St. Paul police release body camera, squad car footage in fatal shooting of Mychel Stowers
ST. PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul police have released body camera footage of the fatal police shooting of Mychel Stowers, a 36-year-old man who was suspected of killing his pregnant ex-wife.
Mychel Stowers was shot by police near Watson Avenue and Bay Street on Saturday afternoon. Police were tipped off that he was on a bicycle near a laundromat in the area.
Police released video footage of the shooting from three angles: the body-worn cameras of officers Eric Jaworski and Matthew Foy, as well as footage from the squad car.
Video shows Foy driving the squad car, with Jaworski in the passenger seat carrying a long gun. Foy closes in on Mychel Stowers, and according to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Mychel Stowers "produced a handgun and pointed it at the officers." A gun is not clearly visible in the video and subsequent still images, though the BCA says they recovered one at the scene.
Jaworski fires several shots from inside the squad car, and Mychel Stowers stumbles off his bike and falls to the ground. Foy then gets out of the squad and fires several more shots in Mychel Stowers' direction, according to the video.
St. Paul police say the officers then called for medical aid, and Mychel Stowers was taken to the hospital, where he died.
"We are committed to the sanctity of the independent investigation; we are also committed to the transparency of our actions. That's why we are releasing the body-worn camera (BWC) and in car camera footage from this incident," said St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry. "We grieve with the families impacted, our community, and our officers. We hope that with working together as a community, we can prevent these outcomes in the future."
Jaworski and Foy both have 10 years of law enforcement experience. They are on critical incident leave.
Damara Stowers, who was eight to nine weeks pregnant, was shot and killed on Oct. 19 inside her apartment in St. Paul. Mychel Stowers was on parole after spending more than a decade in prison for killing a man in 2008 and was granted a pass to be at the apartment complex that night, court documents said.
After Damara Stowers was shot, witnesses said a man ran south. Police received a call from a man saying he had been shot on Acker Street, and that his car had been stolen. Documents say Mychel Stowers called a Ramsey County Sheriff's Office employee to say he had just shot someone on Acker Street and he wanted to turn himself in. However, he did not do so.
He was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of carjacking and two counts of assault.
The BCA is continuing to investigate the shooting.