Roseville Police release video of officers shooting suspect dead after Placer rampage
The Roseville Police Department has released video from a January 2019 officer-involved shooting in which police shot and killed a man, identified by authorities as the suspect in a rampage of violent crimes that had left an elderly woman dead and another victim seriously injured in south Placer County.
The department-released video contains narration from Police Department spokesman Rob Baquera and Capt. Josh Simon. Simon summarizes the events leading up to officers’ shooting of Stanley Stepanski III, a 48-year-old Montana man accused of killing Mary Toste, 93, at her front door in Penryn.
Toste’s death came amid an approximately 90-minute-long string of shootings and violent crimes throughout the region on the rainy evening of Jan. 15, 2019, before law enforcement officials cornered the suspect’s vehicle after it crashed off of Interstate 80.
Roseville Police, in a statement, said the officer-involved shooting was determined to be lawful and in accordance with the department’s policies.
The spree concluded with the suspect vehicle, described by Simon as “a black, full-sized truck towing a motorcycle on a trailer,” crashing amid trees along the I-80 ramp to Highway 65. Authorities say the suspect exited the truck holding a handgun and pointed it at officers, who then opened fire on him.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene despite life-saving efforts, Simon said.
The released video comes from the dash camera of a patrol vehicle, as authorities with the Roseville and Rocklin police departments, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office and the California Highway Patrol responded to the crash site and surrounded the pickup truck, which ended up entangled in vegetation down an embankment from the highway.
The suspect comes into view, emerging from near the front of his vehicle, and appears to be pointing an item in the officers’ direction, the video shows. Multiple officers can be heard yelling, “Hands in the air!”
Within seconds, the suspect appears to possibly fire a single shot before the officers open a barrage of gunfire in his direction, and the man drops to the ground. Several more shots are fired for a few more seconds as the suspect is on the ground, the video shows.
Nearly simultaneously with the first shots being fired, a police dog that has been identified by authorities as a Placer Sheriff’s K-9 named Eros enters the frame and can be seen charging toward the suspect. The dog is close to the man as dozens of shots are fired at him. About 10 seconds later, after the shots have ended, Eros is seen running with a limp as he returns toward deputies. The dog survived the shooting, Simon said.
According to Simon, six officers in total fired upon Stepanski, who was struck “several times.” Police later recovered a small, black handgun from the suspect’s body.
It was not specified which agency or agencies, out of the four involved, those six firing officers came from, or how many of them were with the Roseville Police Department. It was also not known which agency’s vehicle the dashcam video came from. Roseville Police officials did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.
In a news release Friday evening accompanying the video, the department said that it is releasing the footage at this time because all reviews of the use-of-force incident have been completed, “and all of the investigative agencies have determined this use of force was within law and policy.” The incident was investigated internally by the Police Department and externally by the Placer County District Attorney’s Office.
The officer-involved shooting that concluded the violent crime spree was investigated by the Roseville Police Department because it occurred in its jurisdiction, but the remainder of the events were investigated by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office and Rocklin Police Department, according to the video and news release.
In the days following the incident, Placer County sheriff’s authorities described an apparent rampage by Stepanski, beginning around 7 p.m. that night with reports that a man had been observed firing off rounds from a parking lot in Newcastle. Authorities at the time reported that the man went on to fire at homes, businesses and vehicles in about seven different locations in south Placer County as he proceeded southwest along I-80 and nearby surface streets.
Sometime during the spree, the suspect shot and killed Toste at her residence on Rock Springs Road, authorities said.
According to the recently released video, the Roseville Police Department was informed of four related occurring in the hour-and-a-half before the confrontation with the armed suspect.
At about 7:40 p.m., Roseville police were notified by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office of a shooting near Taylor and King roads in Loomis, within Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction, in which a suspect fired several shots into a vehicle containing a man and his 11-year-old daughter. The man was seriously injured and transported himself to a nearby fire station, authorities said.
Roseville police officers began an “area check” on Taylor Road in Roseville and westbound Interstate 80, Simon said. “These areas bordered a possible escape route for the suspect in the event he fled through Roseville,” he said.
Then around 8:15 p.m., the Rocklin Police Department advised the Placer County Sheriff’s dispatch center of a report of a firearm being brandished at a convenience store near Sierra College Boulevard, off of I-80. The suspect was described as “wearing a dark football jersey with bright numbers,” and was believed to be associated with a black, full-sized truck that fit the previously given description. The man seen in the video appears to be wearing a jersey consistent with that description.
Roseville police were dispatched toward Rocklin to assist, with Simon saying the incident was believed to be related to the shooting in Loomis.
Between 8:15 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., as some Roseville officers were heading to Rocklin, police received reports that a black pickup truck towing a trailer, which witnesses said was driving erratically, had crashed on westbound I-80 near Highway 65.
About simultaneously with the timing of this report, Roseville police were notified that Placer sheriff’s deputies were responding to the shooting on Rock Springs Road, and that this incident was also believed to be connected to the other three. Officers at this point were advised that the suspect was believed to be armed.
Simon said that if Stepanksi had survived the shooting, he would have faced charges including murder, assault with a deadly weapon, brandishing a firearm, possession of an unlicensed firearm and possession of a controlled substance.
In the video, police spokesman Baquera said the Jan. 15 incident was the only officer-involved shooting in 2019 or 2018 within Roseville city limits.
Eros, the involved Placer County sheriff’s K-9, survived after sustaining a single gunshot wound to his rear flank. It was not clear whether he was shot by officers or the suspect.
Eros made a full recovery and returned to duty in March, but died in July after a battle with unrelated, aggressive prostate cancer, sheriff’s officials said.
