MESA, Ariz. — Charges have been dropped against a Mesa police officer who was fired and accused of aggravated assault last December.
A judge said the case did not provide probable cause that a crime had been committed.
The incident occurred after the manager of Ojos Locos called the police, claiming three men were drunk and disorderly and refused to leave the restaurant.
Body-camera video shows the men outside of the restaurant telling police they will leave as soon as their ride arrives.
“I’m not being aggressive. I’m just trying to get home,” says one of the men.
Eventually, two of the three men are handcuffed, and the third, Sewell, attempts to leave. A struggle ensues.
Sewell is over six-feet tall and weighs over 300 pounds, and the video shows three to four officers struggling to subdue him. Another officer fires his taser, but the stun gun has no effect.
That’s when Officer Nathan Chisler arrives.
Video shows Chisler removing his gun from its holster and pointing it at the lower torso/buttocks region of the struggling Sewell. He fires a single shot, and Sewell goes down not long after.
Sewell survived the shooting.
For at least six minutes, officers on the scene seemed to not know who fired the shot.
“The shooting appeared to be an accidental discharge,” said Jeff Hynes, a former Phoenix police commander and current professor at Glendale Community College.
“The problem is though, in his written report he says he fired on purpose and tried to justify why he fired,” Hynes said.
In paperwork released along with the video, Chisler says in a police interview after the shooting that he believed Sewell may have been armed and that it looked like his fellow officers had “zero control” over the larger man.
“His version of what occurred did not match what the video showed,” Hynes said.
”They had him outnumbered, they were using soft hand control techniques, they were gaining control.“
Following the incident, Mesa police put Chisler on administrative duty, pending an investigation.
It finished that investigation in late June and decided to terminate Chisler.
In a statement about the dismissal, the Mesa police association said:
“[The] dismissal of charges against Officer Chisler was predictable and appropriate. In fact, when the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office filed criminal charges in June against our officer, the Mesa Police Association voiced its disagreement both privately and publicly. We believed from the onset that due process was circumvented. Today, the trial judge dismissed the case due to a lack of probable cause. This is the right conclusion. We hope that going forward, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office will respect due process – particularly one that is free from political influence."
