After a delay due to the ongoing investigation and coordination with the multiple agencies involved, the La Crosse Sheriff’s Office and La Crosse Police Department are releasing squad video of the officer involved shooting that occurred on Hwy 16 on December 30th. Below is an explanation and summary of the La Crosse Officer’s squad car video. The La Crosse Sheriff’s Office will be release video from their squads through their official channels today.
The video can be difficult to follow once the suspect charges the officers, so here is an explanation of the video layout. The large video block is the camera facing out the front of Officer Deflorian’s squad car. The lower right block is from the camera facing out the passenger side, the middle bottom block is the camera facing out the rear of the squad and the bottom left box is the camera facing out the driver’s side of the squad car. Also, if you open the video to a full screen format on a PC it is going to pixilate your view some since this is a copy from a smaller electronic format.
As the suspect charges the officers, you will have to look at the lower video boxes to follow the suspect. As you can see from the video, it shows the deployment of all the different force options that were listed in the previous press releases. The less lethal bean bag rounds are being delivered by Officer Deflorian through the shotgun. As the suspect charges, you will see Deputy Stoughtenger release his K9, which does get hit by the chain. You will also see another deputy come running in from the right to deploy a taser. After the suspect jumps on the hood of the squad with the chain, he will proceed around the back of the squad charging Officer Deflorian with Deputy Stoughtenger in pursuit. This is where you will have to look at the lower video boxes.
In the lower boxes you will see the suspect proceed past the passenger side camera, past the rear viewing camera with the deputies in pursuit and then into view of the driver’s camera. As the suspect is charging around the rear of the squad, you see Officer Deflorian actually slips and falls (look at the lower left video box). Just as Officer Deflorian is getting up, the suspect charges around the driver’s rear bumper at which time you can hear gun fire as well as another attempted taser deployment.
Note: You will hear the suspect use expletives during the course of the video.
La Crosse PD Newsroom 