hello i am officer damon o'connell public information officer for the sparks police department this critical incident community brief is intended to provide you with information about an officer-involved shooting that occurred in the area of i-80 and derby dam on may 5th 2020 you are about to see relevant video footage and learn about other evidence and police procedures related to this case so you have a better understanding of what occurred based on what we know now officer-involved shootings are investigated following the washoe county officer-involved shooting protocol the regional officer-involved shooting protocol conducts a thorough investigation alongside the sparks police department who conducts a use of force investigation internally which typically requires investigators to interview multiple witnesses view numerous hours of video footage and analyze a significant amount of forensic evidence when the investigation has been completed the investigation is turned over to the washoe county district attorney's office for criminal review at the completion of the review the washoe county district attorney provides a report with findings at which time the video is available for release sparks police has chosen to disseminate the instant information and video through this process to simplify the availability and for the purposes of public transparency a word of caution the images and information you're about to see may be disturbing when a police officer uses force to arrest a suspect and to defend against an attack it can be graphic and difficult to watch in addition there may be strong language used by those shown in the video viewer discretion is advised especially for young children and sensitive viewers body worn video cameras are worn by officers assigned to patrol duties body worn video cameras are worn at chest level and capture a general perspective within line of sight from that angle the angle of the camera limits the viewer from seeing everything the officer saw and experienced upon activation both audio and video will turn on however body worn video cameras have a buffer of video without audio beginning 30 seconds prior to activation this feature is designed to capture incidents that occur suddenly where an officer does not have the time to immediately activate the camera fleet cameras are mounted inside marked patrol vehicles and capture line of sight in front of the vehicle the following footage is actual body worn camera and fleet video from this incident i'm tara edmondson deputy chief of the investigations division with the sparks police department i'm going to give you a brief overview of an incident that resulted in an officer-involved shooting on may 5th 2020 at approximately 12 10 a.m the sparks police department received a call from a store clerk at the convenience store at 1701 victorian avenue 911 what's the address of your emergency i am here at the rock on on the arko okay the arco and sorry is it the one on victorian 1701 victorian between rook and 18. yeah okay what's going on well there's a guy about analyzing someone's vehicle and then he's just sitting here still in the feeling just uh there was like an off security in here it made a call just a second ago sorry you sound very far away from the phone i can hardly hear you there was an awesome charity guardian here when uh he was going and so he was stealing inside the store first yeah he took off yeah okay do you know what he stole [Applause] and is that in the parking lot or where is that yeah it's in the parking lot right now it's still here and how are they vandalizing it i'm not really too sure but he's like walking around the vehicle he's walking around the vehicle okay is he walking around it or vandalizing it like has he broken anything touched he's anything off now where what direction uh he's still in the parking lot okay he's just going out again what does he look [Applause] black like things wearing shorts what color shorts uh spanish red red sorry tan or red red i mean he has a pickup truck and it's uh so is he in getting in his vehicle or is he still on foot he keeps getting out and in his vehicle okay and what color is the truck it is like a gray black and then a white tailgate pickup okay and can you see the license plate on it no i can't okay can you see if he's white black hispanic asian hi okay about how old would you say [Applause] okay about how tall five six foot okay [Applause] and would you say thing medium or have it heavy build medium though and is he still in the parking lot or is he in his vehicle yeah he's still on the parking lot he's in the back back up the clerk stated a male stole alcohol and left the store the male was described as a white male adult wearing a black sweatshirt with red shorts who was last seen leaving in a gray or black truck officers were nearby when the call was received and arrived on scene less than one minute after being dispatched responding officers located a dark-colored truck being driven by a mail which matched the description provided by the reporting party officers attempted to stop the vehicle however the suspect continued to drive erratically by periodically stopping and then driving off again while officers were attempting to stop the vehicle they heard what they believed was a possible gunshot coming from the truck officers also learned the suspected driver had previously been arrested for battery with a deadly weapon and eluding officers the suspect continued driving without stopping and ran several red lights the suspect eventually turned north off of glendale avenue and stopped at a dead end on dermity way due to the suspect's erratic actions and criminal history officers did not approach the suspect he's taking off going south we're stopping by smalling [Music] again 40. no traffic what he's still going about eight miles an hour he's found on gwendale coming up to balbini's i think his truck's out of commission [Music] [Music] yeah now he's taking off again he's going on glendale ran the red light 50 miles per hour going through the intersection still eastbound by that traffic [Music] did we get anything on their return from the truck vehicles clearing current on a 1976 chevy truck to the joseph williams out of burnley [Applause] 10-4 still no traffic still eastbound and screws are about 55. okay [Music] we're still eastbound passing international now we're going down germany 35 miles per hour no traffic no pedestrians 35 miles per hour he's going down towards a dead end copy [Music] [Applause] we're at a dead end now copy dead end get your [ __ ] heads up get out of the vehicle now step out of the vehicle step out step out open the door and step out get out [Applause] get out of the truck all right well we can talk out here as soon as you listen to my commands man hey man you you know i can't do that man come on you can step out for me we can talk about it come on man step out for me man the male subject refused to exit the truck and told officers to approach the vehicle instead for over 10 minutes officers on scene attempted to de-escalate the situation by negotiating with the driver the suspect then drove into a fence in an apparent attempt to leave the area officers were unable to safely contain the suspect in the dead end and used a pursuit immobilization technique