The Bureau’s Special Emergency Reaction Team (SERT) was sent to arrest West for an armed robbery he was suspected of committing. Three officers were named: Brett Emmons (#56132), Joshua Faris (#41138), and Matthew Wells (#42663). Emmons, who fired five rounds at West, was on scene when another officer shot and killed Michael Townsend in 2021 (PPR #84). Faris, who fired 11 rounds, was one of the officers who used Tasers on and stomped local movie aficionado Dan Halsted in 2008 (leading to a payout of over $200,000, PPR #56). Wells fired an amazing fourteen rounds and was responsible for arresting a man who in 2005 put up wanted posters for the police who killed James Chasse (PPR #42).
While the body camera footage does not proclaim there was de-escalation, it suffers similar limitations to the Seeger footage in that much of the time the cameras are capturing parts of police vehicles, body parts and/or weapons (also see “Rapping Back,”). The release of the names and footage came exactly 14 days after the incident, the outer limit on responses to public records requests for officers to be identified in any scenario.
