Jurors view tape of suspect shooting at Tenn. officer

Officer Andrew Olson had ducked behind his open cruiser door

By Jim Balloch
Knoxville News-Sentinel

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Knox County Criminal Court jury on Monday saw the moving image of a cop's worst nightmare coming true: a charging suspect firing a 12-gauge pump shotgun.

The view came during the first day of Cameron Cook's second trial on charges of attempting to kill Knoxville Police Department Officer Andrew Olson, whose undisputed assault by Cook was caught on the police cruiser's videocamera.

The date was Feb. 26, 2011, and Cook, then 18, was driving a stolen Volkswagen Jetta that Olson had stopped on Washington Pike near Alice Bell Road.

The tape shows Cook emerge from the Jetta, move forward and fire the shotgun. A second shot, and Cook's admitted attempt to fire a third time, were not caught on tape. Cook fled on foot and was arrested later that day.

Olson had ducked behind his open cruiser door for cover. According to evidence and testimony offered Monday, the first shot was a load of small pellets used in bird hunting. The second shot — a solid 1-ounce slug of lead used in deer hunting — smashed into Olson's leg.

Olson survived, but has had multiple surgeries and still walks with the aid of crutches.

Last month, a jury convicted Cook of several charges, but deadlocked on the most serious one — attempted first-degree murder. A majority favored conviction, according to one juror.

Cook and his attorney, Phil Lomonaco, said then and say now that Cook was firing not to kill the officer but to facilitate Cook's attempt to flee. Prosecutor TaKisha Fitzgerald told the jury in her opening statement Monday that when investigators asked Cook why he fired at Olson, Cook's reply was: "Because the (expletive) was trying to get me." In his first trial, Cook admitted that he had pumped the shotgun a third time and tried to fire a third shot. "Luckily, there was no more ammunition," Fitzgerald said Monday.

Lomonaco said Cook had ample opportunity to murder Olson if he wanted to, but was not aiming the gun directly at him. He suggested that had Cook wanted to, he could have gotten closer to the officer and killed him.

"He was shooting down the road," Lomonaco said. "The shot (that hit Olson) was an unlucky shot (for Cook), not a lucky one."

The trial continues today.

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