Sacramento sheriff releases video, investigative files on 2017 killing of unarmed black man

Three years after Sacramento County deputies fired 28 rounds and killed Mikel McIntyre, an unarmed black man who was running from them along Highway 50 during rush hour, Sheriff Scott Jones has released the internal affairs file that concludes the shooting was “appropriate, justified and within policy.”

The 1,193 pages of documents, as well as photos and videos that Jones had resisted releasing until The Sacramento Bee filed one lawsuit and threatened to file another, differs sharply from the conclusion reached in August 2018 by the county’s Inspector General, former Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel, who found the shooting was “excessive, unnecessary” and put citizens at risk.

The documents were released as the nation has been shaken by the in-custody death of another unarmed black man, George Floyd, who died Monday after a Minneapolis police officer held his knee on the handcuffed, prone man’s neck for several minutes, and follows years of protests in Sacramento over the police shooting of Stephon Clark, another unarmed black man killed in March 2018.

Jones has consistently maintained his deputies did nothing wrong in the McIntyre shooting, which occurred as the 32-year-old man was suffering from a mental health crisis and had assaulted deputies with large river rocks before trying to run from them. He was struck seven times by bullets, six times in the back.

The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office later also found the shooting “justified.”

The May 8, 2017, shooting near Highway 50 and Zinfandel Drive resulted in a lawsuit that the county settled for $1.725 million without conceding wrongdoing.

Many of the details have been released previously, specifically because of the report by Braziel, which resulted in Jones locking him out of Sheriff’s Office facilities and effectively ending his tenure as inspector general.

Videos detail shooting on freeway

But the release marks the first time the Sheriff’s Office has provided access to videos and photos of the shooting scene, which include footage of patrol cars rushing down Highway 50 toward McIntyre as rapid-fire gunshots can be heard. McIntyre was taken down by a K-9 and seven officers after he was hit, and handcuffed face down at the scene, the videos show.

The newly released materials, some of which are heavily redacted to remove witness names as well as some officers’ names, provide some new details about the controversial shooting. They include eyewitness accounts of bystanders who tried to assist Deputy Jeff Wright, the first deputy on scene, who was struck and dazed when he was hit in the head with a large river rock.

The documents also include Wright’s description of being hit in the head and feeling that “immediately things went very quiet.”

“... At that point I just kept telling myself, you got to get up, you got to get up, you got to get up, you don’t know where he is, you got to get up you are not going to lay here and die,” he told Internal Affairs investigators.

He described losing sight of McIntyre and bystanders rushing over to where he had “blood flowing everywhere” from his head and being asked if he was all right.

“Um, my response was, ‘No, I’m not’” (small chuckle.)”

Another deputy, Gabriel Rodriguez, told investigators he opened fire on McIntyre from 25 to 40 feet away after seeing him throw a rock at another officer.

“I think that we would have had a situation where somebody else was gonna get injured,” Rodriguez told investigators, saying the attack on Wright and the woman (McIntyre’s mother) made McIntyre “a danger to both law enforcement and the public.”

Deputy Ken Becker, who also fired at McIntyre, described the suspect as throwing a rock at his head “that looked like it was coming right at my head.”

“I thought he was trying to kill me,” Becker said, adding that he fired at McIntyre as he ran away because he feared more violence.

”It was just complete disregard for anybody(‘s) safety,” he said. “This isn’t going to stop unless he gets stopped.”

Timelines differ in documents

The documents also include radio dispatch logs that show deputies reporting at 6:57:30 p.m. “SHOTS FIRED ... STILL RESISTING ... DOG ON HIM.”

At 7:00:32, another call reported: “”MULTI OFFCRS FIRED ON HWY50.”

Within minutes, California Highway Patrol officers began shutting down the highway and nearby streets, and deputies began talking to witnesses.

By 9: 14 p.m., the logs show, “FAMILY OF SUSP REFUSED CHAPLAINS,” and by 9:28 p.m., McIntyre’s body was turned over to a deputy coroner.

Other documents provide slightly different timelines, saying that by 6:58 p.m. McIntyre “was handcuffed and had multiple gunshot wounds” and that he was being transported to UC Davis Medical Center by 7:02 p.m.

The incident began because someone called deputies to report that McIntyre was choking a woman and trying to pull her out of a vehicle. The woman was his mother, Brigett, with whom he had gone shopping after an earlier altercation at the family home that resulted in deputies coming out but not detaining McIntyre.

One witness who was staying at the Red Roof Inn on Olson Drive near the scene described seeing “a white cop and a black male struggling by the fence.”

“I could tell the officer was trying to arrest the guy and he said ‘Get down!’ but the guy didn’t comply,” according to the witness, whose name is redacted. “The black guy kind of broke free and then picked up a big rock or piece of concrete and hit the officer in the head of chest with it.

“The rock was about the size of a football. The officer fell down and the black guy started running (south). I think the officer fired to shots at the black guy but I don’t think he hit him because he didn’t even break stride.”

Another witness said he pulled over and got out of his car “thinking that the deputy may need assistance.”

“I have my California Concealed Weapons permit so I thought I would help the deputy if he needed me to,” the witness said, adding that he watched the deputy chase after McIntyre and later heard two gunshots fired.

When he reached the deputy, he saw him down on one knee holding his head.

“The deputy was bleeding heavily from the head injury,” the witness said. “The deputy asked me to assist him by retrieving towels from any nearby business,” so he ran into a Hooters and obtained some.

Deputy yelled ‘stop’ at McIntyre

Another witness described the deputy as shouting “stop running” three times at the suspect, whom he described as “angry” and “aggressive,” and said he watched the suspect throw the football-sized rock from 10 yards away and hit the deputy in the head.

“I was close enough to where the deputy was that I heard the deputy say ‘oh my god’ after being struck with the rock,” the witness said, adding that he and others began yelling at the suspect as he picked up a second rock they feared would be used against the deputy.

“I noticed that the deputy was covered in blood and was disoriented,” the witness said, adding that he heard the deputy yell “stop” three times before firing twice as the suspect fled.

McIntyre’s mother was interviewed by a deputy about 10 p.m., hours after her son had been shot, and said he had been “severely depressed and stressed lately but I don’t know why.”

She apparently had not yet been told what had happened.

“I just want to know if my son is OK and where he is at,” she says. “Is he in jail or is he in the hospital?”

The interview statement does not indicate that she received an answer, with the document ending, “end of statement.”

Earlier this month, attorneys for The Sacramento Bee and the Los Angeles Times wrote a letter to Sacramento County threatening to sue for a second time in 16 months over the Sheriff’s Office’s refusal to release public records that were mandated to be released under state law last year.

Senate Bill 1421 requires law enforcement agencies to release records involving cases of dishonesty, sexual assault or uses of force that killed or seriously injured citizens. Sacramento County had been ordered to pay more than $165,000 in legal fees and costs to The Bee’s attorneys for failure to comply with the law.

This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 2:42 PM.