Ken Pritchett clicks his mouse and the logo of a Southern California police department pops up on a computer monitor the width of his shoulders. Another click and the image flips to a three-dimensional map. A glowing orange arrow indicates the direction a man ran as he tried to evade police.

“Right here, this is the path he took in the alley,” Pritchett said, switching from the map to a still image highlighting an object in the man’s hand. “Then you can see him turn toward the officers. He wants to die. This is suicide.”

This incident, like all of the videos Pritchett produces in his home office, ended in a police shooting. Pritchett has made more than 170 of these for police departments and sheriff’s offices, mostly in California.

The video flips again, this time to the display of a shuddering body camera worn by an officer sprinting down an alley. Commands are yelled, the person being chased lifts an object with his right hand, police fire their weapons, the man falls down.

The video isn’t much different from hundreds of others produced since California passed a law in 2018 mandating police departments release body camera footage within 45 days of any incident when an officer fires a gun, or uses force that leads to great bodily injury or death. Like most other critical incident videos released by law enforcement agencies after a shooting, this one is a heavily edited version of the original raw video, created by one of the private contractors that went into business editing police footage after the law went into effect.

Pritchett, who makes more of these videos than any other private contractor in California, asked CalMatters not to disclose the name of the police department in order to preserve their business relationship.

The law has some exceptions, allowing departments to withhold video if it would endanger the investigation or put a witness at risk. Law enforcement departments often cite those reasons when regularly denying records requests by CalMatters and other news organizations. Of the 36 fatal police shooting cases since July 2021 being tracked by CalMatters, only three have responded with even partial records.

Instead, the public and the media must rely on edited presentations that often include a highlighted or circled object in a person’s hand, slowed-down video to show the moments when the person may have pointed the object at police and transcriptions of the body camera’s audio.

They are also the only documentation of a fatal police encounter that the public will see for months, or years, or maybe ever.

Kenneth Pritchett edits video at his home in Sacramento on March 31, 2023. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

Since the advent of cell phone cameras and, later, police-worn body cameras, the public has had detailed access to violent police encounters in a way it never had before. After incidents including the livestream of the aftermath of the Minnesota police shooting of Philando Castile in 2016 and the helicopter footage of the Sacramento police shooting of Stephon Clark in 2018, states including California passed a host of laws aimed at using that technology to better judge the actions of officers.

Critics allege that the problem with the condensed, heavily-edited version of the body camera footage released by law enforcement agencies is that they shape public opinion about a person’s death or injury at the hands of the police long before the department in question releases all the facts in the case or the full, raw video.

They also point to particular incidents in which a department erased or failed to transcribe audio critical to understanding the case, did not make clear which officers fired their gun or cut the video at a critical moment. In one case, a Los Angeles journalist has taken apart multiple videos released by the Los Angeles Police Department and found irregularities that she asserts are deliberate manipulations meant to justify officers’ actions. In response, she said the LAPD ignores her or directs her back to the video.

“To only release an edited version is not what we think is called for from the defendant’s point of view,” said Stephen Munkelt, executive director of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, a Sacramento-based association of criminal defense attorneys. “If they’re editing things out, it’s probably the stuff that’s beneficial to the defendant.”

He also worries about the impact of the release of the body camera footage on a potential jury pool. Still, Munkelt said, some video is better than none, if only because defense attorneys have more grounds to ask a judge for the full, unedited video.

Former journalist working with California police

In response to the 2018 body camera law, a cottage industry has emerged to produce these videos, though several larger law enforcement agencies produce theirs in-house. Pritchett works for Critical Incident Video, founded, not coincidentally, when the law went into effect in 2019. According to emails obtained by The Appeal and The Vallejo Sun, Critical Incident Video charges $5,000 per video.

Pritchett is a former journalist, and insists that he applies the same scrutiny and objectivity to these videos, paid for by police departments, that he did in his former life as a television reporter and anchor in Fresno and Sacramento.

“Virtually every article we’ve seen about what we do, somebody accuses us of spinning for the police department, but I have yet to ever see an example put forward that shows that we’re spinning anything,” he said. “And if they did, tell me, for God’s sakes. My entire goal is to make these straight, spin-free.”

Not every department uses Critical Incident Video, but for the dozens that do, Pritchett’s style is unmistakable: first, the map, then usually a transcription of 911 calls, then the body camera video. Pritchett said that, if he’s done his job well, he can help head off conflict between a law enforcement agency and the public.

