Official Report Details Events of Henwood Shooting

Report concludes seven officers shot suspect accused of killing Officer Jeremy Henwood

After a months-long investigating of an August 6 shooting rampage, detectives concluded that the man believed to have killed San Diego Police Officer Jeremy Henwood was shot by seven police officers in self defense.

The official report released Monday by the San Diego District Attorney details a disturbing timeline of events that led to the fatal shooting of Dejon White, the man suspected of shooting a civilian in an El Cajon In-N-Out before killing Henwood. 

White was later shot and killed in his apartment after he raised his shotgun and appeared prepare to fire at the officers surrounding him, according to the report.

The report concluded that the seven officers shot who shot at White did so in self defense.

"[The officers] therefore bear no criminal liability for their actions," said District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis in the report.

The rampage started and ended in about 45 minutes, the report stated.

The series of incidents began at 5:22 p.m. August 6, the report states, when White walked up to and shot a civilian in the face with a shotgun he reportedly stole in 2009 from a Texas police station.

White walked to his Audi and drove off, still armed. Without knowing about the shooting, an El Cajon Police Officer noticed White speeding on the westbound I-8 and began chasing him. The officer stopped the chase due to the high speed.

Just ten minutes after the El Cajon shooting, witnesses saw White pull up next to Henwood's patrol car, point his shotgun out the passenger window of his car and fire at Henwood. Henwood died the next day in the hospital.

About half-an-hour later, White's City Heights resident called police and told them her neighbor admitted to shooting a police officer.

"You better leave because I just shot a cop," White's neighbor recalled White saying to her in the report. "There is about to be a whole bunch of police over here because I just shot a cop."

Police launched a search for White, and spotted him from a helicopter leaving his apartment and getting back into his car, still armed.

Four minutes later, six SDPD officers and one San Diego County Probation Officer were able to pull White over. He slowed his car to a stop as he drove toward the officers.

Still in his car, White reached over to the passenger seat and grabbed the shotgun. When the officers saw White raise his gun, they fired at him. White was struck by the gunfire and died at the scene. He sustained multiple gunshots to his head and left shoulder.

An autopsy concluded that no drugs of abuse were in White's system at the time of his death.

After Henwood's death, surveillance footage of a nearby McDonald's showed that Henwood bought a meal for a child, just moments before the rampage. The act of kindness was just one of the many moments loved ones and members of the community recalled in the months after his death.

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