Fairbanks Police and Alaska State Troopers on Wednesday released audio, body-cam and dash-cam recordings of the 11 minutes preceding the death of 20-year-old Cody Eyre in Fairbanks last year.
The recordings show that on Christmas Eve 2017, law enforcement officers told the young Alaska Native man 78 times to put down his .22 pistol before he pointed the weapon at them and was fatally shot.
At a news conference Wednesday, Fairbanks Police Chief Erik Jewkes said the three state troopers and two police officers fired at Eyre when “the risk simply became too great.”
Fairbanks Police Chief Jewkes: “During this 11 minute, half mile incident, officers put themselves in harms way, that entire time they were in harms way. And they did that to protect the public and to try to help Cody. They were willing to accept the risk to themselves knowing that at any point in this 11 minutes and half mile that Cody could have turned and shot them.”
Eyre’s family has hired an attorney and plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit, saying that officers could have handled the situation without using deadly force.
Samantha Eyre-Harrison, Eyre’s sister, detailed the events of December 24, 2017 earlier this year, saying that her brother was having a bad day after dealing with girlfriend problems and a truck that wouldn’t start.
According to his family, he drank alcohol and went for a walk, carrying a small pistol with him in the negative ten degree weather. His mother was worried for his safety and tried for two hours to coax Eyre back to the family’s home but eventually called law enforcement for assistance.
In the audio released, the crunch of footsteps on hard-packed snow can be heard as officers followed Eyre on and around the high-speed Johansen Expressway which had been shut down.
Trooper Elondre Johnson, one of the three State Troopers involved in the shooting: “We’ve given him a lot of space, he’s gestured the gun towards me at least twice and is walking to the intersection at Johansen.”
Eyre’s sister said a different approach by police would have kept her brother alive.
