SPIRIT LAKE, Idaho — Spirit Lake police shared body camera video showing the moment an officer shot and killed a 67-year-old suicidal woman who fired a gun in their direction.
The police department, alongside Spirit Lake Mayor Jeremy Cowperthwaite, held a press conference Friday evening, unveiling more information on what led to the death of SA Floyd on Nov. 1.
The conference followed Kootenai County Prosecutor Stanley Mortensen’s report, shared earlier Friday, finding the officers involved were justified in their use of force.
That report stated SA Floyd fired at them first. Body camera video from both officers involved appeared to corroborate that account. What appeared to be a gun was visible in Floyd’s hand and what sounded like a gunshot was heard moments before Spirit Lake Police Department officer James Windrem returned fire.
Between what sounds like Floyd firing, about 10 seconds pass, during which Windrem calls “shots fired” over his radio, before Windrem fired a clip at Floyd. During that time, Floyd shouted at the officers to leave.
Chief Michael Morlan was Windrem’s partner in the incident. In Friday’s press conference, he said that was part of the reason for a lack of transparency over what happened in the months after the shooting.
“When I was sworn in, I said that we’d be transparent and that we would provide information to our citizens,” Morlan said. “Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I want you to know that will never happen again.”
The other main reason: the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office wouldn’t let Spirit Lake share more details, even though they wanted to.
“I think some of the missing information would have cleared a lot of this up for all of you… I apologize to you all, I apologize to the citizens here,” Morlan said. “I want you to all understand that the lead agency that conducted the investigation directed us not to provide any details that might jeopardize their investigation, or that of the prosecution.
“I think that was some critical information the citizens and the media should have had,” Morlan continued. “I was hopeful that the lead agency would provide that to all of you… that didn’t happen… so we waited three months.”
After sharing the body camera video with the audience, Spirit Lake Police Department Lieutenant Eric Reade took questions from two frustrated community members.
The pair, who said they knew Floyd well, pressed Reade on why officers entered Floyd’s room at all, particularly after she repeatedly insisted, they leave — something clear in the body camera video police shared.
“We have to rely on the person who’s making the phone call,” Reade said. “(The callers) are friends of hers that knew her very well and said she made suicidal threats. That indicated to officers that there was a possible medical emergency.”
Reade also said officers had to consider whether they were legally required to medically evaluate Floyd to see if she was in danger.
A community member questioned how the officers didn’t consider that ripping Floyd’s blanket off her, given that she is blind, could startle her. Reade responded by saying the officers weren’t necessarily aware of that, and that they were in a position where they had to make split second decisions.
“They’re working with what they had at the time,” Reade said. “They were… reacting to someone shooting at them.”
But one of the callers who spoke with dispatchers did mention Floyd was “pretty much blind.” When pressed on whether officers were aware of that, Reade said he didn’t know.
Morlan rounded out the presser again questioning why investigators were so reticent to share certain information.
“Like you, we scratched our head as to why some facts couldn’t be put out to you,” Morlan said.
