COMPLETE NEWS BRIEFING: Attorney General Exonerates Fargo Officer in Fatal Shooting Incident

FARGO, ND (trfnews.i234.me) The North Dakota Attorney General has cleared a Fargo Police Officer of any wrong doing in a deadly officer-involved-shooting.
foreign you good afternoon everyone thanks for joining us here on relatively short notice i want to make some a quick introduction uh deputy attorney general of the state of north dakota claire ness is with us on my far left you all know obviously the chief um chief zabulski thanks for allowing us to utilize your space here at the fargo police department i am i’m going to run through a quick synopsis of this matter for context of the discussion and then i’m going to announce a decision that i’ve rendered in this matter uh dating back to july 8th of this summer um and i’ll begin there with the synopsis it was july 8th of the summer 2022 809 a.m regional regional dispatch received a call from the public and uh in response to that uh officers were directed to 3401 15th avenue south here in fargo the call uh in again i’m summarizing this the call came in uh involving three alleging that there are three individuals in a vehicle out there a minivan possibly deceased uh in an apartment garage number 305 at that address they also were informed that there was a possible bullet hole in the windshield of the vehicle officer adam o’brien a little over a 10-year veteran of the of the police department he’s also got eight years of military police work with the north dakota national guard he responded from the west acre station and when he got to the scene other officers officer dirk fiedemann and police officer tyler poole the three of them located the vehicle number in garage number 305 they observed immediately what appeared to them to be and did in the fullness of time turn out to be a bullet hole in that in that windshield so they’re getting the call of possibility of three deceased individuals in a minivan at this location they got out there they find three individuals who at first they couldn’t didn’t appear to be any movement in the vehicle but very quickly the officers did observe that there was a movement in that vehicle after they observed the bullet hole in the front windshield by the way it’s a 2008 kia sedona and the vehicle was backed into that garage facing out at the time they the officers all observed movement in the vehicle and they had no way that they could possibly know whether the occupants had been shot whether there were firearms in the vehicle whether there are other weapons in the vehicle the officers drew their weapons and quickly demanded that the occupants not move and that they show their hands we’ll be showing you the videotape of this in a little bit ago in a little bit and that’ll become apparent uh that is a matter of record with the police officer statements it is a matter of record from the other two occupants in this vehicle acknowledge hearing the direct commands of the officer repeated commands of the officers and that the driver of the vehicle shane nederville was not complying with those officers directives they repeatedly as i said directed that the individuals in the vehicle show their hands it was loud it was clear and it was enunciated multiple times cody dunn was one of the other passengers in the vehicle with shane nutterville he confirmed that those he heard those commands and that nederville was not complying with the officer’s demands he kept moving his hands up and down out of view of the officers derek stanley gave a similar account when he was questioned by police about nutterville’s hands movement starting going up and down while he was sitting inside the vehicle both of the other occupants in the vehicle were imploring nederville to comply with the demands of the officer including that he that he not start the vehicle but nederfield did not comply with the lawful orders of the officer his hands kept going in and out of view at some point shane ederville started the ignition his his hands went down he started the ignition uh in the automobile and was directed to turn the vehicle up don’t start the vehicle he was instructed he at some point his hands go down again out of view again out of view and the vehicle was turned off the situation continued but escalated again when nederville’s hands went down again he starts the vehicle a second time is a possibility that happened three times but it happened at least two times during this time officers did not have a good view could not gain a good view of the person seated in the back seat of this vehicle so keep in mind again that they’ve responded to the scene of what is possibly a three-person homicide now they know there’s at least some movement in the vehicle they see what they believe to be in which was in fact a bullet hole they didn’t know if it was coming out of the vehicle or going in and you’ve got people inside the van and one person in the back seat who they can’t very get very good eyes on and see all of his movements and the driver of the vehicle is not complying with their lawful commands at some point officer o’brien who had been the first on the scene and had first made contact he moved across the front of the vehicle and was standing off to the passenger side the situation continued and his commands were continued continued to be ignored at some point nederville now the vehicle is running shane ederville started to move the vehicle forward he paused momentarily and then accelerated forcefully