‘No way out’: Video depicts harrowing moments leading up to shooting by Sonoma County deputy

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office released raw footage Thursday from the July 29 fatal shooting of David Pelaez-Chavez by Deputy Michael Dietrick. Those images are available to the public via a Dropbox page. They include 11 video files, plus five batches of dispatch audio. The Sheriff’s Office provided no summary, description or indication of which deputies the footage came from.

Videos 1 and 2, the longest of the series, are from the perspectives of Dietrick and fellow Deputy Anthony Powers, the two men who pursued Pelaez-Chavez for 45 minutes up and down the rugged terrain in the hills of Knight’s Valley east of Healdsburg.

Press Democrat reporters and editors reviewed all of the files and prepared summaries of the 11 videos. Summaries of the body-worn camera videos from Powers and Dietrick, more than 3.5 hours of footage, appear below.

Video 1. 2 hours, 5 minutes. Begins at 8:37 a.m.

Dietrick’s body-worn camera video begins with him speaking with a homeowner who says Pelaez-Chavez threw a rock through his window earlier that morning. The homeowner describes how he grabbed a pistol after he heard the glass breaking in his master bedroom and how Pelaez-Chavez took off after being confronted.

“I was in my office and saw this guy walking up with rocks in his hands and barefoot,” the homeowner says. “What the hell is this guy doing?”

The homeowner describes how Pelaez-Chavez stole an employee’s truck, which had the keys in it, and drove erratically away. As he points in the direction Pelaez-Chavez fled, he says, “There’s no way out.”

Five minutes into their conversation, the homeowner gets a call from a neighbor who had sighted Pelaez-Chavez.

“I’ve got a sheriff’s deputy standing right here,” the homeowner replies, before telling Dietrick “We’ve got to get over there” and offering to show him the way.

Dietrick, whose call sign is “Edward 21,” calls it in to dispatch about 8 minutes into the video and tells the homeowner that his backup is on his way and that as soon as he arrives, “We’ll go in.”

At 8:49 a.m., still in his patrol vehicle, Dietrick encounters another property owner who says Pelaez-Chavez had smashed through all of his gates in the stolen truck and was at a nearby home.

About that time, Dietrick receives a radio dispatch advising him Pelaez-Chavez had fled down a hill and that “it sounds like the male was begging the RP (reporting party) to kill him. The male did have three large rocks in his hand.”

The video proceeds with Dietrick interacting with homeowners and trying to determine Pelaez-Chavez’s direction of travel. A neighbor offers to drive him and Powers, who has arrived on the scene, in a “side-by-side” all-terrain vehicle.

About 20 minutes later, at 9:25 a.m., they come upon another side-by-side vehicle, which had been reported stolen earlier, with the motor still running. Dietrick approaches it on foot with his gun in his hand and takes the keys.

Powers can be seen about 100 yards ahead of Dietrick, moving up a hillside.

Five minutes later, Dietrick alerts dispatch that he is headed east, and at the 52:42 mark of the video, he says, “I think we hear some screaming off in the distance.”

Dietrick begins hiking up a series of ridges, and the video shows him stopping to rest several time as his breathing becomes labored in the steep terrain.

At the 59:45 mark of the video, he apparently receives a radio message, apparently from Powers, and says, “Copy. Trying to make it to you.”

At the 1:02:20 mark, Dietrick says “I’m right behind you, Powers. You want me to come up further?”

Roughly a minute later, Dietrick comes upon Powers who is lying prone on the ground looking uphill, apparently watching Pelaez-Chavez, who can be heard yelling in the background.

At the 1:06:21 mark, Powers rises to his knees and shouts, “Amigo!” He cautiously approaches Pelaez-Chavez, offering water. “Agua,” he shouts.

Seconds later, Pelaez-Chavez takes off down a hill about 200 yards from the deputies, who begin to pursue him.

“He still has both weapons in his hands,” Dietrick says into his radio.

At the 1:11:10 mark of the video, 9:49 a.m., Powers yells, “Stop! Manos arriba! (hands up).”

The deputies continue the pursuit, and at one point, Powers slips in the rugged downhill terrain, which is dotted with poison oak.

