Yolanda Fulmer says seeing police bodycam footage of Steven Kissack being fatally shot hasn’t changed her mind about what officers could have done in the minutes beforehand to prevent his death.
Meanwhile, Al Torres says after the death of his friend “I straightened up” and got off the streets, but he can’t bring himself to watch the footage.
Five videos released Tuesday by the Juneau Police Department show Kissack was running while holding a knife toward an officer when two other officers shot him at the end of an encounter on a downtown street lasting about 16 minutes on July 15. The results of a state investigation also released Tuesday indicate he was shot twice in his front torso and once in his leg, contrary to claims by some people that he was shot in the back.
Fulmer, who has been among many residents calling for the officers to be held accountable and policy changes for such situations, said Friday that during the 10 minutes before the shooting Kissack was surrounded by officers yelling orders and pointing weapons at him.
“I feel like there were plenty of times where Steve kind of paused, and if people had backed off he might have just gone and sat down, and things could have taken a different route for a better outcome,” she said.
Kissack, 35, who lived on the streets of downtown Juneau for several years with his dog Juno, had significant amounts of alcohol and illegal drugs in him at the time of the confrontation, according to the state’s investigation. Fulmer said that likely helped contribute to a situation where Kissack wasn’t thinking clearly.
“I just don’t think that that was an appropriate tactic to take when somebody’s already in a mental health crisis,” she said. “I feel like there’s probably alternatives that they could have come up with, and I’m hoping that JPD will get some better training on those kinds of tactics.”
A few friends of Steven Kissack gather Saturday morning at a section of Front Street where he was fatally shot by law enforcement officers July 15. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Numerous other people critical about the circumstances leading up to Kissack’s death similarly said after the bodycam footage was released they still felt the situation could have had a non-lethal outcome, although there was acknowledgment that once he ran toward one officer the others who fired did what would be expected.
Torres, standing on a Front Street sidewalk near the site of the shooting with a couple of friends on Saturday morning, said he’s rarely comes downtown since the shooting because of the emotional impact of the shooting and his distrust of police he might encounter.
“He was a really good friend of mine and I was homeless at the time too,” Torres said of Kissack. “After that I straightened up and started staying with my daughter.”
Torres said that while the police may have needed to fire their guns at Kissack, he asked — as many people have — why they couldn’t have aimed for the legs.
“I mean if he had a gun it’s understandable, but even if he just had his knife they could have shot at his legs and he’d be alive,” Torres said, “He probably wouldn’t be able to walk again, but he’d be still here living with us right now, still right over there somewhere.”
Standard police training calls for ending the threat in a potentially deadly situation, and trying to shoot someone in the arms or legs during a high-tension encounter poses risks both of missing and failing to stop the person. One of the officers involved in the standoff with Kissack fired three less-lethal bean bag projectiles at Kissack that appeared to have no significant effect on him, and that weapon was empty when Kissack ran toward him, resulting in two other officers firing their guns, according to the state’s investigation.
Jamiann S’eiltin Hasselquist, who helped organize a memorial gathering when three siblings of Kissack’s visited at the end of August, said she couldn’t sleep Tuesday night after watching the 17 minutes of bodycam footage from the officer who first approached Kissack. She said her main thought after seeing it was “we still are in need of reform and the way that mental health is being addressed in these kinds of situations.”
“I think that mental health professionals should be involved with these situations and that they should be the ones who are de-escalating,” she said. “For his friends to be coming forward, they were trying to do that too, but they’re not mental health professionals. They’re just out there trying to do what they can do.”
Two friends of Kissack’s approached and talked to him during the confrontation with police — despite warnings and orders from officers to stay away from him — both seemingly trying to talk him down from his confrontational statements and threats to the officers. At one point he hugs the first of them and says “call my sister if they kill me.”
His sister, Dawn Kissack, said during an interview when she visited Juneau “I think that it just escalated so quickly that he wasn’t really given a choice to comply.” After the bodycam footage was released she issued a written statement on behalf of the family that “I just want everyone to know that we mean no disrespect by not commenting at this time.”
“Our family needs time to process all this and we need time to collect ourselves and our thoughts,” she wrote.
Discussing Kissack’s death two months after the shooting was still enough to make Emily Johnson, among his friends on Front Street on Saturday morning, break into tears as she described her knowledge of his existence on the streets.
“There were times I couldn’t get rides home, and I would come and stay with Steven and Juno because I knew I’d be safe with them,” she said.
Johnson, who’s seen videos by observers posted on social media immediately after the shooting, said she doesn’t intend to watch the bodycam footage.
“Watching him get gunned down on Facebook was bad enough,” she said. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to watch the cops’ point of view.”
Another person who hasn’t watched the bodycam footage yet is Karen Perkins, a pastor who saw Kissack frequently at the warming shelter and food pantry provided by her church, and who tried to visit him in the emergency room at the hospital he was brought to prior to the announcement of his death.
“I’m not there yet” in terms of being able to watch the videos, she said Friday, but she also isn’t criticizing the actions of police during what was a difficult situation for all involved.
“It’s tragic with Steven,” she said. “It’s tragic for the officers involved because I know that is hard on them as well. It’s tragic for the witnesses. It’s tragic for the people who work there and saw it happen. It’s tragic for the people who might have been tourists who saw it. It’s just a tragedy.”
What should happen going forward is working to ensure people like Kissack aren’t in such situations on the street, Perkins said.
“Steven shouldn’t have been in a situation where he was staying on the street with Juno because when there were safe places that he could go with Juno, just in terms of what I’ve seen of him and when given the space he needed, he was a peaceful person,” she said. “That doesn’t mean there weren’t changes in his brain, but we have a system that dramatically underserves people who don’t have a place to live, and especially people with any kind of brain disability.”
“If we hadn’t created the situation that we did — by we, I mean Juneau — for people who are extremely vulnerable and extremely difficult to serve then there would be less chance for Steven to be in that condition and for those types of interactions to occur.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
