Mesa police detectives cleared in fatal shooting

Jan. 24—Mesa Police Department's Critical Incident Review Board found that two Street Crimes Unit detectives involved in the fatal shooting of an armed robbery suspect Aug. 3 acted within department policy.

The Mesa officers were working under the U.S Marshals Arizona W.A.N.T.E.D. Task Force, which was pursuing Ny'Kendreon Pride, 20, in connection with three armed robberies that occurred within 24 hours.

Pride's shooting unfolded within a few moments after a Mesa detective tossed a nonlethal flash-bang grenade at the suspect from a moving, unmarked vehicle, followed quickly by shots from a less lethal bean bag shotgun.

Pride was walking on the sidewalk along Mesa Drive near Brown Road as police vehicles came up from behind.

During the November meeting, the Critical Incident Review Board offered comments about how detectives engaged Pride, but it found the officers' actions fell within department training standards and recommended no further action.

A video briefing on the incident posted to the department's YouTube page has generated an unusual amount of online commentary.

As of press time, there were 362 comments — more than on any community briefing in the past two years.

Many comments criticized the tactics, including how contact was initiated and lack of clear law enforcement identification.

"You throw a flash bang at a person and you expect a different response from him. ... Any person is going to run. Even a law-abiding citizen," one commenter wrote.

Also called a diversionary device, flash-bangs are intended to distract and confuse suspects to give officers a few seconds of advantage.

In a video summary of the incident posted by Mesa PD, Pride appears startled by the blast and immediately runs away from the unmarked vehicle toward an apartment building.

Sirens beeped and someone shouted "down, down" as the detective in the back seat fired two rounds from a bean bag shotgun.

A moment later an officer in the front passenger seat fired two rounds from an AR-15 rifle.

An internal affairs memo prepared in October states that the detective reported Pride "moved his right hand into his right front shorts pocket" as he ran away.

After the first two rifle shots, Pride ran a few feet farther, stumbled and collapsed against a low wall as the officer in the front seat fired two additional rounds at Pride.

The internal affairs memo states that the second round of AR-15 shots occurred as Pride "reached toward a gun in his waistband as he fell."

Mesa PD redacted the officers' names.

Public Information Officer Det. Brandi Myers said the redactions were done at the request of the U.S. Marshals and are not standard department practice.

In the department's video briefing, it's difficult to discern Pride's arm movements because the incident unfolds quickly and the footage does not provide a clear angle.

The public has to rely on video presentations of police-involved shootings created by Mesa PD because the department currently has long wait times for public records requests of body cam footage — estimated at over two years.

After Pride went down, police used a taser, pepper balls and bean bags on the unresponsive man to get him to comply with commands.

Eventually, a team moved in and rendered aid. Pride was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Police recovered a handgun that they said the unconscious man was still clutching in his right hand when they moved in. The handgun had an extended magazine and a "switch," an illegal device that makes semiautomatic pistols fire like automatics.

While tracking Pride on the day of the incident, marshals and detectives observed him enter and leave a Walgreens that they later learned was robbed.

A witness said Pride displayed a handgun in his waistband during the robbery.

The shooting happened in view of a school bus driving past the scene in the opposite lane on the first day of school for Mesa Public Schools — though it's not clear which district the bus belonged to or whether children were on the bus.

If they were, the flash bang and bean bags could have drawn kids' attention to the scene just as Pride was shot with the AR-15.

Critical Incident Review Board meetings are not open to the public, but a summary of the meeting shows that the board discussed the timing of the contact with Pride with regard to the school bus.

The board recommended "better consideration of perimeter units closing off access to areas to prohibit persons or vehicles from entering the incident location."

The board also commented that officers should have included "police" in their commands at the onset of the contact, recommending "police, police, get down, get down."

The summary says the department implemented training on this topic for the detective involved.

A dimension of shooting that wasn't raised in the internal affairs memo or by the review board was the discharge of a firearm from a moving vehicle.

Video of the incident shared by Mesa PD appears to show the rifle, beanbag shotgun and grenade all deployed while the vehicle comes up behind Pride and is still in motion.

According to Mesa PD's policy manual, "Shooting at or from a moving vehicle is prohibited."

The only exceptions in the policy apply to officers shooting at a moving vehicle being used as a deadly weapon.

Myers noted a provision in the Use of Force policy states, "Units within the Special Operations Division may deviate from this section of policy based on the seriousness of the crime, the suspect's actions, and in compliance with approved tactics and training."

She said the department's Use of Force policy was "applied to this incident review and the conclusion was that the actions by department members appeared within policy."

Myers said the Maricopa County Attorney's Office still has the case for review.