Denver police release bodycam footage of two critical incidents
One incident involved an officer shooting at a suspect, the other involved a medical incident
The Denver Police Department released updated information and released bodycam footage Thursday of two “critical incidents,” one involving an officer shooting a man.
Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas and Major Crimes Division Commander Matt Clark conducted a press conference at the Denver Police Headquarters to discuss the shooting and a medical incident that left a man dead in police custody.
The first incident occurred on Nov. 26 around 9 a.m., according to a prior press release. Officers responded to a report that a man had been violating a restraining order at 3737 N. Quebec Street. The restraining order was from a prior felony menacing at the same location.
The suspect — later identified as a 43-year-old Jessie Stowers — had taken off his ankle monitor. Police found it in a nearby alley. The man then entered a nearby unit at the apartment complex.
Officers knocked on the door, according to the body camera footage. The suspect refused to open it. The police eventually push through, handcuffing Stowers in a bathroom with “minimal force,” according to police.
An officer observed Stowers had been flushing drugs down the toilet. He yelled that he didn’t do anything and doesn’t do cocaine and said he came over to the complex to get his ankle monitor charger.
The man was evaluated at the scene by medical officials to determine if he had ingested any narcotics. He was medically cleared to be transported to the detention center, Clark said.
Stowers began having a “medical event” around 11 a.m. while being transported in a police vehicle. The officer driving pulled over and set the man against the hood of the vehicle, asking him if he had taken any drugs. Stowers shook and couldn’t answer the officers’ questions.
Officers placed the man on the ground in recovery position and administered Narcan. When he stopped breathing, officers performed CPR as they waited for paramedics.
Stowers was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner is conducting an investigation. Preliminary investigations showed that drugs may have been involved, Clark said.
The officers, who Thomas and Clark declined to identify, have returned to work in their normal capacity.
The second bodycam video Clark and Thomas presented involved an incident where an officer fired his weapon on Nov. 27 at an apartment complex in the 800 block of South Oneida Street.
Thomas said in a prior briefing that officers were drawn to a situation in a parking lot because they overheard loud music “blaring” from a vehicle.
A man — later identified as 32-year-old Zachary Yates — can be seen outside of a truck, moving boxes near a dumpster, according to the video. As officers approached the man, they noticed a handgun tucked in his waistband on his back. Officers ordered the man to drop the gun.
Yates stood with his hands at his side. He asked the officers why it was illegal to have a gun, claiming he had a concealed handgun permit.
Officers attempted to get the man to comply for around four minutes. Yates continued to argue with the officers, the video shows. The man then reached behind his back.
Two officers fired five times, hitting the suspect twice from around 30-to-40 feet away. The officers immediately began to render aid and called an ambulance.
The firearm recovered was a Glock 17 with one round in the chamber. The magazine in the firearm had a capacity of 17 rounds with 16 in it, Clark said. Both the magazine size and the gun are prohibited in Denver.
Yates was taken to a local hospital and immediately taken into surgery, Clark said. He survived and has since been released from the hospital.
Yates faces charges of unlawfully carrying a firearm and prohibited possession of a high-capacity magazine.
Thomas said the officers’ response was a “reasonable assumption” that the man was reaching for the gun.
“I am pleased with the officers’ actions,” Thomas said. “I think they took a significant amount of time to deescalate that situation. I don’t believe that any officer wanted to fire in this particular case and took a lot of precautions to try to get this to end peacefully.”
The officers, who were not identified, have been placed on a modified duty status as the Critical Incident Investigative Protocol is completed.





