Five Westminster Police Department officers will not face criminal charges in the April shooting death of a suspected car thief because the suspect fired a gun toward the head of one officer who was trying to pull him from the car, the 17th Judicial District Attorney said.
As five officers with Westminster’s special enforcement team, a unit that focuses on car thefts, tried to pull Damon Blair from the driver’s seat of a stolen Honda Civic, Blair pulled the trigger of a .32-caliber revolver, according to a letter written by District Attorney Dave Young to Westminster Police Chief Tim Carlson.The bullet missed Officer Roger Stockman’s head.
Stockman is quoted in the letter as saying: “I see the gun. It’s right near my face and the next thing I know there’s a flash and I hear a pop. I thought I would die.”
According to the letter, which was released Tuesday by Young’s office, officers Anthony Stroup, Matt Neihart, Rob Phelps and James Holley each told investigators afterward they thought Stockman had been shot because he recoiled and spun backward.
Phelps told investigators that he believed Blair would continue firing at officers, so he returned fire.
“I was in complete terror. … I’ve got to stop him,” the letter quotes Phelps as saying.
In all, the five police officers fired 46 rounds in the 7300 block of Tennyson Street.
Blair waswith the majority of the shots hitting his head, neck and torso, the letter said. A toxicology report showed multiple narcotics were in Blair’s system.
An analysis of Blair’s revolver showed that it had been fired once and probably had misfired when he pulled the trigger a second time, the letter said.
Young concluded the officers were justified in shooting Blair.
“When Mr. Blair was shooting at officers, the conclusion that the lives of the officers and the public were in danger was reasonable,” the district attorney’s letter said.