and rapidly in the direction of police officer o’brien officer o’brien was forced by that move to step back rapidly away from the vehicle in hopes of avoiding being run down by the vehicle that was being operated by shane nederville this was confirmed by other officers on the scene it was also confirmed by civilian eyewitnesses with no stake in this matter whatsoever but to relay to officers later what they had seen the first individual is a former military initials ec these are quotes from what he told the police of what he was able to observe out there in broad daylight that day the van must have had some power because he shot out of that garage like a bullet leaving a gun if that officer had not jumped out of the way he would have been done he would have been a done deal a woman who works in the area initials n k was being questioned by uh later by investigators about what she observed she said and i quote yep i know that he was about to kill him he was about to kill him he was coming to hit him at one point officers asked him again is that what you think was going to happen she said there’s no thinking about it she said she was clear from everything she observed that the driver was going after that officer additional additional additionally rather to that taking place i told you about the first instance officer o’brien on this side of the vehicle is the vehicle is coming toward him officer poole and officer theedemann were on the other side on the driver’s side of the vehicle in this flurry of activity officer theedemann had gone to open up the the driver’s side door and was going to pull um nederville out of the vehicle that door was open then as as shane nederville sped forward with the vehicle toward officer o’brien the door came back and poole had to extract himself from the situation or been hit by the door at the very same time officer o’brien fired one round from his service weapon he was carrying a 40 caliber glock handgun that day at the time at the time that he discharged his weapon he reasonably feared for his lives his life he reasonably feared for the lives of the other officers the fear was twofold obviously that they’d be struck by the vehicle that they’d be killed by the vehicle or seriously injured the single round the single 40 caliber round that was fired struck shane nederville on the right side of his chest entered his body and did not exit the vehicle driven by nederville continued up a short way some couple hundred feet up the driveway down the way crossed over 15th avenue south and crashed derek stanley cody dunn his friends who were in the vehicle with him during this incident fled on foot they were later questioned by police and gave statements some of which i’ve referenced already shane ederville was still in the driver’s seat when officers approach approached the crash vehicle nederville was in obvious distress as officer o’brien began emergency medical care he went instantly from avoiding trying to avoid this individual driving adam with this vehicle to providing medical care at the scene of the crash up the way he once he made sure that uh there that uh he was not in any danger from from shane nederville at that point he removed shane nederville placed him on the ground and immediately applied pressure to the entry wound from the gun shot he and officer tiedman administered first aid while waiting for the emergency personnel to arrive which they did that was the fm ambulance nederfield was transported to stanford medical center he was treated by medical professionals there eventually expired from his injuries time of death at 12 45 p.m a short time ago deputy attorney general ness chief zabolsky and i over the fargo police department um uh this assistant chief travis stefanowitz was also there a couple of other law enforcement personnel we met with adam officer adam o’brien to discuss the decision that i made in this matter we met down in city hall with relatives of shane nederville for a short while and shared with them the video which we’ll be sharing publicly during this conference and this afternoon let me talk to you about my decision in this matter forgive me if there’s a little bit of repetition in here fargo police officer adam o’brien he’s been a police officer as i said for over 10 years he has approximately eight years of experience as a military policeman he is an experienced peace officer on the morning of july 8 2022 officer o’brien was at the scene just minutes after dispatch relayed a report of a possible multiple homicide officer o’brien and his fellow officers officer tiedman and poole quickly located the minivan described in the call saw what appeared to be the bullet hole which heightened their concern the vehicle was backed in facing out the officers had no way to know whether the apparent bullet hole was an entry or an exit hole they had no way to initially know whether the occupants were alive or dead whether they were armed and whether they meant any harm to the police officers it eventually became clear that the three occupants in the vehicle were alive but the occupant in the back seat was not easily visible to law enforcement in total the situation presented a highly dangerous circumstance for officers and anyone in law enforcement shane nederville was in the driver’s seat of the vehicle and he was not complying with the lawful commands of fargo police including that he show his hands nederville repeatedly moved his hands up into view and then back down out of view in fact