Video backs police version

Body-camera footage of an exchange of gunfire between a deputy and a man he chased on foot appears to back the version of events released earlier by Spokane County sheriff’s officials.

The Liberty Lake Police Department on Wednesday released two body camera videos that captured the Jan. 30 shooting of Christopher R. Myers in the parking lot of a gas station on Barker Road just north of Interstate 90.

Audio captured by the camera indicates that Myers fired his gun before Spokane County Sheriff’s K9 Deputy Jeff Thurman returned fire.

Thurman had pulled over a car for expired tabs. When he learned the two women in the car with Myers had warrants for their arrest, he called for backup. Another deputy and Liberty Lake police Officer Jeff Jones responded to assist. Jones was wearing a body camera.

In the video, as Jones activates his camera, he is speaking to one of the women. Seconds later, Myers flees from the car and Thurman and Jones pursue him. There is a scuffle; then the video cuts out. Liberty Lake police Chief Brian Asmus said the camera was shut off accidentally during the struggle.

The second video begins as Thurman and Jones still are struggling with Myers, saying, “Get your hands behind your back” and “Quit resisting” several times.

The camera is frequently obscured and sounds are muffled as clothing brushes up against Jones’ microphone. About the 1 minute, 5 seconds mark, someone says, “Here comes the dog,” referring to Thurman’s police dog. What seems to be a muffled pop is heard immediately after that statement. A second, louder gunshot is heard after Thurman gives the dog, named Laslo, the command “Fass that guy.”

One of the officers shouts an expletive just before a single, much louder gunshot is heard as Thurman shoots Myers once in the abdomen. Myers shouts, “I don’t have nothing,” and screams repeatedly as both Thurman and Jones pull back, guns drawn. The dog can be seen biting Myers.

After Myers is handcuffed, Jones can be heard calling for medics. He stays with Myers and attempts to reassure him. “Calm down,” Jones says as Myers continues to cry out. “Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.”

Court documents show that investigators recovered a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun, two .22-caliber cartridges and one .45-caliber cartridge. Thurman was carrying a .45-caliber Glock.

Myers was hospitalized for two weeks before he was taken to the Spokane County Jail. Besides the gunshot wound to his abdomen, documents also indicate that Myers had dog bite marks on his upper-right thigh and his left leg.

On the video, Jones asks Thurman if he has been shot. “No, I’m good,” Thurman says as he paces in a circle several times.

Later, Jones turns to the right and points at a gun lying on the sidewalk. “Is that what he shot at us?”

The gun is lying near a shoe and what appears to be a police flashlight.

Jones asks Thurman to watch Myers while he checks himself for gunshot wounds.

It does not appear that officers attempted to treat Myers’ wound. Myers made several comments about not wanting to die. “I’m going to die, aren’t I?” he said.

Jones announces the arrival of medics about 4 ½ minutes after Myers is shot.

After medics and other deputies arrive, Jones walks off and sits down. He frequently swears and takes deep breaths as he assures arriving deputies that he’s unhurt.

In a four-page letter sent to KHQ last month, Myers proclaims that he is innocent. Myers admitted having a gun and said he was afraid police would shoot him. “When I was standing at the back of the vehicle, I seen an opportunity to run, so I did,” he wrote.

He wrote that the gun was in his pocket and went off accidentally as he was being handcuffed. “I was then fully handcuffed behind my back and the K9 on scene was released and allowed to attack me,” he wrote. “This took place after I had been shot in the stomach and handcuffed behind my back.”

The video shows Laslo biting Myers before he was handcuffed, but Myers repeats several times in the letter his claim that the police dog wasn’t released until after he was handcuffed.

Myers is being held in jail on $750,000 bond on two charges of first-degree assault. He has 15 felony convictions on his record.

The shooting is being investigated by the Spokane Investigative Regional Response Team.