or pit to stop the suspect from leaving the pit was unsuccessful and the driver drove towards i-80 and entered the freeway with the vehicle headlights off hey brother i don't know why it's happening that's why i'm trying to know why i [ __ ] know why all right calm down man no i don't have to claw again i know why it's happening he knows why it's happening you know why all right brother is your name joseph all right joe hey man i don't know listen man i don't know what happened i just got here okay i heard you you took off from us but here's the deal man we can't go up to the car you need to come out to us okay [Music] joseph here's the deal dude okay and i'm not saying you did okay but here's the deal brother we need you you know we need you to get out of the truck okay and we can talk from there all right here's the deal all right you because you took off from us we don't know joseph i don't know what you got in the truck okay i can't do that he's still refusing to get out i'm not worried about your truck running out of gas or anything um okay [Music] i want to have a chat right now joseph i can't do that i already explained that to you man joseph i want to talk to you joseph i want to help you out man but you got to work with me i never dealt with you i've never heard of you joseph come on out man so we can talk dude i just don't understand why you won't come out to talk to us joseph go straight [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] he's coming back [Music] [Applause] [Applause] you turn down the south side [Applause] [Music] and that goes way back out [Applause] [Music] if you can [Music] [ __ ] [Applause] [Music] get an suv up here hey you want me to pull up my pants i'm right behind you yeah go ahead just pass me [Music] [Music] [Music] if that doesn't work i have this 3500 diesel back here i think i got a flat hit him now before he well watch his speed and make i'm sure too fast right now [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] if that doesn't work i have this 3500 diesel back here [Music] [Music] continuing [Music] move over to the right [Music] all right get down first [Music] [Applause] [Music] i want everybody about the first 30 minutes to back off in front of us again [Applause] [Music] he's [Music] [Applause] run meredith jet coffee [Music] sparks are going west or eastbound on from [Music] [Applause] [Music] you guys want me to try and meredith involved [Music] eastbound freeway [Music] headlights are off i'm trying to say offer on the suspect continued to drive on the interstate without headlights on due to the danger the suspect was presenting to himself officers and the public officers requested the nevada highway patrol used stop strips to render the suspect's vehicle inoperable after driving over the stop strip the driver continued to drive the truck with a flat tire nhp troopers deployed a second set of stop strips which flattened additional tires on the vehicle but the suspect continued driving the driver then crossed the median and momentarily drove into oncoming traffic due to the immediate risk to the public a second pit was performed and successfully stopped the vehicle after the truck was stopped the driver again attempted to leave the area by driving the truck towards officers by hitting their patrol cars officers believe the suspect's actions presented an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm as the suspect continued to drive the truck towards officers officers fired their service weapons at the suspect the suspect continued to attempt to drive away but could not due to his truck being disabled the suspect's condition was not immediately known to the officers and medical attention was requested officers could see the suspect moving in the truck but he would not respond to their commands because of the suspect's criminal history the officers hearing a possible gunshot during the pursuit and his erratic behavior officers on scene did not approach the vehicle and continue to order the suspect to exit the suspect eventually exited the vehicle and was taken into custody without further incident the suspect was transported to a local hospital and treated for his injuries the suspect survived his injuries and was later booked into the washoe county detention facility the involved officers were wearing their body worn cameras that were activated throughout the incident hp advice they do have people east with spike strips we're trying to get a location first [Music] we're eastbound right now just passing exit twenty-two [Music] oh [Music] [Music] right oh boys [Music] copy exit three [Music] looks like [Music] [Music] and he [Music] he's going back on the eastbound side [Music] you just tried to ram me [Music] all right this vehicle's sparking now if we can let's get a tahoe up here in case we need to terminate this thing right behind you with the diesel truck [Music] let's start rolling fire this way [Music] hey lt you want to take my spot up here you want me to try for a pit [Music] yeah we got a pretty flat area right here if you want to go ahead and do it just be careful he tried to ram me when i try to get beside him back to [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] oh [ __ ] [Music] not the god [Music] [Music] have somebody stay on a car radio handhelds are no good a move to get safe [Music] [Music] firefighters oh [Music] [Music] fired [Music] oh [ __ ] [Music] oh [ __ ] [Music] [Music] [ __ ] [Applause] stop the dog [Music] [Music] [Music] oh where's the lieutenant [Music] how are you gonna fit [Music] put your hands up [Music] come out and lay down man joseph the faster you come out the faster we can help you brother medics aren't doing anything all right lay down i just sit with my hands up no you can lay down on the ground lay down i'm telling you right now listen we're gonna shoot you with a 40 millimeter again yes if you don't fall in command lay down hands out they are you see them don't shoot me anymore i've done everything you've asked someone want to go up there with me yeah okay who's going up with me we're all going up how am i going to relax look at what you did all right ready how am i supposed to relax hands up brother okay [Applause] automatically uploaded [Applause] i mean i told you that when my hands were up you guys shot anyway okay let's roll over and sit up dude bro can you help yeah can you guys at least help now yeah open it up i mean are you guys going to help start cutting these clothes off they're going to need to get all their asses where are you hit man all over the how the [ __ ] am i supposed to know okay you guys are the ones that put them there just start cutting [ __ ] off they're gonna have to anyway can you help me stand up please somebody else anybody have trauma shears yeah i have some but i was gonna get a second set going down i am refusing medical treatment the suspect was identified as 39 year old sparks resident joseph williams the investigation later revealed a black semi-automatic handgun on the floorboard of the passenger compartment of the suspect vehicle the sparks police department and its officers take incidents such as these very seriously and they are treated accordingly for questions or additional information regarding the sparks police department please visit www.sparkspl thank you