TUOLUMNE COUNTY, Calif. — The Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office released new video Friday of a deputy shooting and killing a man who had two guns on him during a traffic stop in February, according to a press release.
The deputy, only identified as deputy Zanini, pulled over a white truck around 11:05 p.m. Feb. 27 near Merrell Road and Harper Road in Groveland for having an obscured license plate, which is entirely blurred in the released video, and a left brake light that wasn't working. The video can be viewed here and is described below. Please note it is edited footage.
The video shows Zanini approach the car and begin talking to the truck driver about why he was stopped (the license plate and brake light). The driver, when asked for identification, said he didn't have a license on him. The driver and passenger give Zanini names, but no ID's, and he returned to his patrol vehicle to search them up.
The sheriff's office says the name given by the driver was an alias and he didn't have a California drivers license. The passenger identified himself and was 42-year-old Shawn Karr of Coulterville.
The deputy asked the driver to leave the truck and he consented to a physical search, according to the sheriff's office. During that search, a "vial... containing white residue" was found in the drivers pocket. The search was not included in the video released Friday.
The driver consented to a search of the truck as he was detained in the back of Zanini's car. The driver remained cooperative with Zanini and both spoke casually to each other, even when Zanini said he suspected the substance in the vial to be methamphetamine.
The video shows Zanini return to the truck to speak to Karr who was told he was being detained for officer safety while the truck was searched as part of the traffic stop.
The sheriff's office says the closest deputy to Zanini at the time would be 40 minutes away for backup, resulting in him trying to detain both men into his car so he could search the truck.
Karr gets out of the car and begins walking away from Zanini who warns him if he tries to leave, he will be arrested. The video shows Karr run away and Zanini chase. Karr is tackled and both men wrestle on the floor, covering Zanini's camera and eventually turning it off.
The video cuts in and out with and without audio before returning to hear at least three shots fired from Zanini at Karr around 11:27 p.m. It's unclear how many times Karr was shot and how many times Zanini fired as the audio wasn't on the entire video. Timestamps in the corner indicate Karr was pinned by Zanini for just shy of a minute.
The sheriff's office says Zanini's statement said Karr rolled onto his side and he "saw a revolver in his right hand and it 'scared the (expletive) out of me.'" He describes trying to wrestle with Karr before getting up and shooting at him.
Backup got to the scene roughly 20 minutes after the shooting. Two guns, one near Karr's hand and the other in his pocket, and 13 grams of methamphetamine were found on Karr, according to the sheriff's office and in the video. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
An investigation is still underway by the sheriff's office, the county district attorney's office and the California Department of Justice. No other information or video is available at this time.
