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Video shows Calif. deputy shoot suspect who climbed into cop car

Moments earlier, the officer tried to stop the suspect by using a TASER on him

By Nate Gartrell
The Mercury News

SANTA ROSA, Calif. — The Sonoma County Sheriff’s office released officer body camera footage Wednesday, showing a deputy shooting several times into his own patrol car, after a robbery suspect hopped inside.

The deputy, David Edney, fired six times into the driver’s side of his car, after 42-year-old Brad Baymon, of Minnesota, climbed into the car and closed the door. Moments earlier, Edney tried to stop Baymon by using a Taser on him, and in the process allowed the suspect to get in between Edney and the police vehicle.

“I left (the car) exposed like an idiot, and he jumped right in,” Edney later told a responding Santa Rosa officer, a conversation also caught on the video. He told the officer that when he attempted to force Baymon out of the car, Baymon appeared to reach for a knife.

“So I backed up, closed it, and he was trying to put it in drive and I just shot him, I was like, ‘He’s not taking my fucking car,’” Edney told the officer, later adding, “I’ve got my gun in there, my rifle.”

Edney was attempting to contact Baymon, who’d been identified as the person who’d attempted to stab an employee while stealing a pair of shoes from a store at the Santa Rosa Plaza Mall. In the video, Edney approaches Baymon, who was walking down a sidewalk on Morgan Street. Baymon ignores the deputy’s calls to stop, and continues to walk.

That’s when Edney warns Baymon that he’s going to use a Taser on him. When the Taser fails to have any effect, Edney runs in front of the direction Baymon was walking. Baymon responds by turning around and headed toward the deputy’s car, with the front door wide open.

At that point, there was little Edney could do to stop him from getting inside.

In the ensuing fracas, Edney attempts to pull Baymon from the car, but Baymon shoves him away and closes the door. That’s when Edney steps back, near the sidewalk, and shoots into the driver’s side door. The window is shattered, and Edney calls onto his radio that shots were fired.

After the shooting, Edney yelled “Don’t move” and “Let me see your hands” to Baymon several times. Within seconds, several more patrol cars arrive on the scene and Baymon was treated for his injuries, and survived, authorities said. He was charged with robbery, carjacking, assault with a deadly weapon, and possessing a concealed knife.

Sonoma officials said Edney has been a deputy for nearly five years, and before that worked for another Bay Area police department for several years. He was placed on administrative leave following the shooting.

©2019 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)

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