The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has identified the deputy who fatally shot a suspect allegedly charging him with a knife on June 5 as Cpl. Bradford Anderson, a nine-year veteran of the office.
Anderson remains on paid administrative leave, as is standard protocol, according to a press release. The other deputy at the scene did not fire their weapon and also remains on leave.
The sheriff’s office also reported that a forensic autopsy performed on the man shot — Nicholas David Anderson, 29, of Simi Valley — determined he died of a gunshot wound to the chest. Toxicology results remain pending, according to the release.
According to the sheriff’s office, deputies responded to a report at 2:16 p.m. of a man who’d entered the Bear River Recreation Center with a bandaged, bloody arm who was “actively dripping blood throughout the facility,” and arrived to find Nicholas Anderson uncooperative and refusing medical care.
Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal told the Journal Nicholas Anderson had first arrived at Bear River Casino and told employees he wanted to take a shower, at which point he was directed to the recreation center. Honsal said staff there were concerned with the wound on Nicholas Anderson’s wrist — which Honsal said has been described to him as “very large” and “open, leaving his muscles, veins and ligaments visible — and called for an emergency response.
The Journal has learned that Nicholas Anderson sought medical care at Redwood Memorial Hospital the night of June 4, and staff there called the Fortuna Police Department to report he was causing a disturbance.
Interim Fortuna Police Chief Matt Eberhardt said hospital staff were concerned for Nicholas Anderson’s welfare because he was declining medical treatment. Eberhardt said Nicholas Anderson told hospital staff he sustained the injury when he was assaulted in Oregon, saying that Nicholas Anderson was cooperative with responding officers, but told them his name was “Edward Sherman” and gave a false birthdate. Eberhardt said a responding officer told him Nicholas Anderson “didn’t really want to talk” and initially didn’t want medical treatment, but the responding officers stood by as medical staff convinced him he needed help and he agreed to be admitted.
“It was clear that he did not want to be there,” Eberhardt said. “But the need was clear for him to get some medical attention, so our officers just stood by as a presence and ultimately he was cooperative [with hospital staff].”
It’s unclear when, but Nicholas Anderson was then transferred to St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka before he left there the morning of June 5, against doctors’ advice.
As to Nicholas Anderson’s reported claim he had been in Oregon, Honsal said no evidence has been found at this stage in the investigation to support it, noting that while investigators used automated license plate reader data to retrace his vehicle’s trip from Simi Valley to Humboldt, there are no records of the vehicle having been in Oregon.
Honsal said it is unclear when, where and how Nicholas Anderson sustained the injury.
At the recreation center in Bear River, Honsal said Nicholas Anderson’s wound was again evaluated by emergency medical technicians and paramedics on scene, who advised he needed emergency treatment. But he reportedly again refused, walked away, got in his car and left the scene. To that point, Honsal said Nicholas Anderson had not been hostile or threatening to deputies in any way.
The shooting reportedly happened a short time later — at 3:31 p.m. — when Nicholas Anderson returned and confronted deputies near the recreation center, allegedly charging one “with a knife in a threatening manner,” according to the sheriff’s office, prompting Bradford Anderson to open fire and shoot him in the chest.
Honsal said the shooting and what immediately led to it was captured on both responding deputies’ body worn cameras, and witnessed by numerous bystanders. Under state law, the sheriff’s office must release video footage of the shooting within 45 days, absent unusual circumstances.
The shooting is being investigated by the multi-agency Humboldt County Critical Incident Response Team, which is being co-led by the sheriff’s office and the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office.
This article appears in Wide Open.