Immediately after Shirley Voita was shot during a rampage on a busy Farmington road on Monday, two other women pulled over — apparently to see if they could help the 79-year-old who had fallen into the street as her car rolled away.
The mother and daughter stopped in front of the house where an 18-year-old Farmington High School senior lived with his father and were shot to death when police say he opened fire with an AR-15.
Ring doorbell camera footage released on Thursday shows the blue minivan carrying Gwendolyn Dean Schofield, 97, and her daughter Melody Ivie, 73, pull over and then an explosion of gunfire can be heard and its windows shatter.
“It’s our belief that they see the body in the street and they’re pulling over to the side — that they’re going to render aid to her not knowing what had happened,” said Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe, in a news conference on Thursday when he released the videos. “They don’t just drive around and drive through, they pull over and stop and the suspect opened fire and killed both of them as they’re still sitting in their car.”
Voita was taken to the hospital, where she died.
Beau Wilson died in a shootout with four Farmington Police officers in front of a church 10 minutes after officials say he fired the first shots.
The videos released on Thursday from a nearby Ring doorbell camera and lapel camera footage show snippets of how the events of Monday morning unfolded after police say Wilson fired more than 170 rounds with three different guns over a quarter-mile stretch of road.
Six other people, including two officers, were treated for injuries at the hospital. All have since been released. Seven others were treated at the scene.
Police say Wilson fired 141 rounds with an AR-15 from the house he shared with his father on North Dustin before dropping the rifle, taking off the bulletproof vest he had been wearing, and moving down the street firing one gun and then another.
Hebbe has said investigators have learned from Wilson’s family that he “was struggling with mental health issues.” A note they found in his pocket said “If you’re reading this I’m the end of the chapter” and “lay eyes or dear (sic.) put a finger on my little sister I promise there will be regrets.”
However, they don’t know his motive.
On a Ring doorbell video, a voice — believed to be the suspect’s — can be heard yelling “come kill me.” That, and the fact that he took off his bulletproof vest, could suggest he was ready to die, Hebbe said.
“He’s making a stand,” Hebbe said. “He has opportunities to run off, he does not use those opportunities. It’s my belief that ultimately in his head, he has made a decision that he’s going to stand and fight it out until he’s killed.”
Lapel camera footage shows the officers gather at the scene to try to figure out where the shooter is.
They tell residents to “get back inside” and to hide as they home in on Wilson outside the First Church of Christ, Scientist.
Then there is an exchange of gunfire and Wilson is killed.
One of the officers, Sgt. Rachel Discenza, was wounded in the shootout. Farmington police have not released the names of the officers who fired. Hebbe said they would release additional videos next week.
Discenza’s lapel camera video shows her running up to the scene as shots ring out in the background, with her gun drawn. Then — after she was hit — she falls to the ground, exclaiming “I’m shot.”
Discenza scrambles away and then lay down until other officers came over to help and apply a tourniquet.
Hebbe said, watching the videos, he was struck by how many rounds were fired, saying it “sounds like you’re watching Afghanistan or Iraq, you’re watching that sort of a combat” and by how his department responded.
“I had so many emotions as I watched it and impressions of it but the volume of fire, the determination of the suspect at the end to battle it out and the calm professionalism of the officers at the end — it’s awe-inspiring,” Hebbe said.
