Fargo Police Press Briefing: Jamestown Resident Fatally Shot in Officer-Involved Incident

FARGO, ND (trfnews.i234.me) Fargo Police hold a news conference Friday evening regarding an officer involved shooting that killed a Jamestown man.
good evening we’ve got some additional updates that we like to provide our community related to the officer involved shooting that happened earlier this morning in the 3400 block of 15th Avenue South I’m going to read through the press release that will be pushed out after this and identify some of the new information that we know since our last brief earlier this morning uh just to refresh everyone’s recollection at about 807 a.m on July 8th 2022 our officers were sent to a possible man down in the 3400 block of 15th Avenue South College stated that multiple individuals were slumped over within a vehicle located inside a garage at that location the caller also reported that the vehicle had a bullet hole in the windshield and it’s new information since this morning our officers arrived on scene and had approximately 8 13 am and approximately 8 15 a.m called out we’re getting shots fired in a foot pursuit prior to that when they arrived on scene they observed three individuals inside a red 2008 Kia Sedona that was later found to have been stolen on July 5th in Fargo as they approached the van inside the garage the driver of the van quickly accelerated and fled the scene Fargo Police Department Officer discharged a firearm towards the van striking the driver the two passengers in the vehicle fled on foot one of the individuals was apprehended near the scene he’s identified as Cody Dunn 25 year old white male with no permanent address who was arrested and charged with refusal to halt in possession of controlled substance methamphetamine the second passenger continued to flee on foot the driver of the van a 28 year old Native American male Jamestown Resident was transported to a local Health Care Facility where he passed earlier this afternoon Fargo police have notified next of kin and we will be releasing that information relative to that individual as well as the information related to the officer tomorrow evening I’m sorry tomorrow afternoon however we are continuing to seek The public’s assistance in identifying as the third individual who fled the scene you see his photo up there we’re going to be pushing this out on our social media that’s the individual that was described to you earlier today he fled the scene at foot and he’s wanted for failure to halt so we’ll be looking to identify and arrest him at which point the Bureau of criminal investigation can also interview him regarding the shooting as I said earlier this morning the North Dakota Bureau of criminal investigation within a very short time took over the investigation relative to the use of force by our officer this will take them several days well to the next week to complete that investigation they have all of our body Cam and in-car video everyone at the scene had body camera footage so we’ll have that will be available at some juncture and we’ve also interviewed not only law enforcement Witnesses but citizen Witnesses and their investigation is ongoing so they are the lead agency from that perspective once they have concluded the criminal investigation relative to the officer’s use of force they will refer that to the Cass County State’s Attorney office for review where they will look to determine whether or not the officer’s use of force was justified under North Dakota Century code um the officer involved is an 11-year veteran he’s been placed on paid administrative leave which is standard practice and policy while the investigation continues as the investigation progresses information will be released as it becomes available fortunately in this incident while it’s unfortunate that an individual lost his life this is a traumatic instance for our officers as well none of them were injured and we certainly appreciate their efforts throughout this investigation as well as the assistance of the Cass County Sheriff’s Office who took over calls for a short period of time while many of our Personnel were involved in this investigation and I’m happy to take any questions foreign I’m looking to learn a little bit more a Tyson Schoener wdny radio I’m looking to learn a little bit more about the lead up to the shot the incident I want to see can we get more detail on that the moment before is the moment and afters I don’t know I’m just looking to see what you have to say about that sure yeah and I know that that everyone would like that uh that’s in the hands of BCI at the structure so in order to maintain the Integrity of that investigation we don’t none of us up here actually know all of those details they are the ones who conduct those interviews and verify the information and when their investigation is complete then we’ll be advised in terms of how the uh what their findings were yes sir all right we don’t know that um we are on our end our department continues to investigate the stolen vehicle um but we don’t at this juncture know if any of those individuals have a connection to the apartment building it was asked this morning but were any weapons found in the van or around the van uh no no we’re not Chief I just want to clarify uh Bailey with family news live um you said this morning that he was on administrative Duty and then here you said administrative leave I just want to clarify which one the officer it’s administrative leave and so I’m joking sure he will come back in a transitional Duty status meaning he he won’t be on the street until such time as the investigation is done and the state’s attorney makes a ruling on his use of force I imagine the release of body cam footage will be delayed until the investigation is more thorough or more complete but I just want to hear from you is that the case yeah absolutely and our policy um allows for release of body worn camera video uh as long as it’s uh agreed to with VCI and the prosecutor that was a policy update that we made last year as we were attempting to increase our transparency and so that’s the determination that will be made somewhere down the road but yeah that could happen prior to finalization with consent of those individuals uh Chief this is Sam with wday TV do you know was there an effort made by the driver of the van to hit the officer or do they just try to flee away from the scene I don’t know those details unfortunately until we see the results of the officer interviews