Westlake Police Officers Shoot and Kill Robbery Suspect After Pursuit

**kellyhound** · #1 ● 12-23-2016, 05:49 PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio A Cuyahoga County grand jury, with a recommendation of outgoing Prosecutor Timothy McGinty, declined to bring criminal charges against two Westlake police officers who shot and killed a man accused of robberies at several pharmacies in the Cleveland area.

Officers Stephen Krebs and Anthony Lavolpa shot and killed 26-year-old Devan Desnoyers after a pursuit that ended shortly after 9:30 a.m. Oct. 10 near Crocker Park when a fellow officer's cruiser struck Desnoyers' white Mazda.

The announcement came the same day McGinty released a 50-page report about the shooting. The Ohio Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office assisted in the investigation.

"We do not believe that any reasonable judge or jury would find any criminal conduct in the police response to a suspect fleeing in his vehicle and drawing a firearm from his waistband," the report says. "Any reasonable officer, situated in a similar position and faced with similar facts, would have acted as they did..."

Subodh Chandra, attorney for the Desnoyers family, said in a texted statement that "the family is disappointed and sad."

Desnoyers was a suspect in the robbery of a CVS pharmacy on Detroit Road and Bradley Road. Investigators said that Desnoyers was holding a replica airsoft pistol when he was shot several times as he refused to get out of a car, the report says.

Krebs and Lavolpa fired seven shots in 1.1 seconds, the prosecutor's office said. It also said police didn't realize the gun was a replica.

Desnoyers went into the pharmacy and handed a clerk a note that said: "STAY CALM I have a Gun. Do not try to alert anyone and force me to hurt you or anyone in this store. Fill a bag with all the oxycodone in the safe. FAST," according to the report.

The pharmacist gave him 862 pills. A store employee called police and gave the dispatcher a code that indicated that someone was robbing the store. One of the employees would later tell police that she recognized Desnoyers as a man wanted in connection with a handful of other recent pharmacy robberies in Cleveland, Olmsted Township and Lakewood.

Krebs and Lavolpa responded along with officers Jason Carman and Joshua Riley.

Desnoyers led the officers on a short chase through the street of Westlake that ended with a crash at the intersection of Crocker Road and Detroit Road. Carman's cruiser clipped Desnoyers' car and brought the pursuit to an end, according to the report.

The officers would later tell investigators that Desnoyers was looking up and down as they approach the car, and he had the gun raised, according to the report.

Krebs and Carman tried to kick out the front driver's-side window of the car. Krebs backed away and reached for his gun, the report says.

In the dash cam video at this point of the incident, Krebs can be heard saying "he has a gun" or "has the gun." Krebs could not open the front driver side door and backed away when he thought Desnoyers reached for something, the report says.

Lavolpa fired a shot through the front passenger-side window. Desnoyers continued to look up and down as Lavolpa fired a second shot. Krebs fired a third shot through the driver's-side window. Lavolpa fired four more shots through the passenger side, the report says.

He suffered six wounds to the trunk of his body. Another bullet struck his left leg.

Riley kicked out the shattered driver's-side window. Desnoyers was taken out of the car, handcuffed and was given treatment. Paramedics took him to University Hospitals St. John Medical Center where he later died.

The incident from the initial robbery to the shooting lasted four minutes, according to investigators.

McGinty's statement about the shooting acknowledged Desnoyers' drug addiction, and the widespread abuse of prescription opioids, heroin and fentanyl that is killing people in record numbers throughout Northeast Ohio and the nation.

"The evidence shows that before a series of crimes in the last year of his life, he had no significant record," the statement says. "He became addicted to painkillers after an injury, and that addiction rapidly took over his life.

He, too, is another victim of the opioid epidemic that has so devastated our community."