Video released by the Simi Valley Police Department Sept. 4 shows a series of events throughout the day that led up to the July 21 fatal shooting of 37-year-old Nicholas Thompson.
The nine and a half minute video intersperses audio from the domestic violence 911 call earlier in the day, body camera footage of officers throughout the day, videos from the perspective of the five officers who fired their weapons and narration providing background on the incident.
Initial reports said six officers used their weapons, but Simi police confirmed five had been involved.
Thompson had expressed to family members his intent to be shot by officers, and officers also confiscated firearms from his home and storage facility, the video shows.
Ultimately, in the
final moments before he was shot, Thompson drove past officers but never toward them. He did not have a gun with him.
The footage and the names of the five officers involved in Thompson's death were provided publicly under California Assembly Bill 748, which requires the department to release audio and video involving incidents such as officer-involved shootings. The department also shared how long each officer has worked in law enforcement.
Thompson died after being shot by officers following a pursuit that ended in the 2500 block of Dusan Street around 1:45 p.m., where he was involved in a domestic violence incident earlier the same day.
Those involved in the shooting were Sgt. Gene Colato, 17 years in law enforcement; Senior Officer Bryan Sarfaty, 14 years; Brett Suliga, 11 years; Evan Hutchins, seven months; and Edward Brockschmidt, four months.
The officers were placed on leave after the incident, but have since returned, said Sgt. Richard Morton. The department refused to say whether any of the officers were previously involved in shooting incidents.
Following officer-involved shootings, the Simi Valley police and the Ventura County District Attorney's Office would normally conduct an investigation. However, the agencies are no longer involved. The California Department of Justice has taken over the investigation, officials previously said.
The state justice department said it would investigate under provisions of Assembly Bill 1506, which requires the agency to look into all fatal shootings of unarmed civilians by law enforcement officers in the state.
What does the video the Simi Valley Police Department released show?
The video opens with an excerpt of a call between a 911 operator and a woman reporting a domestic violence incident.
The video then cuts to narration of the domestic violence incident, followed by body camera footage of an officer interviewing Thompson’s family at their home at 8:22 a.m.
An unidentified officer walks through the door of the house at 2595 Dusan St. and speaks into his radio, saying, “DP(disturbing party) says he wants a shootout, be advised.”
A woman, whose face is blurred, is seen speaking to an officer already in the home. The narration picks back up while the officer’s body camera shows an older man with cuts along his arm.
The video continues with more body camera footage of a woman telling police that Thompson had said that he wanted a shootout with police in hopes of them killing him so “he won’t go to hell.”
The narration adds that police confiscated a firearm associated with the man at the home.
The video then cuts to narration and footage of Thompson’s family members leading police to a storage container where they recovered two more firearms, but it adds that more firearms were still outstanding.
The point of view then changes to a police officer talking to Thompson on the phone telling him, “I just need to talk to you real quick. Do you have a minute?”
The officer then informs his family that the police located his vehicle using automated license plate reader cameras.
The video cuts to an officer on a motorcycle driving southbound on First Street before getting onto westbound Highway 118 and pursuing Thompson, who was driving a white pickup.
The perspective then changes to Officer Brett Suliga, who is at the home on Dusan Street, advising the family to lock themselves inside their bathroom.
Suliga returns to his department motorcycle parked on the curb, where he retrieves a rifle equipped to the bike.
The officer positions himself and points the gun at the incoming truck before it swerves up a street and the officer changes position.
The truck is seen driving down the street with both motorcycle and SUV patrol vehicles chasing it as it passes in front of the house.
The officer briefly enters the home’s backyard and returns to the front as the truck goes down the street once more.
The officer shoots at the truck several times as it passes him and drives into the unoccupied patrol bike. The narrator says that the truck continued after the shooting and crashed into an unoccupied recreational vehicle.
The video then cuts to four body camera perspectives on the same screen as officers exit their vehicles and start to shoot at the stationary truck.
The body cameras show that the time the officers shot at Thompson in his truck was 1:45 p.m.
The video then cuts to a singular body camera perspective with an officer on the sidewalk behind the truck. The time shows, 1:47 p.m.
The officer yells directions at Thompson in the truck saying, “We want to issue you first aid, before we can issue you first aid, you need to listen to us.”
“He’s moving. I see you moving.”
The narrator says that SWAT was called to extract Thompson from the vehicle to render aid, as he was not compliant.
A new perspective shows that at 2:17 p.m., over half a dozen officers in tactical gear and weapons stand near the truck while one officer is seen performing chest compressions on someone on the floor.
The narrator says that Thompson was pronounced dead at the scene, and adds that no firearm was found in the man’s possession at the time of the shooting.
What happened?
Simi Valley officers responded to the Dusan Street home around 8:15 a.m. on July 21 for the reported domestic violence incident, police previously said.
The man suspected of causing the incident, later identified as Thompson, had fled in a pickup truck before police arrived, but family members told police that they thought he was armed, police said.
The family also said that the man had allegedly threatened them not to call the police and said he would have a "shootout" with officers if they did.
Officers later found the man driving the pickup near the Simi Valley Town Center around 1:35 p.m., police said. Officers tried to pull the man over, but he refused, leading to a vehicle pursuit through the city, police said.
Officials said the man drove past the home multiple times. The pursuit ended around 1:45 p.m. when the man allegedly approached the home with a truck while an officer was out front, police said.
Ernesto Centeno Araujo covers breaking news for the Ventura County Star. He can be reached at ecentenoaraujo@vcstar.com, 805-437-0224 or @ecentenoaraujo on Instagram and X.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Simi Valley police video shows lead-up to fatal shooting, aftermath
