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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTBS) — A deputy Shreveport city marshal who shot and killed a man during a family violence call in August is back at work.
A Caddo Parish grand jury in September declined to indict Deputy Marshal Derrek Brown, ruling that Brown’s use of force against Bobby Wallace was justified. Wallace punched a Shreveport police officer twice, then threw his phone at Brown during the confrontation on Sunnybrook Street Aug. 2.
3 Investigates obtained the dash and body cam video, audio recordings and investigation reports the grand jury reviewed — and those records raise questions about whether the shooting could have been prevented. They also show just how quickly these dangerous situations can unfold and the complexity of such investigations.
Wallace, 41, was shot with his arms outstretched. He died in the hospital.
Toxicology reports revealed he had Fentanyl — an opioid — several anti-seizure medications and the powerful sedative Midazolam in his blood. Tests also showed low levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
Footage recorded by the dash camera in Shreveport Police Corporal Erick Alford’s police vehicle shows the entire encounter between Wallace and Shreveport police Cpl. Tracy Stovall that led up to the shooting. Video from the body camera Brown wore shows a different view of the same scene until part of Brown’s equipment obscures the view.
Caddo Parish District Attorney James Stewart believes the investigation was fair and thorough.
Stewart brought the investigation to the grand jury because it is his policy to turn all homicides over to a grand jury.
“I think you have to watch all the videos, and that’s the first key,” Stewart said. “Because initially there was one video that may have caused a few concerns with some people. But I think once you watch all the videos from several different directions, looked at all the reports, looked at original call and put it all together, it gives you a good idea of why the grand jury did what they did.”
3 Investigates scoured through dash camera and body camera footage from three law enforcement officers: Brown, Alford and Stovall. We also looked at police reports, crime scene photos and 911 recordings, which tell the full story.
It started around 10:20 a.m., when a neighbor on Sunnybrook Street, in the Sunset Acres neighborhood, called 911. She said Wallace was passed out in his yard, face down, and told the dispatcher he’d suffered a seizure.
Paramedics arrived to help, but had to pull back. Brown’s body camera records a paramedic saying, “There was gunfire coming out of that house when we pulled up. We dropped out.”
After the paramedics left, the same neighbor called 911 again.
“(Wallace) just jumped up and started screaming at us, talking about how (I) was the one that made me beat that old man, and started busting the windows out of my house,” the neighbor said.
The old man she was referring to was Bobby Wallace’s grandfather, Foster Wallace. Officers who responded to the second 911 call found him roughed up in the carport.
“He was beaten. His eyes were swollen. He had visibly been beaten pretty bad,” Shreveport City Marshal Chasen Swan told investigators during an interview after the incident.
City marshals were on the scene for backup after the call went out to the Shreveport Police Department.
Stovall was one of the first officers to arrive after the second 911 call. He later told investigators that Bobby Wallace walked right up to him.
“He starts coming across the street. Just walking normal,” Stovall said, telling investigators he originally thought Wallace was a concerned neighbor. “I’m still not sure about him, so I said, ‘Did you have a seizure?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I did.’ That’s when I realized, this is the dude that we’re here on.”
By Stovall’s account, he didn’t let Wallace know he was a suspect.
“He was real cool. He wasn’t excitable. Seemed normal,” Stovall said. “I said, ‘Come over here. I’m going to let you sit down for a minute.'”
Stovall quickly patted Wallace down. He didn’t find anything dangerous, and didn’t handcuff him. He guided Wallace to the police cruiser by the back of his shirt.
Brown was there for backup. As Stovall turned to open the front, driver’s side door and unlock the back door, Wallace’s demeanor takes a sudden, chilling turn.
“I know my life’s about to come to an end, y’all,” Wallace said, right before he punches Stovall in the face twice.
Brown then fires a non-lethal beanbag round at Wallace. Wallace, seemingly unaffected by the round, throws a cellphone in Brown’s direction, then spreads his arms.
Then, Brown shot Wallace three times.
“A normal person in the normal, right mind doesn’t just say that, ‘Today’s my day to die,’” Brown told investigators in an interview, the day after the shooting. “At that point, I was just thinking, ‘I really don’t know where his frame of mind was, but it heightened me up a little bit.’ And then after he popped – hit– struck Stovall two times, I knew then what his mindset was. And after he made that threat to me, that ‘I’m gonna die,’ I knew that it was my life or his.”
From a legal perspective, the grand jury agreed with Brown. However, new questions arise from the footage.
If Stovall knew Wallace was the suspect in a “shots fired” call, why didn’t he cuff him? Could this shooting have been prevented?
Shreveport investigators raised that question in the interview with Brown.
“Do you think it was unusual that Stovall wasn’t gaining control, or patting him down?” a detective asked Brown.
“Absolutely,” Brown replied. “Do I feel it’s unusual? Yes. Can I speak for (Shreveport Police) — or can I speak for their training? No.”
3 Investigates ran those questions by Corporal Marcus Hines, a spokesman for the Shreveport Police Department.
He said when it comes to handcuffing someone, “An officer has discretion, based upon the totality of the circumstances that he or she witnesses at the time.”
In this case, Stovall said Wallace was calm, and as far as he knew, unarmed.
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