State Trooper Shoots an Unarmed Driver After he Complies With Troopers Request to Produce his Drivers License
A South Carolina State Trooper stops a man for an alleged seat belt violation. Upon asking the driver, who was exiting his vehicle, for his driver’s license, the driver turns and reaches into his vehicle to retrieve the requested identification. The trooper immediately begins firing his weapon, a total of four times, even after the driver had his hands up and was backing up. The driver was shot in his hip, but thankfully, did not suffer life-threatening injuries.
Luckily, the entire incident was captured by the trooper’s own dashcam. Otherwise, the incident would have been retold by the officer in a much different manner than we witnessed. Moreover, the trooper has been fired from his position and is now facing felony aggravated assault charges. This usually does not happen in these types of cases, but as recent events have proved, a crime caught on a recording will likely mean justice will be served.
Although this incident, unfortunately, was most likely motivated by racial issues and fear on the trooper’s part, it could happen to anyone. Without knowing the experience or likely reaction of any given police officer who stops you, this case reinforces the idea of verbally notifying officers of your intent when you make any type of movement (even if that movement is at their request). Although not a legal requirement, this could save your life.
Contact The Law Offices of Parwana Anwar, PLC today if you are stopped by the police and are facing criminal charges. We are experienced Temecula criminal defense attorneys willing to fight for your rights.
Good Samaritan with a gun saves wounded cop
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02:05See more videos
Watch “New Day” and “CNN Newsroom” each Friday to see inspiring stories of officers going above and beyond the call of duty.Youngtown, ArizonaCNN —
The gunshot that struck state trooper Ed Andersson was “one in a thousand,” he said.
“A half inch to my right it would have missed me,” the Arizona State Police officer told CNN. “A few inches to my left, it would have hit my vest.”
But the bullet found Andersson’s right shoulder – paralyzing it and preventing him from reaching his own weapon.
At 4:30 in the morning, it was dark and desolate along Interstate 10 near Tonopah, Arizona. The only other person around was the man who just shot Andersson, and an injured female companion.
And the attack wasn’t over.
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His gun now empty, the man charged Andersson, striking him with the weapon and bashing his head into the pavement.
“I kicked him into the fast lane hoping that a car would come by and hit him,” Andersson said. But it didn’t work.
Andersson rolled onto his right side, shielding his weapon from the attacker.
“I knew if he got my gun it’d be all over right then,” he said.
Then, Andersson heard a voice. And gunshots.
It was over. The attacker lay dead in front of him; Andersson was alive.
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But who saved him?
A former felon, he would later learn. A man who turned his life around and found God. A lifelong hunter who begged a judge to reinstate his rights, allowing him to carry a gun again – the one he just fired.
Motorist kills man beating wounded cop
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A man who is now Andersson’s friend for life.
‘God … put me in that place’
Thomas Yoxall woke the morning of January 12th thinking he’d be taking pictures by the end of the day.
The photographer was headed for a conference in Anaheim, California, and had just began the five-hour drive along I-10 when a patrol car sped past him.
“I was thinking, not a good way to start the morning with someone getting pulled over,” Yoxall said.
The flashing lights faded into the foreground as Thomas took a sip of his morning coffee.
The lights re-emerged, though, as Thomas approached mile marker 84.
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Trooper Andersson hadn’t pulled anyone over. He was responding to calls of a man shooting his weapon at cars on the highway. As he arrived he spotted an overturned vehicle just off the roadway, and two potential victims along the shoulder. A female passenger had been thrown from the car.
“I saw a male subject kneeling and holding a female in his arms,” Andersson said. So he blocked the slow lane with his car, set out flares and called for a medical helicopter.
When he returned to the victim, the man was missing.
“I scan with my flashlight and I found him standing in the emergency lane,” Andersson said. “I could tell he already had his weapon pointed at me.”
The man wasn’t a victim at all. He was the shooter who motorists were reporting to police. And lucky for Andersson, he was down to his last bullet – the same one he plunged into Andersson’s right shoulder before he punched Andersson to the ground.
“I would try to get my Taser out,” Andersson said. “But every time I would do that, he would strike me in the head, and pound my head on the pavement.”
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That’s when Thomas Yoxall drove by the scene, seeing the man on top of Andersson.
“He’s beating him in a savage way,” Yoxall said. “Just fist after fist.”
Yoxall pulled over, took his legal firearm from the center console of his pickup and exited onto the highway.
“I yell out to the suspect to stop, I said ‘get off him!’” Yoxall said. “His facial expression, the look in his eye (was) ‘evil’ if I had to put a word on it.”
The suspect refused to stop, continuing to beat Andersson.
“I hear a voice… ask me if I needed help,” Andersson recalled. “I said ‘yes, I do.’
“Shut up!” the attacker shouted.
Yoxall says he moved to his left, assuring that Andersson was not in the line of fire.
The attacker resumed his brutal assault as Andersson bled from his head.
“The next thing I hear is two shots,” Andersson said.
The first struck the man in the chest; the second, in the head.
The threat was over. The attacker, later identified as 37-year-old Leonard Penuelas-Escobar, was dead.
Investigators are awaiting toxicology results to determine if drugs were a factor in the attack.
A chopper Andersson had called to transport an accident victim instead airlifted him to the hospital.
After surgery and more than 100 stitches and staples, doctors stabilized him.
Trooper Ed Andersson recovers from his wound. Courtesy Ed Andersson
From his hospital bed, Andersson realized he’d likely be dead if not for Thomas Yoxall.
