Chandler, Arizona — On November 23, 2022, at 11:57 a.m., Chandler Police received a 911 call of a suspicious vehicle backed into a resident’s driveway. The resident, who was not home, was viewing their home video surveillance after a motion detection alert, when they observed the vehicle. The resident had observed a male, later identified as 30-year-old Cody Allan Smestad, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, wearing a white mask, and white pants, inside the home. The resident reported the male was carrying a hammer. Officers arrived and positioned at the front of the home, near the unoccupied suspect vehicle and west garage, waiting for additional units to arrive. An assisting detective arrived and took a position to the south looking into the back yard of the home.
The officers at the front of the home heard noises inside the garage and minutes later the garage door opened. Inside officers observed Smestad hiding behind the rear of a vehicle. Officers issued commands to Smestad ordering him to show his hands and not move. Smestad ignored these commands and ran back inside the home. The second officer proceeded down the side of the home into the backyard. The detective ordered Smestad numerous times to disarm himself, but he did not comply. As Smestad began positioning himself around the corner armed with the rifle, the detective looking into the backyard feared for the life of the officer in the backyard and fired on Smestad resulting in the first officer shooting.
Both officers continued giving order to Smestad to disarm himself for approximately thirty seconds, but Smestad did not comply. Smestad moved around the patio still armed, not complying with the police commands, where he turned his body toward the second officer. The second officer perceived an imminent threat resulting in the second officer shooting striking Smestad. Police secured Smestad, removed him to the front and provided medical aid until the arrival of the fire department personnel. A search of the home was conducted, and no additional suspects were found. Smestad was later pronounced deceased at a local hospital. No officers or community members were injured during this incident.
im not questioning the shoot at all, guy was clearly a threat - but does the officer have to explain why he fired at that particular time when the guy didnt appear to make any move or lift the weapon?
is a reasonable answer “he clearly wasnt responding to our forceful demands to drop the weapon and was an ongoing threat every second” - something like that?
They already fired what were in effect 2 warning shots at the guy. He refused lawful commands and had a superior weapon platform to the officer, who had no or ineffective cover. It was a volley and he was still in close proximity to the weapon. No issue. Shooting officer was almost definitely a SWAT operator.
yeah i didnt read anything about it before watching it and i came away with the impression that the kid came out of his own house and was looking to suicide by cop
i wonder if they will figure out what he was doing there, actually robbing the house and just decided to go outside and suicide to cops because he was caught?
You can see the hair standing straight up on that officers arms. I don’t even want to imagine what that dude’s blood pressure spiked to. No fuckin’ way could I ever do that job.
