Carl Storm, a police officer in Bourbon,
Missouri, shot and killed Gary Wenzel at the end of an
approximately 11-minute-long car chase. Storm said he noticed
“improper” plates and found out Wenzel had “outstanding warrants.”
Dispatchers also apparently told Storm about Wenzel’s history of
violence with police—he was once accused of throwing a large rock
at a patrol car while warning that bullets would only make him
stronger, in 2001.
A jury for a coroner’s inquest, which
found the shooting justified, heard about Wenzel’s alleged
history, but it heard nothing about what kind of “warrants” led
Storm the initiate a high speed pursuit. Neither did it hear from
Storm himself. Officers who investigated the incident testified on
Storm’s testimony and report, which included that Wenzel’s brother
told him he was abusing meth at that he feared for his life and
could not see Wenzel’s hands when he fired.
Dashboard video (audio was not working or engaged),
released by the Sullivan Journal, show Storm shooting
Wenzel after the latter’s car ended in a ditch. Wenzel was
approaching the police vehicle, parked about 15 feet behind the
ditched car, with his hands apparently visible when he was shot
three times; in the thigh, chest, and head. Wenzel’s family says he
had drug convictions and prison time on his record but insist he
was never convicted of assault on a law enforcement officer.
The family has retained an attorney they hope will be able to
get more information on the incident. They want to know, for
example, whether a Taser was available. It wasn’t mentioned at the
coroner’s inquest, where the jury asks questions, either. And while
investigators took a photo of Wenzel’s body after he had died on
the scene, his body had already been moved into an ambulance by
then. An investigator could not explain at the inquest why it had
already been moved. Watch an edited down version of the chase, via
the Journal, below:
Bourbon Police Shooting
from William on
Vimeo.
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