Watch N.Y. Deputies Clash with Armed Suspect in Standoff Shooting

By Stephen T. Watson

Source The Buffalo News, N.Y.

Police bodycam videos released Friday reveal the harrowing scene that unfolded after Chautauqua County sheriff’s deputies responded to a domestic incident last month in the Town of Mina.

Two deputies found a man outside the home, wielding a long gun, who fired one shot into the air, repeatedly pointed the weapon at a deputy and responded to orders to drop the gun with defiant profanity, according to footage released by the state Attorney General’s Office.

The June 18 encounter ended with deputies and the man, later identified as Mark W. Bemis, exchanging gunfire. Bemis, 66, died at the scene and one deputy was wounded in the hand, authorities said previously.

The Attorney General’s Office is investigating the fatal shooting, standard practice when someone dies at the hands of a police or peace officer in New York.

That investigation is ongoing, the AG’s Office said Friday, but the office made public the body-worn camera footage as part of its continuing efforts to boost transparency.

It’s the public’s first up-close view of what happened when deputies responded to a 911 call reporting a domestic incident at a home in rural Mina, located west of Sherman in Chautauqua County.

The first deputy arrived at about 3:50 p.m. June 18 to find Bemis standing outside the home, near an open garage, holding a long gun.

Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone previously said deputies attempted to de-escalate the situation for about 10 minutes before both sides, nearly simultaneously, fired shots at each other.

The AG’s office posted two videos to its website on Friday, one from a “Deputy Summers” and one from a “Deputy Dietzal.”

The deputies involved in the incident have not been identified, but those are likely references to Chautauqua County Deputies Joshua Summers and Jacob Dietzel, based on publicly available payroll records.

In the “Dietzal” video, the deputy is shown pulling up to the scene in his patrol vehicle, getting out and walking up toward the home.

“I’m just here to ask questions, man,” the deputy says. “I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on.”

Bemis responds by shouting profanities and, at this point, the deputy realizes Bemis is armed.

Bemis fired one shot into the air, the deputy reported on his radio, and pointed the weapon at the deputy, who took cover behind a tree in the front yard.

“Put the gun down now,” the deputy shouted more than once.

He repeatedly ordered Bemis to drop his weapon, instructions punctuated at times by a curse word, and warned Bemis he could be shot if he didn’t comply.

Bemis continued to shout at the deputy to get off his property. The deputy also talked to a woman who was at the home during his standoff with Bemis.

As a dog barks, the deputy, armed with a handgun, yelled, “You pull that trigger, I’m going to (expletive) kill you.”

More seconds passed and the deputy shouted, “Put it down. We just want to talk.”

Bemis repeatedly replied to the deputy’s demands with a common, two-word profanity.

Bemis then walked into a part of the garage, where he wasn’t visible to deputies, before re-emerging.

Four minutes and 30 seconds into the encounter, with the deputy and Bemis continuing to yell at each other, shots rang out.

The deputy was shot in the left hand and blood poured from his wound as another deputy on the radio can be heard reporting, “Officer down.”

Deputy Summers’ video showed him escorting a woman to a safer position before shots are fired. He walked across the front of the home, toward the garage, where he found Bemis laying on the ground just inside an open garage door in a pool of blood.

Bemis was struck and killed, and deputies recovered a shotgun at the scene, officials said.

One deputy, who was not identified, was taken to UPMC Hamot hospital in Erie, Pa., for treatment of non-life-threatening wounds to his hands, Quattrone said earlier.

The sheriff did not respond to messages seeking comment Friday afternoon.

The state Attorney General’s Office declined to say anything beyond its statement announcing the release of the two videos.

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