By Emily Lane
NOLA Media Group, New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — A man killed by police gunfire in New Orleans East earlier this month shot at the New Orleans Police Department officers before they fired back, body camera footage released Tuesday (May 28) shows. A family member of the man who viewed the footage last week said it shows he was in the midst of a mental episode leading up to and at the time of the fatal encounter.
Donald Davis, Jr., 40, was fatally shot May 17 the 6800 block of Parc Brittany Boulevard on May 17. NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said officers were called that morning to investigate a report of an aggravated assault at an apartment complex’s leasing office when they encountered an armed man.
Note: Footage below comes from surveillance video recorded at the apartment complex where the fatal shooting occurred, and the leasing office where an incident prompted the initial call to police. NOPD made available officers’ body worn camera footage, but NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune is choosing not to publish it because of its graphic nature.
Three responding officers, who have all been on the force somewhere between three to five years, fired their weapons during the encounter, according to NOPD. The officers fired a total of 31 rounds, Ferguson said, and Davis fired once. The officers’ gunfire struck Davis more than once and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Ferguson said investigators did not learn until meeting with Davis’ family to review the footage that he has a history of diagnosed mental health problems.
Body camera video shows a verbal exchange ahead of the gunfire. Ferguson said Davis yelled something to the effect of, “Shoot me. I dare you.”
Asked if the fatal shooting was the result of a “suicide by cop” incident, in which someone is believed to intentionally draw police gunfire, Ferguson said he couldn’t say for sure but that it’s something investigators have considered. Davis’ first cousin, Otra Williams, 40, said she has considered that possibility.
One video clip taken from a camera inside the Laguna Creek Apartments’ leasing office showed Davis inside the office with a .45-caliber gun in his hand, hanging at his side. Someone in the leasing office called police, initiating the police encounter. Davis’ relatives said the argument was related to the fact that his apartment key broke off in the unit’s door.
Broderika Parker, 33, of Slidell, also a first cousin of Davis, viewed video of the fatal encounter last week with Ferguson, NOPD Public Integrity Bureau Chief Arlinda Westbrook and PIB investigators. Her mother and Davis’ brother also joined, she said. Parker said the video from the leasing office shows Davis was “talking out of his head,” because he was yelling about his wife -- but Davis was not married.
“He was in a rage about an hour,” said Parker, a first cousin of Davis.
Ferguson said Davis threatened someone in the leasing office with a gun a little less than an hour -- 54 minutes -- before police encountered him in the leasing office’s parking lot.
Officers were initially dispatched to a “priority call” of an armed man in the leasing office, he said, but when someone from the leasing office called to say Davis had left, the priority was downgraded. Officers arrived at the leasing office nearly an hour after the initial call to take the report. They were getting back into their vehicles in the parking lot, on their way to drive to Davis’ apartment to interview him, when Davis walked toward them with the same gun.
The video shows Davis pointing his gun at officers as they get back out of their vehicles and yelling at them, then lifting his arm and firing a round. Two officers take cover near a black pickup truck that Davis’ bullet appeared to have struck, then fire their guns toward him until he falls down on his back. The third officer shoots at Davis from the side. Video shows Davis, while on the ground, appears to lift his hand that was still holding the gun. It’s unclear if he intended to shoot again.
The gunfire subsides as Davis lay on his back, knees slightly bent, but still moving slightly, the footage shows. One of the officers approached Davis and used his foot to move the gun that still lay in or near Davis’ hand.
Parker and Williams both said Davis has struggled with mental health problems most of his life. His mother, Charlene Davis, who died in 2011, lived with schizophrenia and bipolar disease, Williams said. She was unable to raise Davis when he was young, so Davis grew up in foster care in different parts of Louisiana. Parker and Williams also said they believe Davis was molested as a boy.
He was not treated for his mental health problems while in foster care as far as she knew, Williams said. At the time of this death, Davis was living off of his disability benefits.
“This whole thing could have been prevented if he had proper mental health,” Williams said.
Davis had been living with his mother a few years before she died and found her dead when he returned from a trip to the drug store, Parker and Williams said. Davis wasn’t capable of handling it, Williams said, noting he didn’t call for first responders when he found her, but called her “crying hysterically.”
