Surveillance footage from the Bear River Casino shows Nicholas Anderson with a knife as he approached deputies before the shooting.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has released body-worn camera and other footage from the June 5 fatal shooting of a 29-year-old man on road near the Bear River Recreation Center that shows him charging at a deputy while holding a knife above his head.
Nicholas David Anderson, of Simi Valley, died after being shot in the chest by Cpl. Bradford Anderson, a nine-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, in a situation that unfolded quickly after a previous contact with him a little more than an hour earlier had ended without incident.
Released Friday, as required under state law, the “critical incident” video runs 11:59 minutes and includes portions of a 911 call, clips from the body-worn cameras of the two deputies who responded to the original scene and were at the shooting, as well as surveillance camera footage from the casino.
Sheriff William Honsal narrates the video that chronologically outlines the course of events leading to the 3:31 p.m. shooting, beginning with staff at the recreation center calling 911 at 2:16 p.m. to report a man with a bloody bandage was taking a shower there and said he needed medical attention, describing him as “dripping blood everywhere.”
Honsal says the first deputy to respond contacted Nicolas Anderson, now outside the center wearing shorts, no shirt and holding a towel, who gave him a false name and said he had been in a car accident. Fellow Deputy Bradford Anderson then also arrives. After “paramedics treated a severe laceration to the man’s left arm” and advised him to seek medical treatment, Honsal says in the narration that Nicolas Anderson “walked away from the recreation center.”
According to Honsal, about 10 minutes later employees located a vehicle that they believed was associated with Nicholas Anderson in the center’s parking lot and the Bear River tribe requested he be advised that “he would be trespassing on tribal land” if he stayed.
The video shifts to another clip from one of the deputies’ body-cam that shows Nicholas Anderson leaning against a lightpost in an electric vehicle charge area, now wearing pants and a sweatshirt, with a large black plastic bag at his side.
The clips show one of the deputies telling him that he needs to leave and that “all of this could have been avoided if you had just gone to the hospital or given your real name.” After a back-and-forth, Nicholas Anderson leaves in a silver car, which is shown driving away in surveillance video.
According to Honsal, Bradford Anderson and the other deputy then go and park at the end of nearby Keiser Road, which he notes is still on the Bear River Rancheria’s property.
“Nicholas Anderson drove past them, turned around and stopped at the end of the roadway,” Honsal says in the narration. “At that point, both of the corporals get out of their vehicles to speak with him again.”
The body-cam worn by Bradford Anderson shows him standing between the two patrol vehicles, placing one between him and Nicholas Anderson, who stands by his car several yards away. The deputy leans forward with his hands on the hood, hands together with one thumb resting over the other and addresses the suspect, who is now offscreen. Then the deputy suddenly backs up and can be heard saying, “Put that down, right now.” Then, “put it down again,” with his gun, held to the side in front of him, coming into view.
He continues to back up between the two vehicles, holding his weapon and saying, “Put it down now.” The video shows both deputies backuping up as they repeat the commands. Then one is heard, saying, “Fuck” as they back around the side of one of the vehicles and yell, “Stop. Stop.”
At this point, about 40 seconds have elapsed since the recording began. The deputies continue to move in a semi-circle pattern, telling the suspect, who now comes back into camera view with both hands up around shoulder level and a knife in his right hand, to “Get on the ground. Get on the ground. Now.”
Nicholas Anderson can then be seen charging at Bradford Anderson while holding the knife outward at his head level before three shots ring out and he drops to the ground. One of the deputies recovers the knife and together they handcuff him. A medical response is requested and one of them goes to retrieve a medical kit to render aid until an ambulance arrives, which Honsal says included CPR.
The “critical incident” video also shows the incident playout from the second deputy’s body cam and surveillance camera. Honsal says Bradford Anderson fired three times, with two of the shots hitting Nicholas Anderson.
The Critical Incident Response Team is investigating the incident, with the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office as the lead, and an administrative review is also being conducted, “evaluating the actions of the involved deputies,” Honsal says.
