Hourlong encounter ended in police shooting on Fourth of July: Bodycam video released
Modesto police Officer Jacob Mertz spent more than 30 minutes talking to and building a rapport with Dylan Harvey on the night of July 4.
Mertz convinced Harvey to put down the knives with which he’d threatened his father and come out of his locked bedroom.
They sat at a dining room table together at the home on Roselawn Avenue while Harvey smoked a cigarette. Much of what Harvey said was nonsensical and disjointed, but Mertz listened, politely responding and asking Harvey questions about his life and hobbies.
Mertz convinced a tentative Harvey to come outside, where he told him an ambulance soon would arrive to take him “to talk to a doctor.”
Harvey told the officer he was scared of them and asked, “Can I touch your badge of honor? Safety and protection.”
“100%,” Mertz said before they proceeded outside.
Harvey started smoking another cigarette outside. Then Mertz and the other officer at the scene went to their patrol car to look for the paperwork needed to put Harvey on an involuntary psychiatric hold.
That’s when Harvey went back inside the house, to his bedroom, where the knives were.
Five minutes later, Mertz shot Harvey twice after Harvey picked up a knife and made several stabbing motions at Mertz, cutting him once in the hand.
The Modesto Police Department on Friday released nearly an hour of uncut footage from Mertz’s body camera video from the incident. Nearly nonstop fireworks can be heard exploding in the background; the incident took place on the Independence Day holiday.
Medical condition and charges faced
Harvey remains hospitalized with gunshot wounds to his jaw and arm and has been charged with attempted murder of a police officer.
Harvey’s father, Kim Hunter, told The Bee his son has bipolar schizoaffective disorder and cannot care for himself. Hunter said he had to quit his job as a schoolteacher in 2011 in order to care for Harvey.
On the night of the shooting, Harvey had been off his medication for three days, Hunter said. Harvey had his father’s phone and became angry when Hunter tried to get it back.
In the body camera video, Hunter told the officers that his son waved two long knives at him and that he was concerned he would attack him.
Officer Mike Harman asked Hunter what he wanted done and Hunter replied that he wanted his son to go to a mental health facility.
“If he doesn’t come willingly, our only concern is forcing the issue, especially if he’s struggling with some mental health stuff,” Mertz told Hunter. “We are worried about it turning into some kind of violent encounter, which we obviously want to avoid.”
Mertz asked Hunter if he thought Harvey might calm down after some time, but Hunter told him that would make things worse.
The officers went inside the house, where Mertz did much of the talking. He talked to Harvey through his closed bedroom door and convinced him to come sit with him in the living room.
In between Harvey’s ramblings, sometimes speaking in third person, he repeatedly told the officers he didn’t want to go to jail.
Mertz tried to reassure Harvey that he wouldn’t go to jail but said he needed to talk to a doctor. Harvey responded on different occasions, “You don’t have to take me to the hospital” and “I don’t want anything to do with that.”
Retreat to the bedroom
Once outside, the officers tried to get Harvey to go with them to their patrol car but he refused to move from the area near his front door. The officers walked away from Harvey and went to the patrol car together to look for the paperwork. Not long after that, Harman is heard saying, “Is he going back inside?”
Mertz followed as Harvey went back inside his house. Harvey was back in this room by the time Mertz reached him.
Harvey took a handful of pills, which he indicated were his psychiatric medication, and swallowed them with beer.
Mertz again tried to get Harvey out of his room, but this time he appeared to be more agitated as he repeatedly refused to come out.
“I don’t think I’d like to go because I’m innocent, Harvey said. “No, I don’t think I like that.”
He said he was going back to sleep and that they could arrest his mom instead.
When Mertz moved closer to Harvey, he said, “No, No,” bent down and grabbed the knife off the floor, and made several stabbing motions at Mertz. That is when Mertz fired.
An internal affairs investigation remains ongoing. It has not been determined whether any policies were violated.
The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office also will conduct an independent review of the incident.
Hunter originally told The Bee the officers went back in the house with Harvey to get his medication, but the video indicates he went in on his own while the officers were at their vehicles.
Reached by phone Friday, Hunter said he had not watched the video and wasn’t ready to. He said he still thinks his son acted out of fear.
At the end of the body camera video, MPD Chief Brandon Gillespie discusses the department’s Community Health and Assistance Team (CHAT), which sends trained civilian outreach specialists to respond to mental health crises and homeless-related calls.
“This call would have not qualified for a CHAT response due to the threatened use of weapons,” Gillespie says.
This story was originally published July 16, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
