Police release shooting videos

TULSA — The Tulsa Police Department released several videos Thursday involving its latest fatal shooting, as well as the names of the three officers who pulled their triggers.

Officers Chad Murtaugh and Tracy Komasa and Cpl. Joel Ward fired shots Saturday evening at Jimmie Bevenue, ending a foot chase.

Police encountered Bevenue about 8 p.m. at a home near Fourth Place and Garnett Road, where officers had seen a possible stolen vehicle in the driveway.

Bevenue, 47, allegedly ran from officers with a gun in his hand and kicked in the back door of a home, prompting officers to fire at him. An elderly woman inside the home was not injured, police said.

Video from a police helicopter shows Bevenue running through a conjoining backyard toward another home after shots are fired by at least one officer. He runs to the east side of the house — out of view from the helicopter camera — where he was fatally shot.

He disappears from the helicopter’s view about nine seconds after the first shots can be heard in the helicopter video. Gunshots are heard on a video from an officer’s body camera for approximately 13 seconds.

Body cam video shows a handgun lying near Bevenue’s body when officers approach him after he had gone down from the gunfire.

Police spokeswoman Jeanne MacKenzie said Bevenue did not shoot at officers.

Sgt. Shane Tuell said Bevenue apparently kicked in the back door of the first residence and gained partial entry. He fled, however, and Tuell said it is unclear whether he ran as a reaction to the home’s occupant or the police presence.

Tuell said the dynamics of the situation changed drastically once officers saw Bevenue try to break into a house to escape, also noting that officers had seen he was holding a gun as he ran.

The three officers who fired their guns have not been interviewed by detectives yet, Tuell said, so it is not clear the exact moment relative to the break-in that shots were first fired. Police previously said they ordered Bevenue to drop his weapon before firing.

“When he’s finally fatally shot, the gun was laying right there next to him, so he obviously had it in his hands,” Tuell said.

Police later confirmed the vehicle was stolen, and that the gun Bevenue had in his possession was in the vehicle when it was taken.

Bevenue reportedly was with three other people and fled when officers pulled up.

Video shows police telling the other people to get on the ground near the end of the driveway and stay there as other officers go after Bevenue.

The officer eventually has them lie flat on the ground, and soon another person walks out of the house where the stolen vehicle was parked. The officer orders that person to get off the phone and get on the ground, as well.

“Who’s the guy with the gun out back? What’s his name? I need to know his name,” the officer says.

Moments later the officer curses as gunshots ring out.

After checking the far side of the residence with his gun drawn, the officer doubles back and tells the four people to “stay low” and get behind a parked truck along the curb. Police placed a ballistics shield on the ground next to a tire to give the four people better cover.

The three officers who discharged their weapons are on routine paid administrative leave, according to police.

Murtaugh, 38, has been a TPD officer since January 2006; Komasa, 31, since January 2012; and Ward, 58, since September 1992.