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Officials are investigating after police said a Dallas officer accidentally fired a round while responding to a trespassing call at an Oak Lawn apartment last week.
No one was injured during the incident.
Police said Thursday that the complex’s manager called 911 about 7 p.m. Dec. 16 to report a woman who was inside a vacant apartment in the 4200 block of Rawlins Street, near Lemmon and Wycliff avenues. About 8:30 p.m., the manager called police again to report that multiple tenants had seen squatters in the unit.
Officers arrived about 9 p.m. and got permission from the manager to break down the door of the unit, police said. Police said Officer Dekoven Joshlin kicked in the door, drew his weapon and activated his weapon-mounted flashlight, accidentally firing one shot.
Kelly Michelle Rogers, 44, was standing at the top of the stairs inside the unit and was not hit, police said. She was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass. No weapons were found inside the apartment, Deputy Chief Terrence Rhodes said in a video posted to the Police Department’s YouTube page.
Dallas police released about five minutes of body-camera footage from Joshlin and two other officers, Alejandro Herrera and John Ciesiolka.
The roughly three-minute clip from Joshlin’s body camera shows him standing outside the apartment when someone approaches him with a phone. He is heard asking the person on the other end of the call whether they are OK with him breaking down the door.
After that person gives him permission, Joshlin goes back up to the door and breaks it in with his back turned. As he turns around and raises his flashlight toward the stairs inside the unit, one round is heard going off.
After the round is fired, Joshlin curses to himself several times, seemingly in frustration, as he walks to the parking lot.
About a minute of footage each was released from Herrera’s and Ciesiolka’s body cameras. The two officers were standing to Joshlin’s right when the round was fired.
Rogers is heard inside the apartment yelling “Oh my god” several times after the round goes off. While Joshlin walks away, the other two officers enter the unit and speak to her.
Ciesiolka is heard saying, “Don’t say it on the radio, don’t say it on the radio, just call a supervisor” as Joshlin walks away.
Joshlin has been with the Dallas Police Department for three years and is assigned to the northwest patrol division. He has no prior shooting incidents and has been placed on restricted duty pending the outcome of an administrative investigation, police said.
Dallas police said the department’s special investigations unit and internal affairs division are conducting investigations into the incident. The Dallas County district attorney’s office and the city’s Office of Community Police Oversight also are performing their own reviews, police said.