corroborated by the other occupants in the vehicle shane nederville’s friends who were with him that day shane nederville started the engine of the vehicle then turned it off he restarted the vehicle despite the orders of the officer and the pleas of the occupants inside the vehicle with him cody dunn and derek stanley i want to pause and mention there’s no law in this country no reasonable prosecutor would expect that law enforcement has to wait for the answer when someone is not complying and you’re in a volatile situation like this and your information involves possible homicides and guns and bullet holes and everything else when someone is not complying their hands are going out of view reaching down and coming up they’re not required under the law to wait and see what comes up from underneath that non-compliance whether there’s a firearm or other weapon or something else coming out of there but repeatedly in this instance fargo police showed restraint time and again during this incident as shane nederville was elevating and escalating the conduct officers showed restraint again and again it was nederville’s actions that elevated a tense situation into an increasingly dangerous highly charged standoff with law enforcement nederville escalated matters even further when he in essence transformed his vehicle into a weapon nederville rapidly accelerated from the garage in the direction of officers in an abrupt and a threatening matter forcing officers to make a split-second life preserving decisions for themselves for the officers around them and for the public a thorough and comprehensive evaluation of the facts in this case and the circumstances in this incident established that fargo police conducted themselves professionally bravely and within the constructs of the law i want to reiterate that our investigation establishes that officer o’brien and officers tiedman and poole gave multiple law enforce lawful orders that that were necessary under the circumstances to ensure officer and public safety shane nederville did not comply and the danger to the officers was elevated the officers instructed nederville not to start the vehicle he repeatedly ignored those instructions just as he ignored the pleas of his friends in the vehicle to do the same by starting that engine shane nederville had in essence transformed transformed the vehicle from a tool of obstruction to a weapon of potential destruction presenting a clear and present danger to the officers and to the public still shane ederville refused to relent and moments later he stepped on the vehicle’s accelerator he sped the vehicle menacingly in the direction of officer adam o’brien and officer adam o’brien made a split-second decision to protect life and limb that was a reasonable and appropriate decision under these circumstances no officer wants to be put in that position yet every officer knows that they could very well end up in such a spot each and every day i commend the investigative work of the north dakota bci under the leadership of our director lonnie gabrowska who conducted a very thorough very searching investigation of the entirety of this matter i also commend the professionalism and the cooperation of the fargo police department and its members under the leadership of fargo’s chief of police dave zavolsky chief thank you the deputy attorney general and i along with the prosecutors other prosecutors in the attorney general’s office have fully considered all relevant facts and circumstances surrounding this incident our thorough investigative review has established the following that officer o’brien’s actions in this matter were justified his actions were in these circumstances reasonable and under the law of north dakota police officer adam o’brien brian’s use of deadly force was lawful at this point we’ll take your questions in a little bit we’re going to at this point show you some videos i know the chief has some comments that he wants to share with you as well and then we’ll be glad to take your questions after the conclusion of those remarks thank you sir we ready with video okay so we’re going to show you four video clips uh this is the bulk basically of the video from this particular scene these will be made available to you as well on our website after i’ll talk about that in a little bit the first video you’re going to see is the squad cam video from officer o’brien is he’s approaching the garage in question and he’s going to park his vehicle a couple of garage doors down and exit and start walking up to the scene you’ll see him signal at some point and draw his weapon that’s where he’s you can see in the video the bullet hole in the windshield of the vehicle and he’s making some observations in the vehicle as the other officers are coming up behind him so this video from the squad cam won’t have audio with it per se you’ll see the incident as it unfolds in real time and then we’ll walk through the body more camera videos where you’ll have audio you can hear the commands that we’re given and you’ll be able to see the actions of the occupants as that unfolds please foreign locations um let’s do that [Music] okay so that’s kind of looking down the alley the next video is officer o’brien’s body camera video as he’s approaching you’ll be able to hear more activity here and see a little more closest to what happened [Music] you can see the bullet hole in the windshield there at this put your hands up [Music] i’m not gonna tell you again put your hands in the