As they approach the creekbed, Dietrick tells Powers, “just be careful.” Henry 1, the sheriff’s helicopter, can be heard approaching in the distance.

Pelaez-Chavez can be heard yelling as the helicopter nears, and Dietrick continues to trudge through the creek, at one point dropping his sunglasses.

At the 1:22:34 mark, Dietrick can be seen raising his pistol and pointing it toward an unseen target.

“Drop it! Drop it now!” he shouts.

Seconds later, Pelaez-Chavez comes into the frame, moving toward Dietrick, who continues to yell, “Drop it!”

Pelaez-Chavez raise his hands and looks skyward, then bends down with his hands on his knees.

Dietrick is holding his gun with both hands. Pelaez-Chavez is obscured in the video by Dietrick’s forearms. Dietrick screams, “Put it down,” then fires three shots at 1:22:59 of the video, seconds before 10:01 a.m.

He then motions Powers, who is standing to his left, to move in. Dietrick can then be seen rolling Pelaez-Chavez over and cuffing him.

“Hey, let’s not cuff him yet. Let’s (expletive) work on him,” Powers says.

“Alright,” Dietrick responds as he proceeds to uncuff him.

After uncuffing him, Powers begins CPR while Dietrick radios in that shots have been fired, the suspect is down and the deputies are OK.

For the next 20 minutes, the video shows the deputies taking turns performing CPR until a medic arrives.

At the 1:49:55 mark of the video, 10:27 a.m., a sergeant approaches Dietrick and asks if he’s OK.

“Yeah, just exhausted,” he replies.

The sergeant pulls him aside and asks him several details about the shooting, including whether there was a firearm from the suspect that needed to be recovered.

“It was a hatchet, a hammer and a rock,” Dietrick says.

The sergeant then pulls Powers to the side, and Dietrick sits alone on the ground.

A few minutes later, Dietrick begins coughing, and the sergeant asks him if he’s OK.

“I just feel like I’m gonna puke, I’m just (expletive) exhausted.”

The sergeant asks if he wants to be the first to be airlifted from the scene, and Dietrick declines.

At 10:41 a.m., roughly 2 hours and 4 minutes into the video, the helicopter can be heard returning to the scene.

The sergeant approaches, takes Dietrick’s body camera, and turns it off.

Video 2. One hour, 34 minutes and 47 seconds long. Begins at 8:56 a.m.

This video is from Powers’ body-worn camera, and it begins with his arrival at a vantage point on a hill in a remote area, as Dietrick and an area resident explains the situation.

The resident offers to use his off-road vehicle to drive him and Dietrick down to a ravine where they think Pelaez-Chavez fled.

Powers suggests they drive while he walks, looking for tracking clues.

After about six minutes on foot, he rejoins Dietrick and the neighbor and climbs in the back of the side-by-side, saying, “I didn’t see anything.”

About 13 minutes into the video, they arrive at another home where Pelaez-Chavez had been spotted and scout the premises for signs of him. The two deputies begin walking down a road leading away from the property in the direction they believe Pelaez-Chavez was headed.

A minute-and-a-half later, they come upon an outbuilding with what appears to be a fenced-in garbage enclosure. Dietrick pulls his gun and peers inside. Finding nothing, they continue down the road, and at one point, Powers offers a theory that Pelaez-Chavez, headed downhill toward a creek, saying it was the “path of least resistance.”

They return to the ATV and continue off-road until they come to a water tank atop a ridge with a high vantage point. Powers surveys the area with binoculars and offers another theory about where Pelaez-Chavez was headed.

Dietrick makes an unintelligible comment, possibly about Powers’ tracking skills, to which Powers replies, “I was a Marine.”

“Reconnaissance?” Dietrick asks.

“Uh, sniper,” Powers replies.

They return to the ATV and head down the hill.

At 9:25 a.m., about 28 minutes into the video, they come across the abandoned side-by-side. Dietrick can be seen running toward it, while Powers follows, advising his partner to “watch out for rocks, buddy.”

