District Attorney for New Hanover and Pender counties Jason Smith, along with New Hanover County Sheriff Ed McMahon and Wilmington Police Chief Ryan Zuidema, held a press conference on Wednesday to announce the findings of the State Bureau of Investigation’s review of the officer-involved shooting of 21-year-old Edilberto Espinoza Sierra. Smith and senior DA staff determined no charges would be filed against any law enforcement official involved.
Smith said the decision was made after a critical case review that included a report from the State Bureau of Investigation, interviews with officers, and body camera footage.
Parking deck shooting
On March 8, law enforcement responded to sounds of gunfire heard at the Market Street parking garage in downtown Wilmington. Around the same time, reports of another shooting nearby had been received.
According to police reports, once Wilmington Police Department (WPD) officers and New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office (NHCSO) deputies arrived, they noticed a man, who was later identified as 26-year-old David Corpus, suffering from a gunshot wound. They were initially led to look for a suspect in a blue Chevrolet Camaro by witnesses.
When members of the joint-agency task force spotted a driver of a blue Dodge Charger who matched witnesses’ description, officers ordered the driver to stop the car and put his hands up as their firearms were pointed. Evidence in Smith’s report indicates officers explicitly warned they would shoot if the driver did not stop.
According to officers and body cam footage, the driver, later identified as Edilberto Espinoza Sierra, refused to comply and swerved around traffic in the parking deck, seemingly trying to evade law enforcement, before striking two vehicles and narrowly missing officers, according to reports.
According to the case review, the vehicle’s tires were still spinning after the crash. Smith’s report said an officer approached the driver’s side window and saw the driver reaching for the center console. The law enforcement officer fired one shot before his weapon malfunctioned; after clearing his gun, he fired again and backed up behind a parked car.
Within seconds, six other task force members opened fire on Espinoza Sierra, firing a total of 62 rounds; over a dozen struck him, according to the district attorney’s office.
WPD reported that officers immediately performed life-saving measures but were unsuccessful.
Ongoing investigation
Smith noted that another, related incident is still under investigation, which limited his ability to discuss the entirety of the evening’s events.
Prior to the shooting that killed Espinoza Sierra, two fights broke out in the parking deck between Espinoza Sierra’s friends and another group of young adults, which resulted in Corpus being shot.
Two days after the incident, WPD arrested Rafael Martinez, 22, for allegedly wounding Corpus. Martinez was charged with Assault with a Deadly Weapon with Intent to Kill and placed under a $300,000 secured bond.
The family of Espinoza Sierra said Martinez may have shot Corpus out of self-defense and to protect Espinoza Sierra; law enforcement and prosecutors have not commented on potential motives.
With the investigation into Martinez’s case still ongoing, officials could not go into further details. They focused, rather, on the officer-involved shooting.
Portions of body cam footage shown to press
Under North Carolina law, body camera footage and other law enforcement video are not considered a public record and can only be released by a judge’s order through a petition process. Under limited circumstances, law enforcement agencies can ‘disclose’ video – meaning it’s show, often at a law enforcement facility, to people directly involved in a case. Disclosure means the video is not disseminated (i.e., emailed, shared on a thumb drive or CD, or otherwise electronically shared).
In an uncommon move, the DA’s office presented several portions of police body camera footage to the media at Wednesday’s press conference; Smith said this was being done in the interest of transparency.
Smith noted that the video did not include some of the graphic imagery of Espinoza Sierra’s death. Reporters and camera crews were told not to film or record the footage, but were allowed to describe what they had seen.
One video showed witnesses informing officials of the shooter’s appearance, saying he was a Hispanic male with curly hair who had blood on his face. Witnesses also said the man was driving a blue Camaro.
According to Smith, as officers were approaching Espinoza Sierra’s vehicle, it was clear to law enforcement that he matched the description.
Body camera footage showed that Espinoza Sierra may have been injured, with what looked like blood streaming down his forehead moments before officers discharged 62 rounds of gunfire.
When asked at Wednesday’s meeting whether the number of bullets discharged was excessive, Smith said, “We've had many occasions where officers fire multiple shots. We had seven officers fire 62 shots, not one officer, not two officers. We had seven officers fire 62 shots.”
Smith added, “They're trained to take the necessary action and necessary use of force until a threat is no longer a threat,” maintaining that Espinoza Sierra posed a great threat to officers and the public.
