criticize and MMQB but this was preventable without being a hard ass cop. It’s a shame it went down like this. Hopefully this example with save other cops and help people understand why cops make certain requests.
How do you avoid the subject going out of view? Prevent him from going back inside? Physical detainment?
Patting him down is when he got shot!
I’m not at all nitpicking, I’m just trying to learn how this would be preventable. The dude just seemed so calm…like was said above, it seemed like a training video.
“Yeah man, just minding my business. I’ll leave her alone. Oh, by the way…take these bullets to the head. Bang.”
The suspect was not all “calm.” He gave out a few indicators that he was hiding something. He was “chuckling” at the situation, kept moving–fidgeting–but the clear indicator was before the conversation changed to the blinds, he was looking down and was silent. That should have been clear he was running something through his mind, and I think Officer Tyler caught it too late. That was why I believe he suddenly wanted to really frisk the guy.
Why didn’t he have back-up from the start? DV calls are the worst.
The suspect was pretty calm actually but the silence and then the angling away at the beginning of the pat down were huge indicators. More importantly, as soon as I contact someone they don’t leave my sight. If they do you MUST assume they dumped something or armed themselves and react accordingly.
Every Officer has their own style to gain compliance and maybe not to be a PIA cop, but you can’t let the basics fall by the wayside.
Plus I never ask to frisk someone, why give them a second or two to prepare a plan? If I have legal authority I tell/help them to place their hands in the position du jour and then just search. At any point any escalation is met with appropriate control.
MMQB sucks and I hate judging others actions in short single view clips with minimal context and no mindset. I use these videos to train myself as I mourn for the fallen.
When I tell someone to keep their hands out of their pockets, and they go back to their pocket (or pockets), they are going in cuffs. Hands on your head, interlock your fingers, or you’re going on your face. If they keep putting their hands in their pockets, they are doing so for a reason…
This is such a shitty situation, and the P.O.S. killed himself like the coward he was. Pisses me off.
I had a firearms instructor give me some valuable advice once.