“As much as I fought, at one point I probably couldn’t have gone on anymore,” Andersson said as his emotions swelled. “I probably wouldn’t be here (if not for him).”
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If the attack had happened two decades ago – it may have ended differently.
That’s when Yoxall was, by his own admission, a different man.
“People who know me best know I’ve come full circle in my life,” Yoxall said.
Yoxall was charged with theft in 2000; the felony case prevented the avid hunter and shooter from carrying a gun. But when the case was pleaded down to a misdemeanor in 2003, Yoxall said, it allowed him to petition the judge to reinstate his gun rights. They were granted, and Yoxall has carried his firearm ever since.
“God chose to put me in that place at that particular moment,” Yoxall said of the roadside encounter that saved Andersson. “I just can’t see an evil like that perpetuated without intervening.”
A lifelong bond
With Andersson’s arm in a sling, he still finds a way to embrace Yoxall each time they meet. In the weeks that followed the shooting, the pair have met a handful of times, forging what they say is “always going to be a bond.”
“And not just between me and him,” Andersson said. “But between my family and him, too.”
Trooper Ed Andersson, left, and Thomas Yoxall. CNN
Col. Frank Milstead, director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said the incident shows what can happen when citizens and law enforcement work together.
“Thomas didn’t help Ed out based on whose side he was on. He did it because it was a gut instinct that told him he needed to get involved,” Milstead said. “It’s beautiful, it’s pure.”
Andersson recognizes that lives were lost that day (the female passenger in the overturned vehicle also died), but he hopes people won’t judge Yoxall for pulling the trigger.
“I hope people understand that he had to do what he had to do to save somebody else’s life,” Andersson said. “Getting involved isn’t a bad thing, even if it’s just stopping to call 911.”
Yoxall said he has no regrets, but admits it’s “hard to relive sometimes.”
“No member of our law enforcement should have to be in that situation of fear and being alone with nobody responding,” he said.
In this case, Andersson wasn’t alone for long. The encounter lasted only minutes, but Yoxall’s actions will be felt for life.
“I get to see my grand kids grow up, my daughters get married eventually,” Andersson said. “He did a fabulous thing.”
Video: Suspect fights and pulls gun on Dallas officers during arrest struggle
Bodycam video shows burglary suspect fighting with two officers before pulling out a handgun
DALLAS — The Dallas Police Department released body-camera footage Wednesday of a shooting that left a suspect in critical but stable condition Sunday night.
At about 7 p.m. Sunday, Senior Cpl. Matthew McLain and Officer Kimberley Esquivel were patrolling the 1900 block of Bennett Avenue when they found Hernanl Gutierrez, 35, in the back parking lot of an apartment building, police said at a news conference Wednesday. Gutierrez was “known to them with prior criminal mischief and burglary of motor vehicle offenses,” police said.
The bodycam video released by police shows McLain entering an apartment complex and walking out to the back of the building at 7:04 p.m.
McLain is heard in the video asking if Gutierrez was breaking into a vehicle and ordering him to put his hands up.
McLain called for backup, according to Chief of Police Eddie Garcia.
Police said that Gutierrez was uncooperative, and the video shows a struggle ensued. He was ordered to get on the ground, and McLain used his Taser, but it was not effective, according to police.
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The footage shows Gutierrez continuing to fight with officers at 7:05 p.m. and pulling a handgun from his jacket pocket. Gutierrez fired one round at the officers.
Esquivel fired her department-issued handgun one time, shooting Gutierrez in the torso, after Gutierrez shot at at officers, police said.
Gutierrez fell on top of his weapon, and he was arrested by McLain and Esquivel.
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Esquivel is heard repeatedly saying, “I’m sorry,”while arresting Gutierrez. Another unidentified officer is seen in the video assisting Esquivel and McLain with arresting Gutierrez.
Dallas Fire-Rescue responded to the scene and took Gutierrez to a hospital, where he remains in critical condition.
Gutierrez’s weapon was recovered at the scene with 15 rounds remaining in the pistol, police said.
He is being charged with aggravated assault on a public servant and more charges are possible, police announced.
No officers or anyone else at the scene were injured.
“This is never our intended outcome and I’m grateful that none of our officers or any other civilians were injured,” Garcia said.
The preliminary investigation revealed Gutierrez had a key for a stolen vehicle located in the parking lot where the shooting occurred, police said.
Police seized a backpack from Gutierrez that contained “large amounts” of power cocaine, black tar heroin, methamphetamine, pills, and a large amount of cash, according to Garcia.
The Dallas Police Special Investigations Unit is investigating the shooting. The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office is conducting an independent investigation.
Gutierrez was on federal probation on charges of felon in possession of a firearm and possession of a controlled substance, police said. Police believe Gutierrez cut off his ankle monitor in August.
“Ankle monitors do not work for these individuals,” Garcia said. “Not only did my officers almost lose their lives, but God knows how many other lives he’s affected since the time he’s been out.”
Gutierrez also had an active warrant on a weapons charge. He has a criminal history of DWI, drug charges and two kidnapping convictions, police said.
“As I said before about the police department, we do all we can to prepare as we can for possible scenarios and calls to prepare our officers but also for the safety of the people we protect,” Garcia said. “Of course, each response is different. Each call is different. Each arrest is different and in this case, when things unfold rapidly, our decisions must match the speed of that threat.”
“The decision Officer Esquivel made in the face of evil saved lives on Sunday,” Garcia said. “She saved the life of her partner, her own, and protected those we swore to serve.”