air put your hands in here all the way out do not turn open the door right now 323 shots fired shots fired [Music] put your hands up now put your hands up put your hands up three times we got one meal in the vehicle still we see around so from there they removed mr nederville from the vehicle and give him immediate first aid while ems as you heard is already in route we did not put the footage of them carrying them from the vehicle without all the respect for the family but certainly that’s on the video as well the next video is officer poole’s body worn video which is the third officer that comes up he’s the one that actually gets struck by the door as that van exits and goes in the trajectory towards officer put o’brien hands in the air oh turn it off is so after the van crashes as you may recall the two other occupants fled on foot and then this last bodywork camera is officer tiedeman who was immediately adjacent to the uh the other edge of the garage [Music] that’s the uh main components of the video from this particular incident and i should have a couple of comments to make as well on july 8th our community suffered the loss of a life as a result of lawful police intervention while attempting to detain and investigate suspicious circumstances reported to our department by a member of our community this was a call that the officers received from a concerned community member who thought they had people who either were deceased with a bullet hole and a windshield of a vehicle parked in an abandoned garage in a very suspicious fashion as you may recall that vehicle was also found to be stolen 28 year old shane nederville was shot and subsequently died during this incident as a department and city we mourn this loss and offer our sincere condolences to the netherville family likewise as a department in city we acknowledge the trauma inflicted on our officer who was placed in the untenable position of having to use deadly force to protect himself and the community we serve while his actions were legally justified and necessary he will carry the incident and trauma with him forever this not only affects the officer involved officer o’brien but other department and law enforcement members who are at the scene as well as the family and community everyone involved in this incident has been affected by this tragedy i would like to personally thank our community for the support and trust they place with our department on a daily basis but most importantly during this most tumultuous time additionally i’m grateful for the support and thoughtful input provided by our elected and appointed officials following the decision today by attorney general drew wrigley that you heard just uh before this the department will complete our administrative review of the use of force utilizing the criminal investigative file compiled by the north dakota bureau of criminal investigation as well as our internal review process the vehicle mr nedev nederville i’m sorry was driving was reported stolen at the time of this incident the other occupants are connected to other criminal conduct that will be referred to the cass county state’s attorney office those investigations are still active and upon completion our department will report out on those to provide you an overview of the process in the timeline as previously explained subsequent to the officer involved shooting on july 8th the north dakota bureau of criminal investigation took over the investigation pursuant to department policy the bci responded expeditiously to the scene spent significant time investigating this incident to ensure a thorough and complete investigation was conducted and that all evidence was tested and evaluated we thank them for their efforts and commitment in this investigation on july 11th i provided an update to our city commission and on july 14th at the police advisory and oversight board meeting i provided an update and informed our community stakeholders of the investigative process verbally and via powerpoint as well as addressed policy and general questions from the board my personal thanks to those individuals for their partnership objectivity and restraint and well aware that their willingness to understand the process along with their responsible messaging is a key piece in alleviating initial community concern on august 8th 30 days after the incident the attorney general received the bulk of the investigative files from bci and began his review and today august 29th 51 days after the incident he issued his decision finding that officer o’brien’s use of force was lawful and reasonable and that he acted in self-defense within statutory authorities as a law enforcement officer reviews of this nature place a great burden on our prosecutors as well we appreciated his thorough and thoughtful review of this manner and i want to thank him for all the attention he gave this subsequent to that decision i would anticipate officer bryan will be placed back on full duty on or about september 7th of this year the department will now complete an administrative review of the incident looking again for training or substantive substantive policy issues related to the use of force and address them accordingly this review will be presented to our advisory and oversight board at its regularly scheduled meeting on september 8th at 5 pm that’s next thursday at 5 pm at city hall further in order to meet our commitment of transparency and better educate our public about this incident the department