Dramatic body-cam video made public this week reveals a life-or-death battle inside a theft suspect’s automobile. An Antioch officer was compelled to shoot from the passenger seat after being whisked away in a high-speed kidnapping.
Round 5:16 a.m. on Feb. 20., officers rushed to the 4500 block of Lone Tree Means after a 911 name reported a theft in progress at a FoodMaxx.
The caller warned that not less than one suspect was armed and had made threats.
By the point police arrived, the scenario had already escalated.
Surveillance video later confirmed a black SUV backing into the shop’s entrance, shattering the glass doorways as three males exited, one reportedly armed, in an try to steal alcohol.
Staff weren’t injured.
Inside minutes, officers confronted one of many suspects, recognized as 23-year-old Dominick Desouza.
Authorities say Desouza rammed his SUV right into a patrol automobile as officers moved in.
What occurred subsequent shortly was a life-or-death battle.
An officer on foot engaged Desouza close to the automobile, however because the suspect accelerated, the officer was pulled inside.
The SUV smashed into each a patrol automobile and the storefront earlier than rushing off, trapping the officer within the passenger seat.
For roughly two miles, Desouza drove recklessly by metropolis streets with the officer nonetheless contained in the shifting automobile.
Police say the officer repeatedly ordered him to cease.
Physique digital camera audio captured the escalating stress. The officer could be heard warning, “cease …cease the automobile or I’ll shoot you.”
Desouza responded, “I’m gonna go like 10 miles an hour,” and “put the gun down, I don’t belief you.”
At one other level, he allegedly stated, “I’m going to crash this motherf—er, I’m not going to jail,” and informed the officer to get out of the shifting automobile.
Regardless of efforts to de-escalate, Desouza ignored instructions and continued driving at excessive velocity.
Fearing for his security, the officer fired his service weapon, hanging Desouza within the leg.
The SUV quickly crashed right into a parked automobile in a residential neighborhood about two miles from the shop.
Desouza then fled on foot however was discovered roughly 10 minutes later hiding in bushes, yelling, “he shot me, he shot me.”
He was taken into custody with out additional incident.
Authorities stated Desouza suffered non-life-threatening accidents.
The officer sustained minor accidents.
The 2 different suspects fled the scene in the course of the preliminary confrontation and haven’t been detailed additional within the launch.
Desouza now faces a number of fees filed by the Contra Costa County District Lawyer’s Workplace, together with kidnapping, theft, assault with a lethal weapon on a peace officer, housebreaking, grand theft and illegal automobile taking.
The officers concerned have been positioned on paid administrative depart, normal process in officer-involved shootings.
The case stays underneath investigation by the Antioch Police Division in coordination with the district lawyer’s workplace underneath the county’s Regulation Enforcement Concerned Deadly Incident Protocol.