Powers pulls his weapon and tells Dietrick, “I’m going to go high,” in an apparent attempt to flank Pelaez-Chavez.

For the next six minutes, Powers runs uphill, stopping when he gets a radio message from Dietrick, and replies, “You got somebody screaming?”

He continues up a ridge line, and at 38:36 of the video, he radios Dietrick and says, “I got a footprint here, in the dirt.”

Powers presses on, and two minutes later, a scream can be heard.

At 44:44 of the video, 9:37 a.m., Powers crouches down and radios, “I have eyes on. He’s at the top of the hill. His back’s towards me.”

Powers creeps forward, radioing in that Pelaez-Chavez has a hammer and a hatchet in each hand.

“He’s super tired right now, he keeps bending over, but he’s clutching those weapons pretty good.”

Pelaez-Chavez cannot be seen on camera, but Powers says he is about 50 yards directly in front of him, resting against a rock.

At 45:12 of the video, Powers says, “I think he sees me.”

Two minutes and five seconds later, Powers stands and shouts, “Amigo!” before beginning to move forward. “Mi amigo, no problemas!” he shouts as he pursues Pelaez-Chavez uphill.

At 49:10 of the video, Powers has his gun drawn and is pointing into a stand of trees when Dietrick comes into the right side of the frame, points downhill and says, “There he is.”

It is 9:46 a.m., and both men begin chasing Pelaez-Chavez.

After several minutes Powers remarks that “he’s holding the weapons aggressively. He just hit a tree and ran off.”

As the pursuit continues, Powers says to Dietrick, who has his gun drawn, “Hey, you want me to be Taser? You be my lethal cover.”

The exchange occurs at 52:40 of the video.

As Powers pursues Pelaez-Chavez into the creekbed, Henry 1 can be heard overhead. Powers radios them that he’s right below them. Pelaez-Chavez can be heard screaming in the distance.

At 1:01:46, Pelaez-Chavez comes into view, standing in the creekbed with his arms raised, with a weapon visible in his right hand. Powers gestures with both hands — he is not holding a gun or his Taser — and yells, “Put it down!” and, “Señor, aqui!”

Pelaez-Chavez turns to walk away, and Powers continues calling to him, eventually saying, “Hey, familia? Tu familia?”

Pelaez-Chavez halts and faces Powers, answering, “Si.”

Powers tries to continue the conversation, but can’t overcome the language barrier. At 1:02:50 of the video, Pelaez-Chavez turns and begins walking away in the creek bed. A short distance later, he turns to face Powers, who curses as he momentarily loses his footing in the creek.

As the video continues, Powers’ Taser is in his left hand as he makes his way through the underbrush to a clearing where Dietrick can be seen standing with his gun pointed at Pelaez-Chavez.

Dietrick moves forward and fires three quick shots as Pelaez-Chavez appears to bend down at the 1:03:54 mark.

It appears that Powers has deployed his Taser, but it is not clear whether Dietrick fired first or whether the actions were simultaneous.

Powers then moves in and asks Dietrick if he has any rubber gloves.

After an exchange about whether to cuff Pelaez-Chavez, with Powers urging Dietrich to leave the fallen man’s hands free, the two deputies alternate CPR for more than 20 minutes before a medic is choppered into the scene.

As Powers pumps the dying man’s chest, he screams, “Come on, come on, let’s go!” in frustration.

Near the end of the video, a sergeant who has arrived on the scene pulls Powers aside and asks him for “just the basics” — how many shots were fired and the direction in which they were fired.

“What direction?” Powers says at 1:31:44 of the video. “I did not fire. I had my Taser, he had, do I go into it?”

The sergeant replies, “Nope.”

Powers says he fired his Taser, striking Pelaez-Chavez in the arm and the wrist.

The sergeant makes sure the suspect had no firearm that needed to be recovered, then tells Powers, “We’re gonna get you out of here.”

Powers, who is still wearing his rubber gloves, asks the sergeant if he needs them for evidence. The sergeant tells him to “just throw them on the ground.”

After a brief discussion about the logistics of airlifting the two deputies, a hand appears in the frame of Powers camera, shutting it off.