Sandpoint releases footage of officer-involved shooting
KEITH KINNAIRD/Hagadone News Network | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 10 years, 2 months AGO
SANDPOINT - The city released three digital video files Monday which documented the deadly officer-involved shooting outside Bonner General Health in July.
One of the videos is from Officer Skylar Ziegler's body camera and another is from the camera mounted in his police vehicle. A third video was captured from Officer Michael Valenzuela's patrol vehicle.
Ziegler's dash camera shows him departing from the Sandpoint Police Department and shows him arriving at the hospital via Alder Street.
As Ziegler pulls to the south side of Alder, a man later identified as Jeanetta Riley's husband, Shane, is seen walking away from a white van toward the south side of Alder.
Jeanetta Riley is seen exiting the passenger side of the van on the north side of the street as Ziegler parks his vehicle. She walks along the passenger side of a sport utility vehicle and raises her hands outward.
Ziegler emerges from the left side of the frame. His left hand is pointing a Taser and his right hand is on his holstered pistol. He quickly lowers his left hand as he is raising his right and opens fire with the pistol.
Jeanetta Riley, 35, is out of frame when she is shot. The shooting occurs about 2 minutes 49 seconds into Ziegler's dash cam video.
Ziegler's body camera footage contains clear audio recording.
"Walk over here. Show me your hands," Ziegler can be heard saying immediately after he exits his vehicle. Similar commands from other officers are also heard.
"Show me your hands!" Ziegler says more forcefully.
"(Expletive) you!" Jeanetta Riley says.
Officers can be heard telling her to drop the knife.
"Bring it on!" she says.
Officers again order her to drop the knife.
"No!" she says.
Additional orders to drop the knife are heard as gunfire erupts. The footage from the body cam becomes illegible as Ziegler crosses the street toward Jeanetta Riley due to a lack of ambient lighting.
The span of time between Ziegler's first command and shots being fired is 11 seconds. The body camera shows Ziegler placing Jeanetta Riley into handcuffs before running back to the vehicle to grab a medical kit. He then tries to render first aid to an unresponsive Riley.
Valenzuela's dash camera video shows him taking the same route from the police department to the hospital as Ziegler, although Valenzuela parks on the north side of Alder.
Valenzuela emerges from the right side of the frame and walks toward a large pickup truck that's parked in front of the SUV. The video shows Valenzuela, who has a semiautomatic rifle raised to his shoulder and Ziegler converging on the parked vehicles and then backtracking slightly as they open fire.
Jeanetta Riley cannot be seen because of the parked pickup truck. The top of her head becomes visible as she falls face-first to the ground between the truck and the SUV. A knife clatters into the street as she falls.
Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh advised investigators on Oct. 31 that the officers' use of lethal force was justified because Riley was advancing on them with a knife refusing commands to drop it.
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