Upon approaching the vehicle, the account continues, the officer peered inside to see four occupants, including the driver, who was slumped over the steering wheel in a manner consistent with being asleep or passed out. The vehicle was in reverse and the driver had his foot on the brake.
The officer positioned his patrol car in front of the minivan to prevent it from driving off, according to the GPD, then called fellow officers to assist before attempting to wake the driver. While the driver was initially unresponsive, the officer was eventually able to open the vehicle s door and attempt communication. But the driver appeared to be heavily intoxicated and refused to follow instructions given by the officers to place the vehicle into park. After a brief period, the driver looked away from the officer, placed the vehicle in drive and accelerated sharply, turning southbound out of the parking space and striking two patrol cars as it made its escape.
In a year when violent law enforcement encounters made big news, the Glendale police killing of John Pacheaco Jr. on Halloween 2020 stands out in part because Officer Chandler Phillips, one of the cops who fired an estimated seventeen shots during the incident, later shared a social media post juxtaposing a photo of him pouting about being stuck on desk duty with an image of Mark Wahlberg from
The Other Guys declaring, I m a peacock! You gotta let me fly!
More typical are the circumstances of the shooting, during which Phillips and another colleague opened fire into a moving vehicle a tactic that is widely derided by police experts and was banned by the Denver Police Department after the death of teenager Jessie Hernandez in 2015, a shooting that sparked widespread protests and a huge settlement.