Cop’s Body Camera Not On During Midway Fatal Shooting – Which Did Not Involve Knife As First Reported

What exactly happened that night in the dark alley behind the adult book store?

There are now two very curious things about last week’s fatal shooting by a San Diego police officer of a knife-wielding man in the Midway area.

First, the police officer’s body camera was not on – or at least was not recording.

And second, there was no knife – as first reported – but some kind of “shiny-looking object” in the suspect’s hand, as the U-T San Diego reported today, 5/7/15.

This much we do know: a man named Fridoon Zalbeg Rawshannehad, 31 years of age, was shot to death by San Diego police officer Neil Browder right after midnight, Thursday April 30th. The shooting occurred behind a Midway District adult store, the Hi-Lite Theatre and Bookstore.  Browder is a 27-year veteran of San Diego’s police force and he was wearing one of the newly-purchased body cameras.

Supposedly the man had entered the store and had threatened the clerk and once the cop arrived and found him in an alley behind the store, he had advanced on the officer, the officer had given him verbal commands, and then fired.

Police Chief Shelly Zimmerman has promised a thorough investigation, and stated to the press, without explaining why it didn’t happen in this case –

“For enforcement contact, if our officers are going to make an enforcement contact, they will hit the record button.

“In any officer-involved shooting, we conduct a very methodical comprehensive and thorough investigation and that question will be answered during the investigation.”

In this case, there was apparently an “enforcement contact” but Browder for some reason failed to hit record on his camera. So, apparently, Chief Zimmerman will get to the bottom of why the camera wasn’t on or wasn’t recording.

This is how the story was first reported:

San Diego Police officers shot and killed a knife-wielding man early Thursday in the Midway District. An employee of the Highlight Book Store called for help after the armed man threatened people in the 3200 block of Hancock Street near West Camino del Rio around 12:05 a.m., San Diego Police Lt. Mike Hastings said.

The man then entered the business and threatened the worker before heading back outside. An arriving officer spotted the suspect behind the building.

The knife- wielding man charged at the officer prompting him to open fire, according to Hastings. The suspect was taken to a hospital but later died, Hastings said. His name was withheld pending family notification. Hastings said the officer who shot the suspect had been with the San Diego Police Department for 27 years.

Now, as the U-T reported, police are saying that Rawshannehad was not carrying a knife during the incident but actually had a “shiny-looking object in his hand”. This is from the same Lt. Hastings of homicide who also told the press that the object is currently being analyzed at the crime lab.

Coincidentally or not – it was just this week that Chief Zimmerman presented a proposed 2016 budget to the City Council that included $2.1 million for 400 more body cameras, which would bring the total number of body cameras for police officers to 1,000. approximately one per cop.