Bodycam Shows Calif. Police Officer's Fight for Control Inside Robbery Suspect’s Fleeing SUV

By Aldo Toledo

Source San Francisco Chronicle

Trapped in a robbery suspect’s vehicle, an Antioch police officer found himself in a life-or-death struggle with the driver as they raced down city streets and negotiated how to end their predicament.

“Stop the car,” officer Travis Donaldson shouted over and over.

“Get out,” the suspect, later identified by police as 23-year-old Dominick DeSouza, kept repeating back.

Harrowing footage released by Antioch police Thursday shows how Donaldson ended up in DeSouza’s passenger seat and the chaos that ensued, after police responded to a robbery on the 4500 block of Lone Tree Way in the early morning of Feb. 20.

Surveillance and officer body-worn camera footage shows the moment a suspected robbery crew rammed the SUV into a Lone Tree Way store, as police quickly swarmed the parking lot.

In the footage, another Antioch officer can be seen using his patrol car to block the SUV, whose driver then slams on the gas and crashes into the patrol vehicle’s side.

Donaldson can be seen approaching the SUV driven by DeSouza as he starts to go in reverse, according to police. In one swift motion, Donaldson attempts to grab DeSouza but is inadvertently pulled into the vehicle, the footage shows.

The door can be seen closing behind Donaldson as the car flees with the officer now in the passenger’s seat.

With the SUV’s wipers going, they speed through the strip mall, while Donaldson can be heard screaming at the driver, “let me see your hands.”

The video then goes dark for a moment before showing Donaldson sitting shotgun inside the suspects’ vehicle driving at high speeds through the parking lot of a strip mall as they get into a physical altercation. At some point, they fight over the shift gear.

As DeSouza speeds through the lot, the officer can be heard yelling for him to “stop the car” while clutching his handgun. DeSouza offers another idea: “Get out,” he says.

“I'm going to crash this (expletive) car, I ain’t going to jail,” DeSouza says in the footage. Donaldson then pleads with the driver as he continues to say he’ll crash the car.

“Talk to me, talk to me,” the officer says.

“That’s not gonna work, bro, it’s not gonna work,” the driver responds.

“I’ll shoot your ass, stop,” the officer says. “I’ll put one in you.”

“I got a family, get out,” DeSouza says.

The interaction turns into a chess game. The driver thinks the officer will shoot him, unless he is going so fast that doing so will cause a dangerous crash. He asks the officer to throw the gun out the window.

The altercation continues, with the officer asking the driver to stop, telling him it’s not worth it and warning that he’ll shoot if he doesn’t. Donaldson briefly tries to hit DeSouza’s hand.

When that doesn’t work, he shoots him in the leg. Police officials on Thursday said Donaldson purposefully aimed for DeSouza’s leg to minimize the risk to both men and anyone in their way.

Moments after the shooting, DeSouza crashes into a parked car and runs off. He was later found and arrested while hiding in the yard of a home, according to the police footage.

DeSouza was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Now, he’s facing several felonies including kidnapping, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon upon a peace officer, two counts of burglary, grand theft, and unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle. DeSouza, who has pleaded not guilty, remains in custody in lieu of $600,000 bail and is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing in June.

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