will provide an in-depth analysis of the incident utilizing the context of the officer’s observations and statements in concert with the same video clips that were just presented to you today as video alone does not always show the many perspectives and proximity that are involved in a deadly forced decision certainly this is a dynamic situation and a video on its own does not tell you everything that the officer perceived saw felt what was behind them what they could and could not do and that’s the benefit of that context so we’ll go over that in greater detail at the advisory board meeting officer-involved shootings while they rightly receive enhanced scrutiny and community concern are not commonplace especially here in fargo while our department and our region did have a busy july in terms of these events it’s important to note that our officers successfully resolve conflicts with little or no force required on a daily basis oftentimes placing themselves in jeopardy while doing so such as last weekend’s incident at the northside hotel where multiple shots were fired and we were able to successfully put that person in custody without deadly force in 2021 our department responded to nearly 54 000 calls for service use of force was needed to effectuate arrest 61 times that’s 0.11 percent that’s less than half a percentage point of all of those calls and the vast majority of those 50 of them involve mere physical restraint versus the use of other weapons additional use of force data is available for public consumption on our department website and a presentation on this was also given to our advisory oversight board a couple weeks ago our officers are committed to the values of our organization most especially respect for the publicly the public and sanctity of life they do tremendous work and pray and put great effort towards de-escalating violent encounters many of which could otherwise result in deadly force situations but due to their professionalism and restraint are resolved without loss of life or injury as the attorney general said we did see a lot of restraint in this particular situation until all those options were eliminated you don’t hear about those situations every day the almost or could have incidents that these officers successfully resolve but they happen on a routine basis our officers recognize how important it is to sustain community support as well as the adage that the safety of the officers and the safety of the community are inextricably connected we keep each other safe and we’re equally responsible for public safety here in fargo as our internal review completes we ask for that same level of support and understanding the video clips shown today will be made available on our website they are clips of the long portions of the video in the coming weeks our staff will work through the voluminous bci report to redact that once our internal review is done and from that point make it available to the public at no cost so that if somebody wants to read the investigation with redactions in it we’ll make that available as part of our continued effort to educate and inform the public i again encourage community members to attend our next advisory and oversight board so that we can prevent future tragedies from occurring these things there was an opportunity here for mr nederval to submit to arrest and put a safe resolution on this unfortunately that didn’t happen and and you know again we our sincere condolences to the family but our officers also have to protect themselves as well in closing please keep the nederville family and our department members in your thoughts and prayers we’ll keep our community updated as we progress i think we’d be willing to take any questions thank you i guess this is for the chief ashley is also ryan is he does he feel like he’s starting to go back given all the trauma he’s been through uh yeah we have a pretty robust psychological fit or not fitness for duty but service in place and uh yeah officer o’brien is appears to be ready to go back other than mr nederville complying with the officers could this have ended any other way i mean when you say other than uh complying i mean i’m not sure what else drove these circumstances the escalating non-compliance uh as it went along had he complied i think it’s very obvious when you look at the restraint shown by these officers the law doesn’t require those officers to wait and see what he comes up with and he came up several times with his hands away from out of view in the interview the law doesn’t require that they wait through that but they did i would say at some risk to themselves they did had he compliant it’s very obvious to me sizing up the whole circumstances this would have ended peacefully he he and the others that the officers would have continued on with their investigation of the circumstances the individuals would have been taken out of the vehicle the contents um inventoried uh everybody would have gone home safe i think that’s uh that’s the crystal clear take away from this compliance with those officers at any one of those steps would have immediately de-escalated the circumstances but instead there was the opposite shane nederville continued to escalate beyond i said at one point when the car went from just obstructing officers views to now being turned on now it’s prepared to be dangerous and then he exercised the act that made that vehicle in fact into a deadly weapon made it the most dangerous dangerous it could possibly