“I think the main issue now is people come jumping to conclusions about what happened before they’ve seen the video, which is why we recommend that (law enforcement) always get that video out there as quickly as possible,” Pritchett said. “We have done quite a few videos where there was a social media public narrative about something that happened and the video clearly shows that that didn’t happen.”

Pritchett said that, before he made his first video, he learned by watching the videos that departments produced internally. He did not like what he saw.

“Basically, what we saw was the LAPD’s videos, and I didn’t like them … I probably shouldn’t have said that,” he said with a laugh. “But I remember seeing mugshots. I remember seeing information that was not really relevant (like) previous charges. I remember thinking the whole (video) that someone had a gun, until they told me at the end that it was actually not a gun.”

So, he has rules. He will not refer to the person who was shot as a “suspect.“ He will not use mugshots of the person who was shot. He will not display previous charges or convictions of the person shot, even if the department asks him to – something that he said cost his company a client when the police department insisted on including it. If an object was later found to be anything other than a gun, he demands that the departments tell viewers that up front.

“Virtually every article we’ve seen about what we do, somebody accuses us of spinning for the police department, but I have yet to ever see an example put forward that shows that we’re spinning anything.”
— Ken Pritchett, video editor for a California police department

Critical Incident Video’s process usually begins hours after a shooting. The police department or sheriff’s office will call Pritchett and send the raw footage, along with any witness video the agency has obtained. He combs through it, picking out the parts he believes are important.

He reads the initial police press release – “which is often incorrect,” he said – then reads any related media reports. He transcribes the audio of the body camera, creates a 3D map showing where the encounter began and writes a prospective script if one is requested, then tells the police to put it in their own words.

Pritchett said he pushes back against departments. Sometimes in a press release, agencies will say they immediately rendered first aid to a person they shot, but the video shows a delay.

“Sometimes that becomes a point of contention,” Pritchett said. “I’m looking at the video and say, well, how do you define immediate? We’ll change that. Like I said, we have to fight.”

Kenneth Pritchett edits video at his home in Sacramento on March 31, 2023. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

Neither the California Police Chiefs Association nor the California State Sheriffs’ Association could be reached for comment.

Assemblymember Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat who wrote the 2018 body camera law, said he has no problem with the condensed videos provided by law enforcement agencies after a shooting, because they’re much better than what was made public before the law.

“After the legislation was passed into law, we’ve seen so much more released and so much more video,” Ting said. “If a department is articulating why they acted in a particular way, that’s a good thing. They work for the public and we want accountability.”

Michele Hanisee, president of the Los Angeles Association of Deputy District Attorneys, said the release of the videos is a balancing act, forcing prosecutors to weigh the benefit of transparency against the potential harm of prejudicing the jury pool.

“While transparency promotes public confidence in the conduct of law enforcement,” Hanisee wrote in an email to CalMatters, “the pre-trial release of evidence has the potential to influence the testimony of witnesses, create bias in potential jurors, or create an environment that could justify a change in venue.”

Replaying LAPD shooting videos

Three hundred and sixty miles south of Pritchett’s Sacramento home office, Sahra Sulaiman, a communities editor for StreetsBlog Los Angeles, is in front of her own monitor, squeezed into the two-foot patch of carpet between her couch and a knee-high table on which her laptop is perched.

Her eyes, reflected back in the dark blue of a police uniform on screen, dart back and forth between the video released by the LAPD and the time code. She rewinds, presses play, pauses the video, rewinds again.

“Did you hear it?” she asks, then presses play on the video from December 2021. “Listen again.”

On screen is Margarito Lopez, a developmentally disabled 22-year-old sitting on a set of short stairs, holding a meat cleaver, bathed in blue and red light. Several LAPD patrol cars are parked in front of him, the officers shouting at him to drop the cleaver, as they have for at least five minutes.

Lopez stands. The police continue to shout in English and in Spanish. He holds the cleaver over his head. The body camera video’s transcription matches the words of the officers: “Hey, drop it, drop it, stop right there!”

Seconds later, officers fire live rounds, killing Lopez. Sulaiman rewinds again and turns up the volume on her laptop.

This time, a piece of audio that wasn’t transcribed by the LAPD is clear: “Forty, stand by.”

Forty, in this case, is code for a less-lethal foam projectile, a warning to other officers that what they’re about to hear are not lethal rounds.

“The protocol demands that they give the warning and then everybody stand down, wait to see what effect it has,” she said. “So he gives the warning and if you don’t know what you’re listening for, you just hear shouting. But then I realized that that’s what the warning was, and immediately, as soon as the less lethal is fired, it’s contagious fire because they didn’t hear the warning.”

