Reno police officer who accidentally shot suspect pulled trigger when hit by another officer’s Taser
RENO, Nev. — A Reno police officer accidentally shot an unarmed suspect in 2020 when he flinched and pulled the trigger of his service revolver in an unintended response to being pinned down by a Taser fired by another officer, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks has cleared Officer Richard Jager of any criminal wrongdoing with the release of a report on the investigation into the non-fatal officer-involved shooting. Neighboring Sparks Police led the investigation.
The suspect, Christopher Sheahan, was treated at a hospital and survived the single gunshot wound to the shoulder. He was found guilty of resisting a public official in February 2022 and ultimately sentenced to one day in jail, Hicks said.
Jager, who was in his second week on the job after recently graduating from the law enforcement academy, was treated at a local hospital where the Taser probe was removed from his knee. No one else was injured.
The shooting occurred on July 26, 2020, when several officers surrounded Sheahan, who failed to comply with their commands in a parking lot after a traffic incident. Sheahan told the initially responding officer that he was having mental health issues and that he was exhibiting erratic behavior, including removing clothing during the confrontation, according to the investigative report.
Ultimately, Washoe County Sheriff’s Deputy George Choico, a 15-year veteran of the force, “reasonably” concluded that the only way to obtain Sheahan’s cooperation was to use his Taser, Hicks wrote in the report.
“Unfortunately, Deputy Choico’s Taser partially missed its target, with a single Taser probe striking Officer Jager in the right knee. The embedding of the Taser probe in Officer Jager’s knee caused him to flinch and accidentally pull the trigger of his firearm, resulting in a single bullet impact to Sheahan’s right shoulder,” Hicks said.
“The evidence from the entire investigation shows that Officer Jager’s discharge of his firearm was not intentional, but accidental. In other words, Officer Jager did not have the deliberate intent to shoot Sheahan,” he wrote.
Hicks said the investigation into the shooting and subsequent evaluation of whether any criminal charges were warranted included reviewing hundreds of pages of reports and documents, interviews with police and witnesses, as well as photographs, 911 calls, video recordings and a police investigation. shooting scene.
Hicks said Sheahan told investigators during an interview while he was recovering in the hospital that he had disobeyed officers’ orders several times. He said he wanted to let officers know he had no weapons by emptying his pockets.
“Sheahan acknowledged that ‘I should have simply listened to the officer’s commands and not gotten out of my car and panicked like I did,’” Hicks wrote. He also apologized and expressed “his gratitude to the officers who provided first aid and ‘saved my life’.”