be careening out of the out of the garage and in the direction of officers do you think officers did everything they could to deal with the situation or was there something else i can’t think i can’t think of a thing with everything known to the officers when they came upon that scene and what they encountered the complete non-compliance from the minute they got there with i can’t even imagine what they what they could have done differently without uh just saying you know just walk away from the scene of what they don’t even know is there been a homicide of these people been shot did they shoot somebody what’s going on and now they’ve got the one person refusing to stop reaching down below the seat and or the the dash and around the area of the the steering column and back up not sure what they yeah matt you’ve been doing this long enough you know there’s going to be people who say why not let the car just drive away what’s your response why have police officers at all they responded to the scene of what had been called in as a potential three homicide victims in a vehicle with a gunshot in the in the front windshield law enforcement could walk away from everything they could walk away from from cars speeding through their community they could walk away from drug dealers they could walk away from rapists they could walk away from homicides they could walk away from arsonists this is no different this is a very serious law enforcement contact uh with the public in a matter of heightened scrutiny because you you’re just being called in as a homicide and you find three individuals sitting in a car exactly where you’re told they were going to be with what appears to be and which in fact was a bullet hole in the windshield and now they’re rooting around in there you can’t even see the one in the back seat very well so what you’re what you’re describing is could walk could the officers have walked away from it sure and as far as they know uh someone who’s committed a homicide or someone else in the car has been shot at river just like go off into the community they are sworn to the opposite to protect and to serve they’re sworn to do exactly the opposite to engage on behalf of the public to protect the safety and sanctity of our communities they i said it the officers actions were fully justified they were reasonable under these circumstances i would add to this very professional and they were lawful i told the chief i told the mayor not just saying this uh to be a nice guy i’m sure that they are and they should be proud of the professionalism that was displayed these three officers were working in concert with one another it was professionally carried out uh in an attempt to make this come to a to a peaceful close but the actions of shane ederville led to the opposite result there was no other there was no other avenue short of just walking away from uh what they reasonably believed to be a potentially very uh troubling circumstance of gunfire or potential homicides they just they knew what they they knew what they’d been informed of and everything they found when they got there complied with the reports that they had and then they add to that someone in the driver’s seat escalating the conflict do you know where that bullet hole came from uh the other two individuals in the in in giving the reports the other two individuals who in the car with mr nedeville um seemed to indicate that uh yeah it was they were aware of how it happened there was a dispute with someone unrelated uh on another time that that uh as i recall from the police reports may or may not have invite involved the woman none of which is known to the officers when they show up there they just know there’s a bullet hole in a vehicle and you have three individuals in there they’re moving around uh at some degree i don’t know if someone’s been shot if uh they’re gonna be you know shooting at the officers they had no way no way to know those things and then it gets escalated again as i said by shane nederville refusing to keep his hands in plain view pretty much conduct 101 that any of us would understand when encountering law enforcement to not conduct yourself in a way that is going to be reasonably as it was in this instance reasonably uh taken as hostile and potentially highly dangerous for the officers has there been any testimony from the other two in the vehicle of why mr nederfield decided to drive the vehicle at officers yeah i i don’t know that it it you know they would have the capacity to to read his mind but i’ll tell you this they stressed very much that they were they were imploring him to comply with the officers the the one uh seated in the back seat uh gave the statement about having his hands up but it’s almost like he knew i mean he knew it was escalating dramatically and his head down and his hands up the whole time they were trying to get shane to comply they were trying to get him not to start the vehicle so he never didn’t say anything according to the people in the vehicle about why he was yeah i don’t i don’t have any information about uh you know what his thought process was or that he was communicating it to his friends in the car but he was certain uh certainly showing something with his display of what was going on bailey toxicology were there any toxicology reports that indicate that these men were drugs before this all went down gonna i’m gonna refrain from that as the chief said there’s some other matters pending there’s some other information