A break-in, a chase and a tragedy: Bodycam videos capture drama of fatal shooting in Sonoma County
The complete Sonoma County Sheriff’s body camera footage from David Pelaez-Chavez’s death may not dramatically change the public’s understanding of what happened on the morning of July 29, but it provides new details from the perspectives of at least 10 officers on the ground and in the air.
The 11 videos and five audio files were made public Thursday by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and include two angles of the fatal moment when Deputy Michael Dietrick fired three shots at Pelaez-Chavez, who appeared to be bending down to pick up a rock.
The videos begin at 8:37 a.m. on July 29 with Dietrick interviewing a homeowner near Knight’s Valley who’d had a window broken by Pelaez-Chavez, and they end a little more than three hours later as detectives begin to interview residents about the initial call that brought deputies to area.
They also include footage from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office’s Henry 1 helicopter, as well as from deputies in support roles at staging areas near the scene after the shooting.
The footage shows how all three men — Pelaez-Chavez, Dietrick and Deputy Anthony Powers — were worn out by a long chase of nearly 45 minutes over rough terrain. The videos and accompanying dispatch audio capture the scale and difficulty of the pursuit, as well as the communications problems the deputies experienced in such a remote area.
The audio files indicate that deputies early on considered it likely that Pelaez-Chavez, at the time an unknown suspect, was suffering a mental health crisis. They considered him armed with hand tools and rocks, but did not believe he had a gun.
According to audio from one 911 call, Pelaez-Chavez had asked to be killed. But Pelaez-Chavez also tried to convey to the property owner, in poor English, that “he was being hunted or that someone was coming after him,” according to audio of the call.
“And I said, ‘Who?’” the caller said he responded. “He wouldn’t tell me. He was barefoot.”
Before the foot chase begins, one of the responding deputies discusses with the dispatcher whether the person they’re pursuing could be “5150,” a police code for someone who can be involuntarily committed for being a danger to themselves or others.
A sergeant, other sheriff’s deputies and the crew of Henry 1 all had difficulty tracking the pursuit because of poor reception in the remote ranch land which is in rugged and unfamiliar terrain.
The length of the pursuit is contrasted by the brevity of the final standoff, as the two deputies succeed in flanking Pelaez-Chavez and halt his flight. After a foot chase that lasts close to 45 minutes, only 30 seconds pass from when Dietrick first trains a gun on the visibly exhausted but highly agitated Pelaez-Chavez to when he fires.
The footage from Powers’ body camera explains why Dietrick approached Pelaez-Chavez with a gun drawn instead of his Taser. Toward the end of the chase, as the two deputies moved downhill toward a stream bed near where they would eventually corner the fleeing man, Powers offers to use his Taser and tells Dietrick to rely on his pistol.
“You be my lethal cover,” Powers says in a transmission time stamped at 9:49 a.m., more than an hour and 12 minutes after the first video, from Dietrick’s body camera, begins.
The newly released videos do little to clarify a short, edited video released by the Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 14. In that video, Dietrick and Powers appear to use their respective lethal and nonlethal weapons simultaneously, contradicting initial reports that Dietrick shot only after Powers’ Taser appeared to have been ineffective.
From Thursday’s footage, it does not appear that Dietrick waited on the Taser deployment before firing his pistol, and his recorded comments at the scene offer no clarity.
Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick declined to comment on the new videos beyond what he has already said about the shooting.
“As I have previously stated, this is an active investigation, and I don’t want my comments to jeopardize the integrity of the independent investigation,” he said
The Santa Rosa Police Department is investigating the shooting, but interviews with both deputies are not likely to be released until the investigation is complete. Investigators are waiting on the medical examiner’s report from the Marin County Coroner’s Office, said a spokesperson, Sgt. Christopher Mahurin.
The videos capture the entire chase, as well as the critical moments after Pelaez-Chavez was cornered.
Dietrick stands on an embankment above a stream bed, using his radio to guide Henry 1 to their location before descending to follow Powers.