Bodycam: Elk Grove California Police Clash with Suspect at Fast-Food Restaurant

By Darrell Smith

Source The Sacramento Bee

Elk Grove police released video Thursday of an April shooting of a man who officers said brandished a weapon outside a fast-food restaurant parking lot.

The eight-minute video compiled by the department captures the tense moments outside the In-and-Out Burger in the 9100 block of East Stockton Road near Bond Road late April 12, leading to and including the shooting of Jerry Tolliver Jr. Tolliver, 50, was seriously injured and remains hospitalized.

He faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer and felon in possession of a firearm when he is released from care, Elk Grove Police Department officials said.

The four officers involved in the shooting were not hurt.

The video’s release came days after Tolliver family members and advocates gathered outside Kaiser South Sacramento Medical Center to demand answers of the Elk Grove department and medical personnel.

Tolliver’s family said they did not know he was wounded, his condition or which hospital he was taken for days after the April incident, saying in a statement earlier this week that they were “deeply concerned about both his current condition and the circumstances surrounding the use of deadly force, which could potentially cost him his life.”

Since the Monday briefing outside Kaiser, family members have been able to see Tolliver in the hospital, said the family’s advocate, Lisa Schenk of local community advocacy EMPACT.

“This has been an emotionally devastating experience for the family — and, most importantly, for Jerry himself,” Schenk said in a statement. “Many details surrounding the incident remain unknown, while others cannot be shared at this time,” Schenk said, adding that “the priority is Jerry’s medical condition and ensuring he receives the care he needs.”

Police Department officials said officers were called to the East Stockton Road eatery on reports of a man acting erratically and brandishing a weapon in the parking lot outside. A call to a police dispatcher from a customer inside the restaurant described the situation that brought officers to the scene.

“There’s a man in here who is kind of causing a ruckus. He’s talking bad to people. It looks like he might have a weapon in his pocket. I don’t know.”

“Why do you think there’s a weapon in his pocket?” the dispatcher answered.

“It looks like it might be the butt of a gun, like, in his pocket,” the customer said.

Four Elk Grove officers, three entering from Bond Road, a fourth in the parking lot, see the man later identified as Tolliver seated in one of the restaurant’s outside seats. Video from police cameras showed people, including children, dining inside the restaurant as the officers closed in on Tolliver.

“Hands up. Hands up. Get your hands out of your f------ pockets,” one of the officers shouted as they moved into the parking lot.

“Get your hands out of your pockets,” the officer shouted one more time as another officer fired the rounds that struck Tolliver. An Elk Grove police dog tugged at the man’s leg as he lay wounded in the parking lot as officers converged on him.

Body camera footage from a second officer showed the man, clad in a white T-shirt and jeans and walking outside the fast-food restaurant raising what police said was the .38-caliber revolver officers recovered next to Tolliver after he was shot.

The video showed the moment the four officers converged on Tolliver, guns drawn, as he ran between parked cars holding what police said was the firearm in his right hand. Gunshots, then screams, can be heard on the video. Footage from an Elk Grove police cruiser, the image magnified and slowed down, showed the man turn his head toward one of the officers after the first shot sounded before raising his weapon at another officer.

“Shots fired. We’ve got the gun,” an officer said. Police officials said the gun was loaded with six rounds.

Elk Grove police continue to investigate the shooting, standard procedure in a shooting involving officers. The department’s professional standards bureau and Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office are each independently reviewing the incident.

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