WESTMINSTER, Colo. — The Westminster Police Department on Friday released body camera video from the officer who fatally shot a woman last month.
According to the department, the officer was on routine patrol around 4:41 p.m. on July 25 when he spotted a silver SUV that was facing westbound in the eastbound turn lane on 88th Avenue, just before Lamar Drive.
In the video, the officer — identified as Officer Nick Adams — talks with the driver of a Jeep Rubicon that was in the turn lane — roughly 15 to 25 feet in front of the SUV — before approaching the SUV.
Adams taps on the driver's side window of the SUV and motions for the driver, who was the only occupant, to roll down her window. The woman looks at the officer but does not roll down the window. She is seen in the video holding a charm that is attached to a necklace she is wearing.
Adams knocks on the window and asks the woman to roll down her window, which she does.
"What's going on? You're in the wrong lane," Adams said.
The woman does not say anything as she adjusts her necklace.
"Are you OK?" Adams asked.
The woman remains silent and continues to adjust the necklace.
"Are you OK, ma'am?" Adams asked. "What's going on? Tell me what's going on? Are you OK?"
The woman is looking down, but due to the angle of the bodycam, it is unclear what she is looking at. Her hands are not visible in the video.
After not receiving a response, Adams asks, "Can you tell me what's going on? Why are you in the wrong lane?"
The woman, who is still silent, has removed her necklace and is handling the chain. She reaches around her neck as Adams asks, "Can you tell me why you're in the wrong lane?"
After not receiving an answer, Adams takes a step back and speaks into his radio.
"I don't know what I've got here," Adams said. "I've got a female that won't answer any questions."
After describing his location, Adams returns to the driver's side of the SUV and asks the woman, "What's going on?"
"Can you tell me what's going on, ma'am? Please?" the officer said. "Are you OK? Do you need an ambulance? Are you alright?"
The woman provides a quick response, but it is not clear what she says.
"OK... have you been drinking or anything?" Adams responded. "It doesn't look like you've been drinking."
The angle of the bodycam does not show the inside of the SUV. After a brief pause, you hear Adams ask the woman, "What, what do you got in there?"
Adams steps closer to the window and asks again, "What do you got in there, ma'am?"
Adams' tone becomes more serious, and he asks the woman what she has two more times. The officer reaches into the SUV but quickly pulls back his arm and moves down the driver's side of the vehicle. He screams "Oh, f***!" as he pulls out his service weapon and fires two shots.
The woman can be heard screaming. Adams fires a third shot through the driver's side passenger window, then the screaming stops. He then fires a fourth shot.
Adams calls the shooting in over his radio and walks towards the woman. "Don't move," he said.
The officer then turns his attention to the Jeep, which is still parked roughly 15 to 25 feet in front of the SUV. "Are you OK? Are you OK?" he yells at the driver of the Jeep while still standing near the SUV.
Adams turns his attention back to the woman in the SUV and says into his radio, "Start rescue. She's down inside the car still. Had a handgun."
The officer then walks toward the Jeep, yelling at the driver, "Are you alright?" He bangs on the hood and asks if she is OK. It is unclear if the Jeep driver responds.
Adams walks back to the SUV, and after talking with someone on the radio, he opens the driver's door. Westminster PD blurred most of the video, but a visible portion shows a large pool of blood on the woman's leg.
The bodycam video shows Adams removing a handgun from the woman's right hand and placing it on the dashboard. She does not move.
"I've got the gun secured. No response from her," Adams tells an officer who arrived on-scene. "People downrange appear to be Code 4." According to Stanford University, Code 4 means no further assistance is needed.
The other officer pulls the woman out of the car, lays her on the street and begins to perform life-saving measures. He yells out that he cannot feel a pulse.
Adams takes the handgun and walks toward his patrol vehicle, which is parked behind the Jeep. On the way, he stops by the driver's side of the Jeep and asks the driver if she is OK.
The woman responds to the officer, but it is inaudible.
"I'm so sorry, so sorry," Adams said, choking back tears. "I'm so sorry."
In the video, you can hear the officer crying and apologizing to the Jeep driver.
"She wouldn't talk to me. She just, she had some, like, charm or something and she wouldn't talk to me," Adams told the driver. "I said, 'Do you need an ambulance? What do you need?' And she reached into the center console, and I saw this gun. She reached for it and pointed it right at me. I was so worried I was going to shoot downrange at you."
After asking the woman her name, Adams says she is going to need to stick around for some time and says she can call anyone she needs to. He says she can use his work cellphone to make those calls.
A fellow officer comes up to Adams and says they need him.
"Hold on a minute. I'm consoling her, man. I put one right through her window," Adams chirps back. It is unclear where the bullet went.
After telling the fellow officer that he and the Jeep driver are OK, he heads to his patrol vehicle and secures the handgun. He then grabs his work phone and starts to head back to the Jeep when he is stopped by another officer named Mark.
"You good? You sure?" Mark asks as he embraces Adams. "Yeah, yeah yeah," Adams responds.
The two walk back to the Jeep, and Adams introduces Mark to the Jeep driver. He also hands her his work phone and gives her instructions of how to use it.
The video ends with a screenshot from the shooting that has been zoomed in on. A red square draws focus to an object that is not easily identifiable.
The SUV driver was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Her identity has not been released.
Per department policy, the officer was placed on paid administrative leave. The 17th Judicial Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) is investigating the shooting. According to Westminster PD, that investigation is in its early stages.
Once the investigation is complete, the findings will be presented to the First Judicial District Attorney's Office for review.
You can watch the full bodycam video through this link. Warning: some viewers may find the video disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.
