The Montgomery County Department of Police has posted a video in response to the release of body-camera footage of a May 30 fatal officer-involved shooting in Fairland that resulted in the death of 28-year-old Bishop Jones-Daniel.
The 12-minute video contains a recording of the 911 call from the incident, the dispatcher’s call to the responding officers, as well as a review of the body-camera footage from the shooting. In addition, county Police Chief Marc Yamada makes an appearance, saying the video is part of his commitment to transparency with the community.
“As chief, I hold this department to the highest standards of accountability and sharing information with our community is one of my top priorities,” Yamada said in the video published on YouTube July 31.
The release of the video came one day after the Maryland Attorney General’s Office released its own video of body-worn camera footage of the shooting. The office’s graphic, nearly 32-minute video compiles body-camera footage from responding county police officers, including from SWAT Officer Edward Cochran, who shot Jones-Daniel, according to the attorney general’s office.
The incident began around 11:40 a.m. May 29 when police responded to a call from Jones-Daniel’s brother. The brother indicated that Jones-Daniel was acting “paranoid” and violent, their mother was in danger and he had heard gunshots in their apartment on the 3300 block of Hampton Point Drive, according to the 911 call and a press release from the attorney general’s office. After arriving at the scene, county police set up a perimeter around the apartment and later “declared a hostage barricade and requested SWAT to respond” after hearing gunshots inside, the release said.
Police negotiators communicated with Jones-Daniel and his mother for more than an hour and at approximately 2:05 a.m. on May 30, SWAT officers entered the home, the attorney general’s office said. In the home, the SWAT team encountered Jones-Daniel and ordered him to drop his weapon as he stood in a bathroom next to his mother, according to video footage from the attorney general’s office. When he did not follow commands, a SWAT officer fired his gun more than a dozen times, striking Jones-Daniel, the video showed. After he was shot, officers called for medical aid and Jones-Daniel was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. His mother was also “treated and released at a local hospital,” the attorney general’s release said.
Nearly two weeks after the fatal shooting, the Independent Investigation Division of the attorney general’s office publicly identified Jones-Daniel as the man who had been shot and Cochran as the officer who shot him. Cochran is a 14-year veteran of the county police department and is assigned to the police department’s Field Services Bureau.
The division is investigating the shooting and will determine whether to file charges against the involved officer, according to its protocol.
Demand for footage release
The family of Jones-Daniel waited about two months for the release of the body-camera footage of the incident. The video was delayed “due to additional time needed to conduct witness interviews,” according to the attorney general’s office. According to protocols, the attorney general’s office releases the footage 20 business days after the incident, but delays may occur.
Jones-Daniel’s family in partnership with the Silver Spring Justice Coalition, a nonprofit social justice advocacy group, demanded the release of the footage and called into question the county’s crisis response protocols. Relatives say Jones-Daniel was experiencing a mental health crisis before he was fatally shot and alleged that the family’s requests for a mental health practitioner during the incident were not met.
Susaanti Follingstad, a member of the coalition and co-chair of its mental health committee, told MoCo360 Friday that she had not seen the video released by police, but the body-camera footage indicated to her that mental health support was not evident.
Describing the video as “heartbreaking,” she said the attorney general’s office video was “useless [in] determining what was really going on,” noting a 100-minute gap not shown in the video.
“There’s nothing in the video to indicate whether mental health personnel were ever used. And, mental health personnel can make a vital difference, a totally different outcome,” Follingstad said. “We don’t know any what the nature of the negotiations were. We have no idea why they decided to go in based on anything in the video.”
County police have directed questions about the case to the investigative division. Police spokesperson Shiera Goff said Cochran remains an employee of the department but did not respond to questions about whether he has been placed on leave.
Jennifer Donelan, a spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General, also did not respond to questions about whether Cochran was placed on leave.
The 911 call
The police department’s video includes the 911 call from Jones-Daniel’s brother, who is not identified, as he describes the situation in the apartment. The brother said Jones-Daniel was “being schizophrenic” and “paranoid” and needed “immediate help.” Jones-Daniel’s mother can be heard yelling and pleading with Jones-Daniel, repeatedly telling him “No!” and “Stop!” The brother asks the 911 dispatcher multiple times to send help, police and an ambulance. Moments later gunshots can be heard from inside the home and the brother appears to panic.
Calling for officers to respond, the 911 dispatcher says the caller’s brother was “paranoid” and “violent.” A responding officer then asks if the home had any prior 911 call history, to which the dispatcher responds, “Yes,” saying the apartment had a history of calls involving patients in need of mental observation and a domestic dispute. Moments later the dispatcher relays to the officer that the 911 caller had heard two gunshots, and his mother was still inside the apartment. Before the clip cuts off, the dispatcher also says that the brother had jumped out of the window and had heard another gunshot.
In the video, Officer Cassandra Tressler of the department’s public information office said multiple county police units arrived on the scene and determined that an emergency response team (ERT) should respond.
According to Tressler, the team “deploys specialized resources from the department’s Special Operations Division,” including an “incident command system, crisis negotiators, tactical officers, Emergency Services Unit tactical medics and other specialized resources.”
The emergency response team is typically deployed to hostage, barricade, active shooter and life-threatening incidents, Tressler said.
“In a case that involves a hostage, the ERT may initiate an emergency rescue when it is believed a hostage is in immediate risk of death or serious bodily injury. An immediate attempt to save the hostage’s life must be taken,” Tressler said.
During negotiations with Jones-Daniel and his mother, officers determined it was “necessary” to deploy an emergency rescue, Tressler said. The video also notes that crisis negotiators had worked “in collaboration with mental health professionals,” communicated with Jones-Daniel for an hour and fifteen minutes and heard multiple gunshots during negotiations.
The shooting
The final minutes of the video show body-camera footage from Cochran. As he enters the apartment, it appears that Cochran shoots in the direction of Jones-Daniel multiple times but did not strike him.
Then Jones-Daniel ducks into a bedroom, shutting the door, which is then forcefully kicked down by Cochran, according to the video. Jones-Daniel and his mother can be seen in a bathroom. Cochran can be heard yelling “drop it, drop it, drop it” before firing more than a dozen times at Jones-Daniel. His mother can be heard wailing and yelling, “No! Baby! Baby!”
The video then zooms in to a mirror reflection of Jones-Daniel to show him holding a gun in the bathroom and then focuses on his slumped and bloodied body to show a gun in his lap.
At the end of the video, Tressler said the police department’s Office of Internal Affairs will conduct an administrative investigation into the matter.
“And, if appropriate and consistent with state law, [the office] will refer this matter to the administrative charging committee for review and determination on the appropriateness of any disciplinary charges for policy violations,” she said.
A timeline for the completion of the investigation by the attorney general’s office remains unclear.