Dash Cam, Body Cam Footage Of Officer Involved Shooting Released

FREMONT, CA — Fremont police released body and dashboard camera footage Friday from last week's officer involved shooting death of a man suspected of trying to ambush and kill Officer Ryan Lobue.

The footage from Lobue's dashboard camera shows the moment when 30-year-old Michael Allen Felch of Fremont appears to initially open fire on Lobue as the officer was driving his marked patrol car past the suspect on Civic Center Drive near the Washington Hospital emergency room on the night of April 18.

Lobue's camera also shows him turning his car around to head back into the area where Felch first opened fire.

There is no clear footage of Lobue getting out of his vehicle, armed with his service rifle, and firing at and striking Felch, who fell to the ground shortly before two other officers arrived on the scene.

The dashboard camera from the patrol car of the two officers who quickly arrived to give Lobue backup, James Taylor and Jennifer Allsup, shows Felch being struck by a barrage of bullets and then laying still on the ground afterward.

In the footage, Allsup and Taylor can clearly be heard yelling at Felch to raise his hands before he reaches out to grab the .40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun that he had dropped after being shot by Lobue.

Felch was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 11 p.m., about 17 minutes after he first opened fire, and appears to have been struck at least 10 times by the officers' gunfire, according to Fremont police officials.

It appears that Felch, who had several prior arrests, held a grudge against law enforcement officers and during a confrontation with Alameda County sheriff's deputies in February said he was "going to get a gun and shoot the first cop he saw," according to Fremont Police Chief Kimberly Petersen.

Petersen told reporters at a press conference Friday that when Lobue first came under fire from Felch, the officer thought he might have stumbled onto an active shooter situation, with the nearby hospital being a possible target.

"Our officers were victims of an armed suspect who intentionally ambushed them and tried to kill them," Petersen said. "Had our officers not acted decisively and with the appropriate level of force, this incident very likely would have resulted in multiple innocent victims being shot or
killed."

Petersen said that Felch's mother has been cooperating with the investigation and is "devastated by the actions of her son, devastated by the loss of her son."

Petersen also said that his mother had asked that the video not be released to the public.

"She does not want the world to see her son's actions," Petersen said. "Nor does she want the world to see him being killed on TV."

California law requires law enforcement agencies to release body camera footage of officer-involved shootings in a timely manner.

Felch's prior contact with police include arrests for battery on a police officer, resisting arrest, assault with a deadly weapon, vandalism, DUI and drug possession, according to Petersen.

This was Fremont's first officer-involved shooting of 2019.

— Bay City News

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