Smith cited several landmark rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court – including Graham v. Connor and Tennessee v. Garner, which set a standard of reasonableness in cases of law enforcement’s use of deadly force — to explain that the officers were justified in their actions, under the doctrine of self-defense and defense of the public.
“I conclude that the officers were justified in defending themselves and others based on the circumstances as they appeared to the officers at the time,” Smith wrote in a summary. “Mr. Espinoza Sierra’s use of his vehicle in a dangerous manner created a risk of death or serious injury to officers and civilians in the parking deck.”
The DA’s office determined that all of the evidence demonstrates the following:
1. Mr. Espinoza Sierra was believed to be armed and dangerous based upon information received from witnesses on the scene of the earlier shooting;
2. Mr. Espinoza Sierra used his vehicle as a deadly weapon as evidenced by his failure to follow officers' commands to stop the car and dangerous driving causing two crashes;
3. Mr. Espinoza Sierra continued to attempt to evade capture even after he rear-ended a vehicle;
4. Mr. Espinoza Sierra made overt movements inside the vehicle before the shooting.
According to Smith, if these facts were presented to any other officer in that exact situation, they would also believe that deadly force was necessary.
WPD Police Chief Ryan Zuidema acknowledged the tragedy of Espinoza Sierra’s death, sending out his thoughts and prayers to the family, and said that the WPD officers involved were compliant with their agency’s policies.
Asked about firing at a fleeing suspect’s tires, Smith stepped in to say that WPD’s policies advise against firing at someone’s tires to disable their vehicle.
Upon further questioning, Smith confirmed that a stolen firearm was found between the center console and the driver's seat of Espinoza Sierra’s vehicle after they searched it.
However, there was no evidence that any of the task force members saw Espinoza Sierra with the firearm in hand at the time of the incident, though they described him reaching towards the center console before succumbing to his injuries.
As for the release of the names of the three officers and four deputies involved, Chief Zuidema and Sheriff McMahon said their agencies would be conducting a threat assessment over the next couple of days to determine whether they’d release that information.
Assuming there are no threats, Zuidema and McMahon said they’d release the names next week, noting that the officers would be returning to their roles.
“As you saw from some of the videos you just watched, it was a very chaotic situation where [officers] have to make split-second decisions on life and death, and that's what you saw, unfortunately, take place that evening,” Zuidema said. “But the men and women of both the Wilmington Police Department and New Hanover County Sheriff's Office do an incredible job of keeping our city safe.”
McMahon added, “we conducted an internal review also of the four deputies, and they were within policy, and, like the chief mentioned, I'm very thankful for the partnership that we have to keep our community safe.”
The family’s reaction
While the press conference was taking place, the family of Espinoza Sierra held a protest outside the parking garage on Market Street where the incident took place.
The family said that they met with the DA on Wednesday morning, which Smith did mention at the afternoon press conference; however, they were not aware that the information would be disseminated to the media on the same day.
As they held signs and cried out for justice, Espinoza Sierra’s sister, Genesis Espinoza Sierra, addressed the fact that the officers involved would not be facing criminal charges.
“I just don't understand. I feel disgusted,” she said.
Genesis Espinoza Sierra briefly shared how the meeting with the DA went, saying, “We did ask him a couple questions, like, how many shots were fired, how many officers were involved from each department, and if they were going to file charges. And obviously their answer to that was ‘no.’”
The family said they were devastated at the news that the officers and deputies responsible for taking Espinoza Sierra’s life would also be returning to their patrol duties.
“I don't feel safe. These officers killed a man, these officers shot at a man 62 times, and you're just gonna give them a slap on the wrist? That's not okay,” Genesis said.
According to Espinoza Sierra’s family, they were not allowed to identify his body until seven days after the shooting. They also said they weren’t contacted by officials in the days and weeks after his death/ The said they were never given a formal written or face-to-face apology from WPD or NHCSO.
Genesis Espinoza Sierra confirmed that Smith informed the family of the firearm found in her brother’s car.
“He did come with friends. So, I don't know if his friends did leave a firearm in his car, but I did ask [Smith], and he said that that was not the firearm that was shot,” she said. “Again, we see this narrative play out so many times. A young man of color was seen reaching for something, and then is shot and killed,” she added.
Smith said the family has an open invitation to review all of the evidence of the SBI’s findings; the family said they’d take him up on this offer with lawyers present.