“Ever since that he went into a deep depression,” Williams said.
Parker said there were times when Davis was accessible, then he would become withdrawn. He served probation in two separate incidents, in 2011 and 2014, after pleading guilty to various charges including illegally carrying a weapon, attempting to disarm a police officer and possession of marijuana. But Parker said she knew her cousin, and “Donald wasn’t no killer.”
“He was stressed out his whole life,” Parker added.
Williams, whose mother Rose Dunbar retired from NOPD in 2008 as a roughly 20-year veteran of the force, said she can sympathize with the officers who fatally shot her cousin because they didn’t know what kind of person Davis was when he fired a shot at them. She added, though, that she wishes it could have been handled differently, perhaps with nonlethal force, such as a taser. NOPD policy allows officers to return lethal force with lethal force.
“This is devastating to us,” Williams said.
Ferguson said the officers were forced to respond “within seconds” after Davis began approaching them and fired at the officers, noting they didn’t know what he was thinking or the nature of his mental state. Video shows about six or seven seconds passed between when officers got out of the car and when Davis fired the shot, which appeared shatter the window of a the pickup truck that the officers were moving toward to take cover.
“He didn’t give us a chance to say any words and trust us, we wish that he had,” Ferguson said. “This didn’t have to turn out this way but, again, we were left with no other options.”
No officers were injured during the exchange.
“In this case, while a life was unfortunately lost, we are confident our officers acted within departmental policies, and while difficult, they did what they had to do,” Ferguson said.
Parker said she was glad she was able to look at the video to get clear answers about her cousin’s death, but “it was hard to watch,” noting the site of three officers firing on Davis.
“I wish I could have talked to him,” Parker said.
Williams has been reflecting, she said, on how she or other relatives could have been a better mentor to Davis, or checked in more.
“It’s so heartbreaking because he didn’t deserve to die like that,” she said.
Ferguson said internal investigators do not believe the officers violated any NOPD policies. The three officers, all 7th District officers who were answering a call for service that day, were temporarily reassigned to administrative desk duty while the investigation continued, per NOPD standard practice. On Tuesday, Ferguson said they would likely be returning to their regular assignments later this week. He identified the officers as Kevin Ngyen, Stephen Jones and Wayne Lewis.
The body camera footage was released under a department policy that gives NOPD’s leaders and investigators a total of nine days to review and decide when and how to release any pertinent video of officer-involved shootings, a decision that involves the city attorney, district attorney’s office and U.S. Attorney’s office.
Davis is the third man to be killed in an police-involved shooting in New Orleans in 2019 with seven months left in the year.
Zonell Williams, 33, was fatally shot by police Jan. 4 after firing at officers in front of a home in the 2300 block of Orleans Avenue. Police were responding to the home that night to a call of an attempted suicide.
Reginald Bursey, 32, was fatally shot Feb. 17 by NOPD officers and a Louisiana State Police trooper when he started shooting at officers who approached him near the intersection of Canal Street and Elk Place. Five bystanders were shot, including three Ferguson said investigators determined were struck by errant NOPD gunfire. Police had approached Bursey because he was a suspect in two armed robberies.
NOPD internal investigators are still probing possible police involvement leading up to the death of two teenagers who Ferguson said may have been chased by officers in violation of NOPD policy before the car they were in crashed into a Broadmoor beauty salon, setting it on fire, on March 20. A salon customer also was killed, in addition to the teens in the car, Byron Wilson Jr., 16, and Chimelu Collins, 14.
There were no fatal or nonfatal officer-involved shootings in 2018, which was the first time that was the case at least in the past several years. The lack of police shootings last year drew commendation from the New Orleans Independent Police Monitor’s Office.
Davis’ aunt, Lanell Parker, 54, of Chalmette, also viewed the footage with police last week. She said will always remember Davis’ smile, the way he walked.
“He’s my nephew,” she said.
Williams said she can see people suffering from mental health problems when she drives around New Orleans and it makes her think of her cousin’s struggles, and now his fateful end. She hopes they’re encouraged to get help and that services are available for them.
“A lot of work needs to be done because I’m sure he’s not the only person in this city suffering,” Williams said.
©2019 NOLA Media Group, New Orleans