Police chief shares details of officer-involved shooting

Two Cathedral City police officers involved in an officer-involved shooting last year have been cleared of criminal liability from the Riverside County District Attorneys Office. In an effort to promote transparency, Cathedral City police Chief George Crum is sharing detailed information about the shooting. Crum prepared a detailed PowerPoint presentation which included audio recordings and photos from the scene. Due to the graphic nature of this content were not able to broadcast it. Crum requested that cameras not be used during the presentation and he wouldn’t do an on-camera interview after but he did answer KESQ and CBS Local 2 reporter Joe Galli’s questions. The presentation was a walk through of what happened on Oct. 24, 2015 when officers Jeff Blachley and Alan Lemus shot and killed Dominic Hutchinson, 30. According to Crum, Hutchinson had a death wish and wanted to be killed by officers. Police were called to the Creekside Apartments in Cathedral City around 11 p.m. where Hutchinson’s wife called 911 saying her husband had hit her in the face with a phone. At that same time Hutchinson called both of his parents telling them he was going to die. Crum played the audio recording of the 911 call Hutchinson’s father made to police after talking to his son saying he was worried for his son’s safety. That call to 911 happened minutes after the shooting itself. When police arrived the officers knocked on the door. Crum played audio recordings from the officers, where Hutchinson can clearly be heard saying three times that he had a gun. Hutchinson then opened the door and pointed a what looked like a gun at the officers. The officers both made commands for Hutchinson to show them his hands. He ignored their orders and they were forced to fire. The officers shot 14 rounds with 11 of those hitting Hutchinson. The entire encounter happened in less than seven seconds. In the audio recording you could hear his wife screaming in the background. After Hutchinson was down the officers saw that he was holding a pair of binoculars that had been broken in half. Crum showed an evidence photo of the binoculars in Hutchinson’s lifeless hand and it did look very much like a firearm. The officers had to go through extensive psychological counseling before going back to work. Crum said he did this presentation to show a level of transparency with the Police Department. “Sometimes police departments hands are tied and because litigation they are unable to talk after an officer-involved shooting. Now that the investigation is over this is an opportunity to be transparent,” Crum said.