Without that piece of audio, Sulaiman said, the video makes it appear that Lopez was shot after failing to comply with commands and advancing toward the officers.

“And that’s where they play with these transcriptions a little bit,” she said. “So that’s the kind of thing where if you have this different piece of information, that completely changes what this incident is.”

Sulaiman doesn’t believe the LAPD transcription left out the less-lethal warning by accident. The LAPD did not respond to specific questions from CalMatters about this incident or the video transcription.

“What these videos have taught me is how really skilled LAPD is at deflecting attention at deeper structural reform, that they are very good at pointing the finger.”
— Sahra Sulaiman, communities editor for StreetsBlog Los Angeles

Since the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020, Sulaiman has focused her work almost entirely on police violence.

Among her most thorough investigations was when she found the only evidence that an LAPD sergeant fired his weapon from his vehicle without stopping during a police chase on July 18, despite two other officers determining moments earlier that the man being chased didn’t have a gun.

The video never made clear which officer fired the shot that wounded 39-year-old Jermaine Petit, but in the reflection in the glass of the sergeant’s patrol car dashboard, she saw him holding up his gun and pointing it out the passenger side window. At the time of the shooting, the sergeant’s arm jerks backward. She said she had to watch the video several times, including at one-quarter speed, before she noticed the reflection.

She acknowledges that police have a difficult job in often-chaotic circumstances, trying to make life-or-death decisions. But that, she said, is their job.

“A lot of times they’ll say, oh, when we put civilians through these active shooter sort of scenarios, they just fire willy-nilly at people,” she said. “Well, yeah, ‘cause I’m not f — — - trained.

“And when you go second-by-second through these, it is certainly a lot easier to play Monday morning quarterback. But you also see that LAPD is doing the same thing when they’re constructing these narratives.”

Sulaiman said the videos themselves are a mixed bag of consequences. She’s glad that there is some video evidence of the shootings released, but said the format is ripe for manipulation by the police.

“What these videos have taught me is how really skilled LAPD is at deflecting attention at deeper structural reform,” she said. “That they are very good at pointing the finger, at localizing blame on the things that take the least amount of tweaking to fix and deflecting any kind of interest in questions of structural reform.”

Both Sulaiman and Pritchett, in their respective jobs, have had to watch hours and hours of people being shot. The images they see are not blurred. People lie dying in pools of blood, people ask why they were shot, people shout for their mothers.

“It’s tough,” Sulaiman said. “I don’t know what else to say about it.”

When asked how viewing those videos affects him, Pritchett paused for several seconds, started to speak, stopped himself, then started again.

“To be determined.”

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Jose Ramirez
Nov. 28, 1996 - April 5, 2023

Jose’s sun rose on November 28, 1996, and his sun set on April 5, 2023, at the age of 26.

Born to Carlos Ramirez and Crystal Hillman.

Jose lived life to the best of his ability and thrived off the unconditional love from his family and friends.

He had a lifetime of experiences in the short time here with us. Jose carried many burdens, however his hugs were always genuine. He could always make light of any situation or tell a crazy story that would have everyone laughing.

Each of us carry memories of Jose in our own way and he was special to so many, especially to his Grandma Maddie, his mother Crystal, and his second mother Maggie.

Though it hurts us to say our goodbye, we know in our hearts it’s just until we see each other again.

Like his mom Maggie says, “This life is just temporary, we’ll all be together again.”

With that said, Jose is survived by his Grandmother Mattie Hillman, his mother Crystal Hillman, his brothers Oly White and Johnathan Martinez, his sisters Jessica Martinez and Dalice DeMars. Great-Aunts Willy Drennan, Lizzy Valinty, Diane Hillman and Lenora Conway, Aunts Jeannie White and Melody Brooks. Uncle Joseph Bercier and many cousins.

Jose is also survived by his second family, Mother Maggie Sylvies, Sisters Angelica Pulido-Sylvies, Aureli Cortez-Sylvies, and Natalia Springs-Loureiro, brothers Alejandro Cortez-Sylvies, James Springs-Loureiro, and Fire Springs-Loureiro. Aunts Cecil Sylvies, Kristina Nwachukwu and Kathrine Moseley.

Jose is preceded in death by, his Grandfather Alex Bercier, Great Grandfather “Katimiin Heam” Orrell Elbert Hillman and Great-Great Grandmother Mattie Hillman and Great- Uncle Tugger Hillman

Jose’s wake will be held on Friday April 14, starting at 6 p.m. at 4139 D Street Eureka, CA 95503.

