Questions Remain after Release of Full Body-Worn Camera Footage of David Schaeffer’s Shooting

5.29.25 5:49 pm: We have updated this story to include more information about what Schaeffer was wanted for when he was arrested.

On March 26, in the span of just seconds, an unnamed Redding Police Officer drew his firearm and shot into the windshield of a moving car, striking 46 year old driver David Schaeffer as he drove away from the police during an attempted arrest. The Redding Police Department (RPD) claims Schaeffer’s decision to accelerate his vehicle in the direction of an officer left that officer with no choice but to unload their weapon, narrowly avoiding killing Schaeffer. At the time of his arrest, he had a warrant out for drug related charges.

What exactly happened in the five second window between the shooting officer drawing his gun and when Schaeffer was shot by police gunfire is still the subject of an interagency investigation. On May 8, RPD released an 11 minute video briefing that unequivocally justified the department’s use of force, illustrating the agency’s internal findings with body-worn camera footage captured from two angles. 

Under California state law, police departments are required to release body camera footage of police shooting incidents within 45 days, with the possibility of extension if publication impedes an investigation under specific circumstances. While RPD’s public video announcement only included three angles of the shooting, Shasta Scout has now obtained all police videos of the event, including body-worn camera footage not yet disclosed to the public.

Video from the scene has answered some questions but spurred others. In particular, it’s unclear why none of the officers at the scene turned on their body-worn cameras before the incident began, as required by RPD policy. RPD Policy 421 includes a non-exhaustive list of situations in which activating body-worn cameras should occur, specifically, “prior to arrival to a call for service when practical,” during “all arrests and/or citations,” and during “all incidents involving the use of force.” 

RPD Chief Brian Barner has not responded to Shasta Scout’s questions on that topic, which were submitted weeks ago. Barner also hasn’t responded regarding why RPD has so far withheld the name of the officers involved, in spite of a California Supreme Court ruling that compels police departments to publicly name officers involved in police shootings. 

Shasta Scout has submitted a public records request for the name of the shooting officer, as well as all officers who were on the scene where Schaeffer was shot, and is awaiting a response.

A Closer Look at the Body-Worn Camera Footage 

RPD’s carefully framed video briefing about the shooting incident included radio excerpts of a dispatch call that the officers responded to before confronting Schaeffer, and clips from body-worn cameras from three angles, as captured by three different officers. Narration during the video sought to help viewers visualize the space in which the shooting took place, a Safeway parking lot in the East Cypress area. 

Schaeffer was sitting in his parked car around 4pm when two marked police vehicles boxed him in. According to Chief Barner, one parked directly behind him and the other at a somewhat perpendicular angle in front of him, with the intention to prevent Schaeffer from being able to drive away.

Despite that effort, Schaeffer managed to maneuver his way out of a gap left by RPD’s vehicle, even after having been shot. Moments later he crashed the car he was driving into another parked vehicle a few blocks away. 

The video angles shown in RPD’s briefing are captured from the perspective of the shooting officer, from the perspective of the officer on a motorcycle behind Schaeffer’s vehicle a few feet to the left, and from that of another officer in a squad car parked directly behind Schaeffer. As expected, the footage from the perspective of the shooting officer is the most exposed vantage point of Schaeffer’s attempt to escape. What isn’t very clear is how close Schaeffer came to hitting the officer in the process.

In the other two angles shown in RPD’s version of events, the shooting officer can be seen from a somewhat wider purview moving out of the way as Schaeffer drives away, ostensibly in the seconds after two shots were fired. However, as both of the nonshooting officers were in rapid movement, the body-worn camera footage does not capture the event from a fixed or sustained position, allowing key moments to occur out of the camera’s frame.  

In all three videos, the officers did not start recording the encounter on their body-worn cameras until after Schaeffer was shot. As a result,the shooting itself, and any commands given beforehand, occured during a 30 second camera “buffer period,” during which no sound was recorded, preventing the viewer from determining whether Schaeffer was given any commands by law enforcement, something two witnesses have said did not occur.

RPD’s video briefing, as well as Shasta Scout’s past reporting, explains that RPD’s body worn cameras are set to a mode that allows the camera to continuously records video without sound in 30 second intervals, and then auto-delete. When an officer hits the record button, the camera does not delete, instead saving the silent 30 second period of video before the recording was activated. According to a user manual, RPD’s body cameras could be set up to capture buffer video with sound for up to 120 seconds before an officer hits record.  

The previously unseen body-worn camera, which was not included in RPD’s video briefing, was also obtained by Shasta Scout via a public records request. That officer was in the driver’s seat of the squad car parked right behind Schaeffer. From this angle, this officer can also be seen drawing his weapon. His body camera captures a wide vantage point of the shooting officer as he maneuvers (on foot) out of the path of Schaeffer’s moving vehicle. 

A Comparison to Past Briefings

RPD began using body-worn cameras in August of 2023. Since then, the department has  issued three public briefings using body camera footage, two related to police shootings and one to defend the department against public allegations that an officer used excessive force on a man named Fredrick Phillips during a traffic stop. During that incident, the officer activated his camera prior to the encounter capturing the entirety of the interaction, as per RPD policy. Phillips case was later dismissed, the District Attorney has confirmed.

There has been only one other police shooting and RPD video briefing  since body-worn cameras were implemented in Redding. During that shooting in 2024, the shooting officer never activated their body-worn camera. The incident began with two park rangers approaching a nearly-incoherent Levi Bailey, to move him off a privately owned lot where he was laying under an umbrella. As he left, Bailey threw a stone at officers, precipitating a pursuit. All of this is captured on camera with full audio. 

A few moments later, Bailey (who held a small knife) was shot by a school resource officer who rushed to the scene from nearby after hearing what was happening on his radio. Because that officer never turned on his camera, RPD provided surveillance video from a gas station near the crime scene for the department’s video briefing on that shooting.

As in Schaeffer’s briefing, the department did not name the shooting officer in video recap of that incident. Concurrent reporting cites RPD officer Bryan Cowan as the shooter. Cowan was also involved in another RPD shooting in 2018, during which officers shot Masa Nathaniel Warden a total of 17 times. Warden, who survived, filed a civil lawsuit against the City of Redding, which is still working its way through federal Court. 

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The March 26 shooting consisted of two crime scenes. The first was the parking lot where Schaeffer was shot and the second was a residential neighborhood a few blocks away, where the suspect ultimately crashed his vehicle. At the second crime scene, Schaeffer was handcuffed by RPD officers before first responders tended to his gun shot wound. Five of the body-worn camera videos capture the officers present at both crime scenes while the last shows an officer who was only present at the second crime scene.

1) Body-worn camera D01A06363 shows the perspective of the shooting officer as he confronts Schaeffer, then drives to the site where Schaeffer was arrested.

2) Body-worn camera D01A07933 shows the perspective of an officer on a motorcycle who briefly arrives at the scene where Schaeffer was shot and his pursuit of the suspect to the second crime scene.

3) Body-worn camera D01A03163 shows the perspective of the officer on a motorcycle parked near Schaeffer when he was shot and his pursuit of the suspect to the second crime scene.

4) Body-camera D01A06952 shows the perspective of an officer emerging from the passenger seat of a vehicle parked directly behind Schaeffer, then his pursuit of the subject to a second crime scene.

5) Body-worn camera D01A05993 shows the perspective of the officer in the driving seat of the squad car parked directly behind Schaeffer when he was shot then his pursuit of the subject to the second crime scene.

6) Body-worn camera D01A05963 shows the perspective of an officer who exits his vehicle at the second crime scene, and includes the arrest of Schaeffer after he was shot.

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