By Bryn Stole
The Advocate
BATON ROUGE, La. — Video released by the East Baton Rouge District Attorney’s Office Monday of a Feb. 13 shootout between two Baton Rouge police officers and a 22-year-old man killed in the gunfight shows the officers were justified in shooting the gunman, the district attorney said Monday.
The video shows that officers Theodore Smith III and Sean Garic returned fire and shot Calvin Smith in self-defense in the harrowing encounter, District Attorney Hillar Moore III said at a news conference. Smith fired a minimum of 20 rounds from an AR-15 rifle while the two officers returned a minimum of 34 rounds during the gunfight that was estimated to have lasted about 20 seconds.
“The officers’ actions were not only warranted, but necessary to protect themselves and the public,” Moore said.
Both officers were wounded in the shooting. They have since recovered and returned to duty.
The video’s release Monday marks the end of a review of the shooting by Baton Rouge Police Department investigators and the District Attorney’s Office, which cleared the officers of any wrongdoing, Moore said.
Moore said the case will not be presented to a grand jury.
The footage of the shooting — captured on dashboard cameras inside the two officers’ patrol cars and on a body camera — shows Smith pointing the rifle and opening fire as the officers pulled up in their marked patrol cars following a high-speed chase, Moore said.
Garic was grazed on the side of the head by a bullet, and Theodore Smith was shot in the right side by a bullet that penetrated the stitching on the side of his vest.
Calvin Smith was rushed into surgery but died from his wounds that night. Moore said Monday that Calvin Smith had alcohol and three drugs in his system at the time of his death.
One of police cars was hit eight times while the other was struck several times.
“I have no idea how these officers survived this firefight,” Moore said.
The fatal incident began around 5:30 a.m. on Feb. 13, a Saturday, when Baton Rouge police received a call about damage to a vehicle near the 700 block of Monet Drive.
Moore said Calvin Smith pounded on the door of his ex-girlfriend the morning of the shooting and her mother’s boyfriend answered the door and told him to leave. Calvin Smith had previously asked the mother’s boyfriend to tell his ex-girlfriend that he needed her back. He also threatened suicide in a number of text messages and Facebook messages, and tried to kick in the ex-girlfriend’s mother’s front door the night before the shooting, a report on the shooting also released Monday says.
After being chased away from the apartment that morning, Smith slashed the tires of a vehicle in the parking lot, smashed the windshield and dented the hood with a baseball bat, the report says.
The ex-girlfriend’s mother’s boyfriend confronted Smith outside and fired two rounds in Smith’s direction before calling police.
When officers arrived, Calvin Smith had already fled in a 2013 Dodge Avenger. The ex-girlfriend’s family and other witnesses provided a description of the car, which was spotted by Officer Smith moments later as it turned onto Airline Highway from Tom Drive, the report says.
When the officer tried to pull Smith over, he sped off and lead the officers on a six-minute chase that ended when Calvin Smith swerved to a halt in front of the home where he’d been staying at 5629 Fairfields Ave., according to police. Moore said the chase lasted about six minutes.
Police said Calvin Smith quickly emerged from the car with a semi-automatic rifle and opened fire on Officer Smith before turning the rifle on Garic, wounding both and striking the patrol cars multiple times as the officers struggled to take cover and return fire.
“(Calvin) Smith clearly had the drop on them,” the district attorney said.
An autopsy report says Smith was shot at least four times in the neck, leg and chest.
From the beginning of the probe, authorities have said the footage of the shooting — captured on dashboard cameras in the officers’ patrol cars and on body cameras — provided a clear picture of the shootout and provided compelling evidence that Smith was the aggressor in the encounter.
The report says Smith had a history of mental illness, including severe depression, and was prescribed several medications.
Moore said several people close to Smith said he’d stopped taking his medication in the months before the shooting. Moore also said Smith’s family had struggled to find him treatment in Baton Rouge.
Smith and his ex-girlfriend had been in a “tumultuous” relationship for many years but had recently broken up, the report says. She petitioned for a restraining order against Smith in January, court records show, saying Smith punched and choked her on Christmas while threatening to kill both her and himself.
Moore said Smith had a history of past suicide attempts and threats.
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