pertaining to it but yeah the full toxicology uh uh reports are back and and uh on nederville on mr nederville and um i i just shouldn’t go beyond that but there was there was some information in there that that could have impact yes sir how did the family react when you told the netherville family about your decision not to press charges well i want to thank the chief for that opportunity also setting that up to uh to talk with them because as as the chief said you know we have empathy for them as well they lost their loved one and in a difficult way so they uh their reaction was as as would expect this is this is difficult to see uh see the video and uh i went through and explained a bit what they were going to see to try to assist in them being prepared to the extent that anybody can be prepared to see that explain a bit of the officers but understandably that’s that’s a difficult moment you said there was a meeting uh with the mayor and the chief of the netherville family were you all was this one big meeting or were these kind of separate no and also the deputy attorney general ness was in there and i think another officer travis was in there with us um and we just had one meeting with with the family um and uh you know that was extended as a as uh as a courtesy knowing that these videos are going to be out and just give them an opportunity to see them and then share that with other family members i guess and those who know mr nederville or people interested in the circumstances and so that’s why i mean it’s not part of a required protocol or anything um but i think it was uh it was the right uh right protocol to follow in this instance and and we met uh met with them for that purpose uh following meeting with officer o’brien to let him know what my decision had been with regard to the incident and he and i had not met before but we had a good opportunity to have a brief conversation in the chief’s office too he was not no no um is there any services that the state or the city is able to offer the vanderbilt family because of this chief there is a victim witness program that’s available through the state of north dakota that information was provided to the family shortly after the incident itself and if i could also just clarify one question that matt had about the walking away piece i mean officer ryan wasn’t really in a position to walk away he was about to be run over and he objectively reasonably believed that that’s why he used deadly force the other two officers did not fire and after that shot and he was able to get out of the way no other shots were fired at vehicles again i think that demonstrates the restraint of the officers and their professionalism under a very stressful situation they had every reason to believe that there were armed individuals in this vehicle both from the information from the citizen their observations of the windshield and the lack of compliance and and changing demeanor of the occupants and certainly mr nederville as the driver so i think from a reasonable officer perspective uh most certainly they should have been concerned and i think they did everything they could to safely try and resolve that situation but when we’re in a position where we think the other person might be armed and they are not compliant the escalation options are very limited and we have to make sure that we are safe as well there were not but remember that two people fled the vehicle before we got there and no one has seen that any of them we don’t know that they did not see that but we don’t know what was in the car before we got there between point a and point b um did any of the men in the vehicle have any active warrants the day of this incident um see cody was placed in custody mr um stanley i believe did yes the third occupant that later came in to be interviewed by bci i don’t know don’t have that information i know that there are no guns found in the vehicle but where officers can say the vehicle itself a weapon i think that when we go over this next week that’s exactly what you’ll see in context with officer o’brien’s statements is that if you look in the video you can see that that front right wheel of the van is turning directly towards him and in a split second he’s got you know he’s worried he’s going to get run over and he has to make a deadly forced decision and so you know we will step through this piece by piece there’s well it’s seconds of video there are many decision points and pieces of information that occur in that video that with the context of the interviews and the observations not only of the officers but the citizens it puts it in a in a much i think more obvious perspective in terms of what the legitimate concerns were and what was happening yes uh i noticed there was an arrest warrant for mr stanley now bci had custody he said why he was released and what’s being done to look for mr stanley now i think that’s a bci question i would preface it by saying that i think everyone would agree that allowing mr stanley to be interviewed in this matter was much more important than his outstanding warrant and i’m certain that bci made arrangements to handle that but you would have to ask them in specifics yeah we you we can get a more specific answer chief’s right that’s that’s the question i’ll i’ll talk with the bci and we’re on the way back to bismarck today we get an answer for you and call you on that whose garage was that was it were they just which one yeah no it was no one had it right yeah we