Jose will take his last ride home on Saturday, April 15, 2023, with a graveside service at 10 a.m. in Orleans at the Hillman Family Cemetary on Red Cap Road.

Reception to follow at the Karuk Tribal Office in Orleans.

Pallbearers are:

Oly White, Micah McCovey, Wilfred Ferris, Victor Quimm Jr., Herman Albers, Lil Robert Blake, Waylon Sterritt, Robert Wolf Colgrove, William Panther Colgrove and Christian Punky Colgrove.

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Patrick Allen Bent was born on Feb. 15, 1963 in Eureka, where he remained as a lifelong resident. Patrick attended Marshall Elementary, Zane Middle and Eureka High (Class of 1981).

Tammy Annette Lane, 54, of Arcata, passed away peacefully on January 25, 2023 at her home with her family by her side. Tammy was born on November 10, 1969 in Humboldt County to Vera Hellen White of Hoopa and Bertram Lane Sr. of Riverside. She graduated from Hoopa Valley High School in 1987. She was a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, where she grew up until she moved to Arcata in 1988.

In March of 1989, she gave birth to her first love, Tiffany Annette Pole (Upchurch). In the summer of 2000, she gave birth to her second love, Gabrielle Gracie Pole, her rainbow baby. In October of 2003, she gave birth to her third love and only son, Luke Allen Pole. Her biggest dream was to become a mother and now her family became complete. Her kids were her whole world, she loved spending time and making memories with her family.

Tammy worked in customer service for a few local businesses in her community including Ba Ba Sheepskin, Kebab Cafe and the Lighthouse Grill, where she made many lifelong friends. She then went on to get her cosmetology license at Fredrick and Charles Beauty College with her biggest fans supporting her, her big brothers. After graduating she began to work at The Beauty Connection as a stylist. Tammy then went on to start her own cleaning business, where she loved connecting with her clients and making them happy through her loving personality and strong work ethic.

Tammy was a proud breast cancer survivor who found comfort in spreading awareness to others battling cancer. She made a choice to live her life to the fullest thereafter. She had many tattoos that told her story of the battle she had gone through and how she came out on the other side. She made a bucket list and was able to cross off some of them. The first was going skydiving, and her face would light up every time she would tell her stories about how she jumped three times.

Tammy had a love for fitness, gardening, spending family time with her kids, taking trips to Oregon and Crescent City, river days, game nights, and family dinners. She enjoyed taking hikes with her son to Strawberry Rock in Trinidad. She also enjoyed collecting Fire and Light, which she proudly displayed all around her home. Some of her favorite things were the beach, waterfalls, butterflies, tulips and lilies.

Tammy’s smile and infectious laugh would light up a room everywhere she went. She was a proud and loving mother who would have done anything for her children. She was a kind friend who treated her friends as her family. She had an adventurous soul who loved living life to the fullest. Her strength and loving heart was admirable to anyone who got the chance to meet her.

Tammy will forever be greatly missed by all who loved her.

Tammy is predeceased by her mother, Vera Hellen White; father, Bertrum Lane Sr.; grandmother Annabell White; grandfather William E White; brother Bert Lane Jr.; aunts Redina Taylor White, Darla Lee Henderson, Dolly Herron; uncles Lester White Sr., Wendell Winkle White Sr., Andrew Jerry White; nephew Kevin A. Lane Jr.; and cousin Connie Taylor.

Tammy is survived by her children: daughters Tiffany Annette Upchurch (Rollynn) and Gabrielle Gracie Pole; son Luke Allen Pole (Irene); sister Britt Walls (Johnny); brothers Wendall Lane and Kevin Lane (Dana); nieces Traci Lane (Carlson), Katrina Lane, Karinn Lane (Zac), Cassidy Lane (Charlie); nephews Clinton Lane, C.J. Lane, Jacob Lane, Hawk Lane and Kevin Lane III.

A celebration of life will be held on Saturday April 15, 2023 from 12 p.m.-3 p.m. at the Humboldt Bay Social Club, 900 New Navy Base Road, Samoa. It will be potluck style if you would like to bring a dish to share. Everyone is welcome to attend.

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I often find writing these columns therapeutic. If there’s a topic I feel strongly about, researching and writing a summary of what I’ve learned for LoCO is usually a calming exercise. So when my wife, Louisa Rogers, expressed her sense of helplessness when she heard about the March 27 Covenant School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, I invited her to write a guest column. This is the result.

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I’m writing this on March 29, two days after waking up to the news of yet another mass shooting, in Nashville – one that felt more personal to me because two close friends of mine live in Tennessee, and because my grandmother grew up there.

