By Josh Newton
Tahlequah Daily Press
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — Video taken from a Tahlequah police officer’s body camera shows six shots being fired at a 49-year-old man who grabbed a claw hammer when confronted inside a garage Friday, Aug. 12.
Police Chief Nate King released the 15-minute-long video Friday during a press conference. In the video, Officer Josh Girdner can first be seen approaching Dominic Rollice inside a garage. Audio is unavailable for the first 30 seconds, which King attributed to the body camera’s being turned on just before Rollice was shot.
According to King, the cameras are designed to retrieve or “recapture” a certain amount of recorded history before they are initiated, but that’s not the case with the audio.
When Rollice was approached by Girdner, Officer Chase Reed, and Lt. Brandon Vick, he retreated into the garage of his ex-wife’s house on East Shawnee Terrace. Initially, Rollice was unarmed and the officers had not drawn their own weapons. But 25 seconds into the video, Rollice grabbed a claw hammer from a wall and wrapped both hands around it. Officers backed away quickly and drew their firearms.
According to King, the officers all said Rollice claimed, “One of us is going to die tonight.” That statement is not heard on the audio. King said the officers reported Rollice made the statement just before the body camera audio kicked on.
King also released audio of the call made to police before the shooting. Rollice’s ex-wife, Joy, told dispatchers Rollice was at her house, was refusing to leave, and was intoxicated.
“It could get ugly real quick,” she told dispatchers, who ultimately sent police to the home. Officers arrived about two minutes later.
Thirty seconds into the body camera footage, officers screamed at Rollice to drop the claw hammer. Rollice told them, “No,” several times, and held the hammer above his head, the claw portion of it facing out toward officers.
King said Girdner told Rollice, “All we want to do is talk to you.”
The video shows Reed -- the officer who filmed the incident -- told Vick and Girdner he was going to retrieve his Taser. Vick gave Reed permission to do so.
“I have done nothing wrong here, man,” Rollice told officers. “I’m in my house, doing nothing wrong.”
According to King, though, officers later learned Rollice did not live at the home.
In the body camera video, Rollice also acknowledged seeing Reed pull out his Taser. Soon afterward, Rollice exclaimed, “No!” and raised the hammer slightly above and behind his head with his right hand. The video appears to show Rollice taking a slight step forward; his left hand was in front of him, palm open and facing officers.
King described the hammer as being in a “throwing position.” He said the officers, at that moment, felt they faced an “immediate threat.”
Vick and Girdner fired shots, and Reed’s Taser deployed. King said there were five initial gunshots in 1.25 seconds, simultaneous to Reed’s Taser being shot.
Video shows Rollice crouch behind a black chair in the garage after the first five shots. He started to raise the hammer into the air again, at which point Girdner fired the sixth and final shot.
Authorities have not said how many of the shots actually struck Rollice, though King said officers could see “several” wounds. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the incident and interviewed the three involved officers Thursday, King said. Once a report is complete, the District Attorney’s Office will determine if the shooting is justified.
Rollice fell backward onto the floor of the garage after the six shots. King said officers followed protocol in handcuffing Rollice before rolling him over. Reed stayed with Rollice while EMS was contacted. The video shows Reed talking to Rollice several times, asking him to “stay with me,” and to keep breathing. Reed performed CPR on Rollice several times before EMS arrived about eight minutes later.
“This was a violent encounter that resulted in the loss of a human life,” King said Friday.
He said all three officers will remain on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the OSBI probe. He said it would “not be right” for the officers or Rollice’s family for the three to return to duty “too soon.”
King said he isn’t sure why Rollice was at the home on East Shawnee Terrace, but that the OSBI will be looking into those details.
The video released Friday was recorded by Reed. Girdner can be heard on the video explaining that his body camera was also recording, but King said they later learned it had been malfunctioning the entire day. He said Girdner’s camera was recording when the officer thought it was off during the day, and had not been recording when he thought it was.
Vick’s body camera storage reached full capacity earlier in the day, King said Friday.
This month’s fatal shooting was the second in about a year. Last year’s incident was cleared by prosecutors.
“I worry about our officers. I worry about our society and where we have gone,” King said. “It’s not just in Tahlequah, Okla. ... We’ve seen a rise in officer-involved shootings, and it’s alarming. ... I can only imagine there are a thousand different thoughts running through [officers’] heads at that time. ... It brought tears to my eyes to see Officer Reed stay poised, stay compassionate to a man who had just threatened to kill our officers, who basically just made threats: ‘Someone is going to die.’”
King believes the footage not only shows the shooting of Rollice was “justified,” but also a “necessary use of force.”
“A reasonable officer would have sensed a clear and present danger,” King said.
According to King, FBI statistics show more people are killed each year with a hammer or club than with a shotgun.
King said Tahlequah officers have completed use-of-force training with a simulator, and training regiments have been increased “so we are making the right decisions” during intense, split-second confrontations.
According to King, he has not been presented with results of a toxicology test on Rollice.
Copyright 2016 Tahlequah Daily Press