Body-camera footage shows Escondido police fatally shoot armed man in exchange of gunfire

A video released by police Thursday shows two officers fatally shoot an armed man during a harrowing shootout in an Escondido mobile home park last year.

The edited video captures a calm interaction that even included joking banter between Escondido police Officers Anthony Lay and Michael Statti and Douglas Quinn, 48, of Indiana in the minutes leading up to the exchange of gunfire Nov. 3.

The officers were called to the neighborhood on East Valley Parkway just south of East El Norte Parkway after a resident found a stranger sleeping on her front porch.

A screenshot taken from the footage recorded on Nov. 3, 2023, by Escondido police Officer Michael Statti’s body-worn camera shows Douglas Quinn reach for a handgun hidden behind his back.

(Escondido Police Department)

“I have a man sleeping outside of my house with his motorcycle outside my house. … I don’t know who he is,” the woman says to the 911 dispatcher, according to the audio recording included in the edited video. “He doesn’t live here; he’s been sleeping here all night.”

After a brief argument with the woman, Quinn began pushing his motorcycle down the street, the woman reports.

The video jumps to Statti’s body-worn camera footage, showing Quinn standing in the middle of the road, motorcycle to the side, and flanked by the two officers.

Statti asks Quinn to see his driver’s license and if the motorcycle is registered to him. Statti continues to remind the man he’s not in trouble.

The light conversation between the officers and Quinn includes jokes about his five-day motorcycle ride from Indiana. Quinn says that he was at the mobile home to meet his girlfriend and speak with a friend about a job.

After a few minutes Quinn confesses to the officers that he has a warrant out for his arrest in Indiana.

“Thanks for being honest,” Statti says. He follows up a few seconds later: “Did you say you’ve spent most of your life in prison?”

“Like, 20 years of it,” Quinn responds. “Pretty much straight, so I’m on the go.”

Shells casings litter the ground after the shootout.

(Escondido Police Department)

Nearly seven minutes into Statti and Lay being on the scene and speaking with Quinn, the tone of the conversation quickly escalates.

While Lay speaks to dispatchers through the radio attached to the front of his uniform, Quinn says something inaudible to the officer. The statement seems to prompt Statti to move forward and tell the man that “until we figure it out, bud, we’re going to place you in cuffs.”

Quinn quickly takes a few steps back from the officer and reaches for something that appears tucked in the back waistline of his pants. Quinn then runs away from the officers while still grabbing at something tucked behind his back.

“Don’t you touch it!” Statti yells as he draws his service weapon.

Multiple gunshots then ring out as Quinn continues to run from the officers. A second body-camera angle provided by Lay shows Quinn flick something out of his hand, begin running and grab at what was later determined to be a concealed handgun.

Statti and Quinn both fire at one another, the video shows. Lay draws his own weapon and opens fire multiple times. Quinn falls nearby, and the shooting temporarily subsides.

“Shots fired! Shots fired!” Lay says into his radio. He then turns his attention back to Quinn, who is lying in the bushes presumably still near his firearm. “Drop it! Drop it!”

More shots ring out, but the video does not show who fired.

The video cuts to multiple backup officers with riot shields and weapons drawn approaching Quinn roughly 10 minutes after the shooting began, according to one of the officer’s body-worn camera timestamps. They begin rendering medical aid to Quinn, who is still on the ground.

Photos show multiple bullet casings on the ground and a handgun that police say was Quinn’s.

“This incident illustrates the dangers that police officers face every day,” Police Chief Erik Witholt says in the video. “These officers treat Douglas Quinn with professionalism and respect right up until the moment he chose to run and shoot at them.”

Lay is a six-year employee of the department; Statti has worked for the department for one year as a patrol officer.

The video’s release comes more than four months after the initial incident. State law requires law enforcement departments to publicly release footage taken by officers’ body-worn cameras within 45 days of incidents in which an officer fires a gun or uses force that causes great bodily harm or death.

There are a handful of exemptions to the time limit given to departments to release the video — including if the video would reveal private information about people in the video or if it is evidence in an ongoing criminal investigation, among others.

“We didn’t have any requests for it … and if somebody asks we can either release it or extend the process to get the best product together,” said Witholt on Thursday. “And so absent any active requests for it, we put it out when it was ready to go.”

The shooting is being investigated by the San Diego Police Department under the terms of a countywide agreement to prevent conflicts of interest.

Once San Diego police completes the investigation, the county District Attorney’s Office will review it to determine if either officer faces criminal liability. Escondido police will conduct an administrative investigation into the officers’ discharge of their firearms, authorities said.

The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office will also monitor the investigation, according to San Diego police.