A gun battle caught on an officer’s body-worn camera was released Monday by the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office along with their conclusion that officers were justified in using deadly force in the College Area shooting that took place last year.
Joseph Darwish, 28, was shot on June 23, 2018, by San Diego police officers responding to a call about a man yelling and creating a disturbance.
There was a smell of smoke coming from inside Darwish’s unit at Tuscany Place on the 4800 block on Rolando Court that Saturday night.
Officers knocked on the door for approximately 30 minutes according to the investigation and called for fire officials to go into the unit to see what may be burning.
Two seconds after a firefighter forced the door open, shots rang out.
Eight seconds later, an officer was down telling his colleague “Can’t move. Can’t move,” and another officer can be heard making the radio call, “Shots fired. Shots fired.”
The first officer shot was identified by SDPD as 18-year veteran Officer Dan Bihum. He was shot across the shoulders — in one side and out the other. Police Union President Jack Schaefer says a high-velocity round passing that close to the spinal cord can cause temporary paralysis.
In the video, Bihum can be seen dropping to the floor while fellow officer Francisco Roman covers him and helps him crawl to safety.
They made their way down a dead-end hallway and eventually kicked out a window and jumped 10 to 20 feet to the ground, but not before Officer Roman was shot near the collar bone.
All of this was captured on body-worn camera released Monday by the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office.
Throughout the dramatic video, you can hear officers trying to get their wounded partner to safety while screaming for a rifle to match the firepower they were facing from the suspect inside his condo unit.
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