While sitting in his Ford Mustang after being blocked in by two law enforcement cars, a man shot Wednesday by a Bainbridge Island police officer injected himself twice with meth and then allegedly lunged at the officer with a knife.
Brandon Thomas Roberts, 42, of Port Orchard, sustained “non-life threatening injuries,” and after being treated at a Seattle hospital was booked Thursday evening into the Kitsap County Jail. Roberts was charged Friday with a count of first-degree assault for allegedly lunging at the Bainbridge officer, who is identified as “John Doe” in documents.
Roberts’ mother, however, questioned how much of a threat Roberts posed to officers considering he was inside the car when he was shot and officers had confronted him from the passenger side.
“He was in the car, he couldn’t lunge at anybody,” Brenda Callahan-McCormick told the Kitsap Sun.
Callahan-McCormick said Roberts worked as an electrician and had gone through a divorce that left him distraught. She said Roberts was shot twice in the chest, but both bullets missed vital organs.
The incident occurred in daylight in a well-populated area, and video footage and photographs of the scene taken by witnesses have been published. Callahan-McCormick said they show the driver’s side door was blocked by the Bainbridge police car and that given Roberts’ size – court documents describe him as 6 feet 2 inches, 240 pounds – he would have difficulty lunging across the center console and the passenger side seat to pose a threat to officers.
Court documents do not describe where Roberts was inside the car when he allegedly lunged at the officer while armed with the knife, but an investigator wrote that the Bainbridge officer was "forced" to shoot Roberts.
“It’s a miracle” he was not killed or more seriously injured, Callahan-McCormick said.
Incident starts with a heroin overdose
The incident started at 2 p.m. when Bainbridge firefighters and police were called to the parking lot at Ordway Elementary after receiving reports of an unconscious 31-year-old woman. Roberts was at the scene and told officers the woman had overdosed on heroin. The woman was described as “lifeless” and was not breathing. A Bainbridge officer administered two doses of Narcan to the woman, reviving her, according to court documents.
As officers treated the woman, Roberts paced back and forth and was instructed to move away from the area to make way for emergency vehicles. Instead, he got back into his 2010 Ford Mustang and appeared to start to leave. An officer told him to turn off the car, as he needed information from Roberts, but Roberts did not cooperate and the officer saw him reach into a center console. Fearing Roberts was reaching for a weapon, the officer drew his pistol and pointed it at Roberts, ordering him to show his hands and turn off the car.
Roberts refused, saying, “Come on, man, don’t’ do this, I need to go,” and sped off, striking the officer in the knee, according to documents. Bainbridge Island Police Chief Matt Hamner said that officer was evaluated by medics and did not sustain a serious injury.
Confrontation in Winslow
The officer who shot Roberts saw this incident and chased after him but ended the pursuit after Roberts drove into Winslow, which was busy with traffic and pedestrians. However, the officer saw Roberts drive down Finch Road, a dead-end street. The officer followed Roberts to Winslow Green and pinned him with his car as Roberts tried to reverse out of the street, striking Roberts’ car and blocking the driver side door. A Kitsap County Sheriff’s deputy responding to the pursuit arrived a short time later and helped pin Roberts’ car.
When the two officers stood outside of Roberts’ car, they reported seeing him inject himself with a clear liquid, suspected to be meth. Roberts locked the vehicle and refused to get out, yelling an obscenity and saying “Lemme do this,” according to documents.
The deputy tried to break a window in Roberts’ car but was unsuccessful. As the officers tried to unlock the car, Roberts’ reloaded the syringe and injected himself again, according to documents. During the confrontation, one or both of the officers had their pistols drawn and pointed at Roberts and were repeatedly giving him orders which he was not obeying.
The deputy retrieved a “slim Jim” from his patrol car and opened the passenger side door.
As the officers ordered Roberts to exit the car, Roberts pulled a folding knife from the center console described as “approximately 10.5-11” inches and waved it at officers, ignoring and taunting an officer, according to documents.
Detective: officer was 'forced' to shoot suspect
Roberts became less agitated and put down the knife and appeared as though he would exit the vehicle, but then said a profanity and “Let’s do this” and grasped the knife again. At this point, both officers were standing on the passenger side of the Mustang with the deputy now armed with a Taser.
The officers continued to order Roberts to drop the knife when he suddenly lunged at the Bainbridge officer and the officer “was forced to fire his weapon at Roberts due to the deadly attack pressed upon him,” according to charging documents written by a Bremerton police detective.
The detective wrote that after being shot Roberts “continued his attack toward officers” but no further shots were fired. After the deputy could see Roberts no longer had the knife in his hand, he removed Roberts from the car.
Documents do not say how many times the Bainbridge officer fired, but a witness told the Kitsap Sun he heard two shots.
On the same day as the shooting, Roberts was charged with second-degree theft after he allegedly stole four laptops from the Silverdale Best Buy in December. Roberts was identified by security footage, according to court documents.
He is being held on $1,000,000 bail for the first-degree assault charge.
