Man who fatally shot officer was ‘obsessed’ with ISIS
He threatened to cut off wife’s head before he shot SJPD officer in 2015
SAN JOSE — The suicidal man who fatally shot Officer Michael Johnson in an ambush last year before being shot and killed by police was “obsessed with ISIS” and earlier threatened to decapitate his wife while under the influence of a “near toxic mix” of antidepressants and alcohol, according to a report released Thursday.
The 47-page report by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office also formally declared San Jose police Officer Douglas Potwora was jus- tified when he fired a pinpoint rifle shot that killed 57-year-old Scott Irwin Dunham on his second-floor balcony the evening of March 24, 2015.
“Dunham appeared not only determined to die at the hands of police that evening, but equally determined to first take as many officers’ lives as he could,” Deputy District Attorney Carolyn Powell wrote on the report’s final page. “Had (Of- among several officers who responded to a call to the Senter Road apartment. Dunham’s wife called her daughter, who in turn called police, after Dunham kicked his wife and threatened her with a handgun while proclaiming that he wanted to shoot himself. The wife also told investigators that Dunham told her “he could cut off her head
and no one would ever know,” and she likened that statement to the actions of the Islamic State, which she said he was “obsessed” with to the point of saying he wanted to join the Army to fight them.
Dunham, a former groundskeeper for De AnzaFoothill Community College District, reportedly told his wife that he would shoot her if she did not leave the apartment.
The wife told investigators that Dunham was bipolar and schizophrenic, did not consistently take his prescribed anti-psychotic drugs, and abused alcohol. He also had a history of battering her, the report said.
As Johnson and a halfdozen other officers approached the apartment, taking cover behind vehicles parked along the street, Dunham reportedly came out onto the balcony screaming, his wife said.
Dunham refused orders by the officers to show his hands, and soon opened fire at them with a Winchester .30-30 rifle, with one of the bullets hitting and killing Johnson.
Potwora, who was not immediately aware that Johnson had been wounded, fired two rounds toward the balcony and then two more when he caught sight of Dunham looking over the balcony, but missed him. Authorities say Potwora then used the scope on his AR-15 rifle and trained his sight on a spot over the railing where Dunham had popped up.
When Dunham appeared once more, Potwora fired, hitting Dunham in the head.
Johnson, 38, was a 14year SJPD veteran and was the 12th officer killed in the line of duty in the department’s history.
The anniversary of his death was commemorated with the dedication in his name of a stretch of Highway 87 between Interstate 280 and Highway 85, near where Johnson grew up in San Jose.