Forty-eight hours later, the news has moved on. Today’s headline was about Trump’s indictment. Well, fair enough – that is big news. But since I, for one, am not done, here are some inchoate, chaotic reflections – much like mass shootings themselves.

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I simply cannot imagine what it’s like to raise children in the U.S. today. Of course, mass shooters are indiscriminate in their choice of targets – shopping centers, churches and synagogues, bars, downtown streets, you name it. Any of us could be dead in an instant.

But schools seem to be a particular favorite of theirs. At least 560 children, educators, and school staff have been victims of school shootings since 1999, while more than 348,000 students have experienced gun violence at school.

I was shocked to read in The Washington Post that the median age of a school shooter is 16. Children are responsible for more than half the country’s school shootings, which of course wouldn’t be possible if they didn’t have access to firearms.

As of 2020, gun violence surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death in children. If I were a parent, I think I’d want to get the hell out of the country.

Indeed, many Americans, parents and otherwise, are moving abroad – some to Mexico, my second home. At this point, gangs of narcotraficos with specific targets don’t seem like a big deal compared to young men walking into schools, grocery stores and movie theaters to randomly mow down whoever’s around, using combat weapons better suited for warfare.

###

The L.A. teachers’ union recently went on a three-day strike for higher salaries. The entire school system shut down, with parental support. Using that as a model, I’d like every teacher and college professor to go on a nationwide strike protesting government inaction in passing and enforcing gun regulation. Every time there’s a mass shooting, they should go on strike, until the government is forced to pass common-sense legislation.

I believe most parents would back the teachers against the corrupt government officials who lack the backbone to protect children’s and teachers’ safety.

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In his article, “A Smarter Way to Reduce Gun Deaths,” New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof describes the steps required for a person to adopt a dog in the state of Mississippi:

1. Fill out a 64-question application
2. If renting, the landlord is contacted
3. Have family members meet the dog in person
4. Create yard fencing and security
5. Schedule a sleepover visit with the dog
6. Pay the $125 adoption fee
7. Adopt the dog

And if they want to buy a firearm from a gun store?

1. Pass a 13-question background check
2. Buy a gun

Even less is required if they purchase a gun from another individual. All they have to do is not appear to be underage or drunk.

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I just plain don’t get extreme right-wingers. I know, they don’t get me, either. But they seem terrified of any change. Safe storage, red flag laws, background checks, waiting periods, ghost guns, you name it, they resist. What are they so scared of that they can’t move an inch? Afraid they’ll lose the whole war for the battle?

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Perhaps people harmed by gun violence should have the right to sue gun sellers. Strict liability should be mandatory for buyers, owners and users, along with licensing and education.

Massachusetts, which, after Hawaii, has the second lowest gun mortality rates in the country (3.7 per 100,000, compared with, for instance, 28.6 in Mississippi) is an exception. A gun buyer must first pay $100 for a license, be fingerprinted, undergo a background check and explain why he or she wants a gun. If the permit is granted, which takes a few weeks, only then can the person buy the firearm. Afterwards, they must store it safely and report if it is stolen.

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I’m just singing with the birds, I know. Being an unlikely optimist, I still trust the U.S. will eventually get its act together. But however tragic these killings are, I sense we’re nowhere near bottom. Wonderful individuals exist in our country, but many of us still vote for politicians who are too angry, vengeful, corrupt, passive, and just plain pathetic to give enough of a shit to take action.

For this week’s Humboldt Tea Time, John sits down for a hot cuppa with Marnie Atkins, Wiyot tribal member and manager of Old Town Eureka’s Da gou rou louwi’ Cultural Center. 

PREVIOUSLY:

• HUMBOLDT TEA TIME: Eureka Books Owner Solomon Everta on His Weird History and His Vision for the Future of the Shop, and the World
• HUMBOLDT TEA TIME: Eureka Mayor Kim Bergel Talks About Kindness, Homelessness, Mental Health and the Things She Hopes to Accomplish in Her New Office

On this week’s EcoNews Report, Ken Burton, local bird nerd, joins the show to discuss this year’s Godwit Days Spring Migration Bird Festival and other big news in the birding community. This year’s festival, running from April 13-16, features over 75 events, from bird walks to lectures. We hope to see you there!

In other bird news, we chat about the controversy in the birding community about whether to retain reference to birder and slaveholder John James Audubon by the Audubon Society and its chapters. Also, are you concerned about bird impacts from offshore wind? Be sure to check out this week’s episode for more.