Use of force experts raise concerns about deadly police shooting of Charles Byers: 'Doesn't make sense'

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — Policing experts who specialize in use of force raised concerns about the deadly police shooting of Charles Byersafter viewing body-camera footage of the encounter.

Byers was shot and killed by a Chesterfield Police officer on July 8, 2023. Officers responded to a neighborhood for reports of breaking and entering and found Byers holding a hatchet. It was determined after his death that Byers was in the midst of a mental health crisis and under an active court order to be held in a psychiatric hospital.

CBS 6 showed the footage to Jerry Rodriguez and David Klinger, two experts with law enforcement experience outside of the Richmond area.

Rodriguez led use-of-force divisions in police departments in Baltimore and Los Angeles, investigated police shootings in the San Francisco prosecutor's office, and is now an expert consultant. Klinger is a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and an author, trainer, and researcher focusing on use of force. As a former patrol officer, Klinger was involved in a shooting himself.

Both experts said the Byers shooting left them with questions about the officer's actions.

"There's a lot of questions that I have after viewing this from an administrative lens," Rodgriguez said.

"It doesn't make sense to me on its face," Klinger said.

WATCH: Chesterfield officer who shot, killed Charles Byers was previously sued for excessive force

Starting at the beginning of the video, both Klinger and Rodriguez said they were concerned that the male officer pulled his car up so close to Byers when he arrived on the scene. A female officer who arrived seconds before the male officer kept her vehicle at a greater distance from Byers.

Chesterfield Police said the male officer was about four to six feet away from Byers during their closest interaction.

"That to me is not optimal. That to me is not in keeping with best, generally accepted police practices. You want to give yourself some distance, especially if the individual is armed," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez and Klinger said the officers' commands that followed were easy to understand, and they appeared to collaborate on who would have a lethal weapon and who would have a nonlethal weapon. The female officer displayed her Taser while the male officer displayed his gun.

"So that was good," Klinger said. "They were calm, cool and collected. They weren't shouting, calling him names or anything or cursing at him."

While Byers' mental health crisis did not become apparent to police until after the shooting, Rodriguez said he detected obvious signs of distress in the video.

"It should have sparked some question in the officers when you see an individual barefooted, dressed the way he was in shorts with that hatchet and responding in the manner that he did," Rodriguez said. "And if and when an officer is aware of that, you need to kind of slow down a little bit, develop a little distance, time, and if possible, bring in additional resources."

Chesterfield Police described Byers' behavior as unrelenting and threatening due to his noncompliance with commands to drop the hatchet. The officers gave at least fifteen commands before using force.

Klinger said the risk stands that Byers could have thrown the hatchet, but considering Byers held the hatchet down by his side throughout the exchange, that seemed less likely.

"There's no evidence that I saw in the video at real time that that was happening, but those are the sorts of things that could happen," Klinger said.

And the experts said the threat diminishes further with the fact that Byers was backing away from officers, not advancing toward them.

"There was still some time where we could have, if the options were available, deployed additional de-escalation tactics," Rodgriguez said.

After about 45 seconds of engaging with Byers, the male officer fired his first round of five gunshots at Byers as he continued to retreat while holding the hatchet.

Both experts said they expected to see an action by Byers in that moment that escalated the situation, but they did not.

"I don't see anything that would say, oh, that changed this moment from a non-shoot to a shoot situation," Klinger said.

"I didn't see the exigency at that second. I'm not commenting on the criminal decision that's already been done, but administratively, we look at everything that an officer does leading up to, during and immediately after, which includes the number of rounds fired," Rodriguez said.

Then, Byers turned around to run away, and the male officer fired two more gunshots at his back.

"That raises a whole other issue of, 'Why are you shooting at someone who is running away?" Klinger said.

"Generally speaking, we do not shoot in the back unless that is the only option for the officer to deploy lethal force at that minute to stop a very violent threat, which poses an immediate danger of life and death to someone else, which I didn't see," Rodriguez said.

WATCH: Parents see body-cam video of their mentally ill son hours before he was killed

Chesterfield Police said the officer had a duty to protect themselves and the public.

Additionally, the officer was cleared of criminal wrongdoing by Commonwealth's Attorney Erin Barr who determined the officer could not allow Byers to walk toward an intersection and other homes.

However, Klinger and Rodriguez said the video does not show any residents or pedestrians in Byers' path.

"Did [the officer] believe that there was a threat that was about to occur to some innocent people? Based upon the spatial layout that is apparent to me, at least in the video, that doesn't seem to be the case," Klinger said.

Both experts said it's crucial to understand what was going through the officer's mind and acknowledged they would need to see statements from the officer to form a more conclusive opinion of the officer's actions.

A statement from the officer would be included in the criminal investigative files which the police department has not released publicly.

"It's going to be up to each individual officer to be able to articulate why they use deadly force and ultimately to justify their use of deadly force when it's in question," said Mark Bong, a local attorney who often represents police in court.

Bong did not want to comment on the specifics of the case, but he spoke generally about what an officer may be thinking during a similar encounter.

"Do they feel that they've been in danger? Do they have an avenue of retreat? Have the events unfolded suddenly? Those factors all matter," Bong said.

Bong said lethal force is legally judged on whether it was necessary, reasonable, and lawful.

He added a threat must be imminent at the very moment force is used.

"When confronted with a threat that is life-threatening, police can respond in kind. Once that threat is withdrawn though, they're no longer justified in using that deadly force," Bong said.

Meanwhile, the experts who spoke to CBS 6 said the case does not appear cut and dried.

"It's definitely one where, as I indicated, I'm scratching my head," Klinger said.

The Byers family has been critical of the way police handled the situation, and they're suing the officer and Chesterfield County for allegedly violating his rights to be free from excessive force and failing to de-escalate.

The Chesterfield Police Department said in a statement that it stands by the officer, saying he took the appropriate and necessary actions.

Chesterfield Police said an administrative investigation of the officer's use of force in the Byers shooting found no violations of internal policies.

However, police said they would not release the internal report indicating how they came to that conclusion.

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