didn’t it it wasn’t a rented out unit but the garage door was uh not in place and uh they just backed into it were they sleeping in there i don’t know what they’re doing leading up to it there are some statements from the some of the other occupants that they had been sleeping in there overnight and then uh when officers got on the scene pretty rapidly they started moving around in there but uh you know that’s just i think you know based on the statements of some of the others in the vehicle and i mean that’s i think but the public the members of the public remember someone called this in as possibly three people deceased i mean they probably didn’t go over too close they see a vehicle in there maybe they knew that nobody was renting this vehicle or this uh this location and then they see what they believed to be and which was a bullet hole um in the windshield they became alarmed those uh you don’t always have statements from the public but the statements from the public in this instance uh one military one other individual both eyewitnesses both with no involvement in the matter knowing any of the parties involved assessed what they what they observed and uh you know that that uh that’s an important overlay in this as so we talk about well stolen vehicle are we suggesting that mr nedervale or one of the other two men stole it or could you maybe elaborate on details we will cover that in detail at the advisory board meeting and then i guess one final question there has been criticism that officer o’brien shot mr nanoville because of race um what would you say to those criticisms there’s uh i would say this there’s there is zero evidence that this incident was driven by anything other than the circumstances encountered by those officers the circumstances as i described and which are uncontroverted by the officers involved by the videotape by the eyewitnesses the civilian eyewitnesses in this matter is uncontroverted about the escalation of what was taking place at the scene that day uh there is zero evidence of anything along the line that you’re suggesting and i know that you’re not suggesting that but that you’re suggesting some some may and i would just call on people to look at a circumstance like this and understand that our pledge our oath i’ve done this work across three decades of my life is driven by facts circumstances physical evidence other evidence in these circumstances and and nothing else and uh not even a hint of anything that you’re describing um that some might have suggested and uh and nothing to support that whatsoever one final question for you can you comment i know you’re doing the other officer-involved shooting can you give us a timeline you know that’s kind of been the story that all three of these happened closely yeah they were approximate and that’s making its way through the investigative phase with our bci and we stay you know fully briefed on that as we go along and and uh just as soon as we get those matters in as we did in this instance the deputy attorney general and i give it full attention and prioritize it because it’s important that we get a resolution not hastily i mean i don’t think anybody would want us to make hasty decisions and we haven’t done this and we won’t knows but uh they’ll be get they’ll get once it makes its way to our desk and we’re able to evaluate all the evidence in that circumstance and you know you have our pledge too i mean we we say it a lot in a lot of contexts in our office the deputy attorney general and i have committed our administration to being accessible uh to being transparent about what we’re working on and uh and then being standing up accountably and answering questions from people and you have our pledge that we’re gonna do the same uh in that instance and other matters that are matters of public concern at the end of the day you know we should stand in a forum like this and answer your questions we’re always we’re always willing to do that so you have our pledge that that’ll be the approach when you get to that matter uh as well i i appreciate uh like i said the chief and the department uh providing this facility for this today um we’ve appreciated the communication on this that’s that’s important about how you’re going to carry these matters out and if i may the professionalism of the chief and his department in not uh you know calling for you know updates along the way or calling to see if they’re you know i guess i could probably imagine ways that a department might feel inclined to be curious and intrude they’ve done nothing of the sort i appreciate very much i’m not surprised by it i’ve known the chief a while but we appreciate it very much this community can feel very well served by this department and uh can take pride in the approach it’s been very open and transparent our agents for the bci had no difficulty accessing any and all information individuals to be questioned um full cooperation in a transparent fashion that’s the key to getting to the other end of that and people can feel comfortable that decisions have been reached in an objective way and that the people involved the leadership involved will stand before you as the representatives of the community to ask the questions that will come to people’s mind along those lines you were talking about uh tougher uh consequences for people uh using guns is there any update in that or is your department drafting legislation uh well this isn’t the day to talk about that other than i’ll point out that