Bodycam videos show 2 SDPD shootings of man with baby, man with hostage (2024)

The San Diego Police Department on Tuesday released body-camera footage of two separate incidents where their officers shot suspects last week, including one that shows an SDPD officer shoot a man with an 11-month-old baby and another that shows officers shoot a man holding someone at knifepoint.

The two shootings happened 12 hours apart. Both videos released by the department have been edited with text, added graphics pauses and other details.

Chollas Creek Shooting

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: The video below was edited and released by San Diego police and shows an SDPD officer shooting a suspect. Viewer discretion is advised.

In the Chollas Creek incident, SDPD officers were called at about 10:20 p.m. to the 400 block of 47th Street by a woman who said her ex-boyfriend and father of her child, identified as 29-year-old Steffon Nutall, went into her apartment and threatened to shoot her if she didn't open the bedroom door.

The woman, fearing for her life, let Nutall into the bedroom, investigators said. In the video, Nutall could be heard picking up the phone, which still had the dispatcher on the line, and threatening to harm the woman and their daughter.

"If the police come to this door, (expletive), I'm going to kill everything in here. I promise you that. So you call 911, (expletive), I'm killing people," Nutall said in the phone call recording.

Nutall then grabbed the girl, investigators said. He was spotted leaving the apartment with the baby as officers arrived, deputies said, and he fled toward the Orange Line's 47th Street Trolley Station and then into a nearby apartment complex.

Multiple officers were searching the area when Officer Robert Gladysz located Nutall, who was "lying in a bush on a steep, wooded hill" in the apartment complex's corner, the department wrote in the video.

Nutall was told by Gladysz to show his hands, according to the video.

The department says Nutall, using his right hand, then pointed an object toward Gladysz before the officer shot his service weapon, striking Nutall. Ten rounds could be heard in the video.

"He pointed the gun at me," Gladysz said in the video.

The department says Nutall was holding his daughter under his left arm at the time he was shot.

"I didn't see a kid. I saw the gun," Gladysz, who has been with the department for a year and a half, told another officer who asked if the suspect had the baby in his possession.

SDPD's helicopter helped officers find the baby at the top of a wall. Nutall was in front of that wall, SDPD said. Officers told Nutall to put both hands up.

"I can't," Nutall could be heard saying from a second officer's body-worn camera. "I have no gun."

Officers began lifesaving measures at the scene, which continued until paramedics arrived, who took Nutall to the hospital where he underwent surgery, San Diego County Sheriff's Department Lt. Mike Krugh said. As of Tuesday, Nutall is still recovering from the multiple gunshot wounds, police said.

The baby was not seriously injured in the incident and was returned to her mother, who was also unharmed, police said. No officers were injured.

The man was suspected in a domestic-violence incident. NBC 7's Audra Stafford reports.

The video released by SDPD also includes security camera video that captured Nutall dropping a gun in the trolley station parking lot. The gun on the ground was also captured on a third officer's body-worn camera.

The department said the officers chasing Nutall did not see the firearm next to the curb but that the gun had been recovered.

Nutall faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, burglary, child endangerment and felon in possession of a firearm.

The officer who fired at the suspect has been placed on paid administrative leave, per SDPD policy.

The Sheriff's Department is investigating the shooting due to a memorandum of understanding that limits law enforcement from investigating their own officer-involved incidents.

It is still unclear what was in Nutall's right hand when he was shot. Part of the investigation will also look into why the officer opened fire with a child so close, Krugh said.

Morena Shooting

Hours after the Chollas Creek shooting, San Diego police were involved in another shooting of a suspect -- this time a knife-wielding man in the Morena neighborhood, law enforcement said.

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: The video below was edited and released by San Diego police and shows an SDPD officer shooting a suspect. Viewer discretion is advised.

Around 10:40 a.m., San Diego police received a report of a robbery and assault with a deadly weapon in the 1000 block of Morena Blvd., according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department's Homicide Unit Lt. Mike Krugh.

According to the victim, a man in his 20s entered a store and picked out some merchandise, then asked the victim if they accepted credit cards.

The victim answered that they did and went behind the counter to ring up the sale when the suspect started walking out of the store without making an attempt to pay for the merchandise, Lt. Krugh said.

"The victim attempted to stop the suspect from leaving when the suspect pulled out a knife and threatened the victim. The suspect then fled the scene. San Diego police officers arrived on the scene and obtained a physical description of the suspect and broadcast that to officers in the surrounding areas," Lt. Krugh said.

Officers later spotted the suspect near 5300 Napa St. and tried to detain him. In helicopter video of SDPD's initial encounter with the suspect, he appeared to have two knives on him and was noncooperative with officers' commands, Lt. Krugh said.

In the body-camera video, officers can be heard yelling to the suspect to "Drop the gun" and then later "Drop the knife."

The suspect then started walking backward. SDPD officers deployed a taser, which appeared to have no effect on the suspect or may have even missed, from what can be seen in the video. The man ran across roads as officers followed him to a transient encampment in the 5300 block of Friars Road.

Helicopter then shows the suspect take another man hostage while holding a knife to his neck. He eventually takes down what police describe as a hostage as the victim's two dogs attack the suspect, the video showed. He then appears to stab the victim with the object.

Three officers fired at the suspect, hitting him at least one time, according to Lt. Krugh. At the time, three officers were on scene, Lt. Krugh added.

Officers immediately began life-saving measures on the suspect until paramedics arrived, but the suspect died at the scene.

The victim of the knife assault was not injured in the incident, Krugh said. No officers were injured during the confrontation.

The involved officers have been employed by the SDPD for 12, one and a half and six and a half years. Two of them are patrol officers with the Western Division, and the third one is with the SDPD's Neighborhood Policing Team, according to Krugh.

In accordance with the San Diego County Memorandum of Understanding, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department will be taking the lead on the third-party investigation into the shootings. That report will then be reviewed by the District Attorney's Office.