By Mara H. Gottfried
Pioneer Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul police released body-camera footage Friday that shows an officer shooting through a squad’s windshield at a homicide suspect who allegedly pointed a gun at officers.
Officers received an anonymous report just after 1 p.m. last Saturday that Mychel Stowers was on a bicycle at a laundromat in the 1100 block of West Seventh Street, according to police. A warrant had been issued for Stowers’ arrest when prosecutors charged him Oct. 24 with the murder of his pregnant wife, Damara Alexis Kirkland.
The video can be seen on the St. Paul Police Department’s YouTube page.
“We are committed to the sanctity of the independent investigation; we are also committed to the transparency of our actions,” Police Chief Axel Henry said in a Friday statement. “That’s why we are releasing the body-worn camera and in-car camera footage from this incident. No one wants apprehensions to result in the use of force of any kind. Not using force is always our goal — and is the outcome of the majority of our officers’ interactions.”
Officers were monitoring the business to determine if Stowers was inside when the same person called again and reported that the man on a bike “in front of the business was in fact Stowers,” according to a statement from police. “Officers established a perimeter in (an) attempt to contain Stowers from fleeing the area and set a plan to arrest him.”
The man rode the bike south on Bay Street to Watson Avenue about 1:45 p.m. “where uniformed officers in marked squad cars closed in on him,” police said.
“Before officers could confirm his identity, the man, now identified as Stowers, produced a handgun and pointed it at the officers,” according to a statement earlier this week from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is investigating.
Officers Matthew Foy fired a handgun and Officer Eric Jaworski a rifle, the BCA said. Stowers, 36, died of multiple gunshot wounds a short time later at Regions Hospital.
The video excerpts released Friday total just over 1 minute and 20 seconds from the two officers’ body cameras and from squad camera footage. They show Foy was driving and Jaworski fired through the windshield from the passenger seat.
In watching the squad video at a slower speed, Stowers can be seen on the bicycle and he appears to face toward the squad as he holds something in his hand as the squad approaches. The police department included still frames from the squad camera and circled an object that Stowers was holding.
The BCA said they found a handgun at the location where the officers shot Stowers.
When the BCA investigation is complete, the agency said it will present its findings to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office for review on the legality of the officers’ actions.
Stowers was charged in the fatal shooting of Kirkland, 35, in her apartment in St. Paul’s North End on Oct. 19. An autopsy found she was eight to nine weeks pregnant, and one of the murder charges was for the death of her unborn child. Stowers was also charged with shooting a man in the leg as he carjacked him and fled the area.
Stowers was released from prison in March in the 2008 killing of a man in St. Paul. He was on work release, and the Minnesota Department of Corrections said he was under supervision by their agency and a halfway house.
The police shooting of Stowers was the third by St. Paul officers since Sept. 26. All three have involved homicide suspects who were allegedly armed with guns when police encountered them.
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