Dec. 20—JAMESTOWN — The investigation into the officer-involved shooting on Dec. 3 in Jamestown is complete, and the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s findings of the incident have been forwarded to the Stutsman County state’s attorney for further review, according to Maj. Justin Blinsky, assistant chief of police for the Jamestown Police Department.
Blinsky told the Jamestown Police and Fire Committee on Thursday, Dec. 19, during a report on the Jamestown Police Department activities that the department also did a parallel administrative investigation to make sure policies and procedures were followed and officers involved in the incident on Dec. 3 were in compliance.
Sgt. Cory Beckman, a five-year veteran of the Jamestown Police Department, shot Devin Quinn Fontenot, 27, Jamestown, after he responded to a report of man armed with a gun and a knife standing in the parking lot behind Fred’s Den, 113 1st Ave. S. Fontenot died from injuries he sustained from gunfire.
Beckman is a member of the James Valley Special Operations Team, a K-9 handler of Briggs, and a department peer support team member. He remains on standard paid administrative leave.
Fontenot refused to comply with an order to drop his weapon, jeopardizing the safety of Beckman and others, Scott Edinger, chief of police, previously said.
According to police, the Stutsman County Communications Center received a 911 call at 1:17 a.m. Dec. 3 of a male armed with a gun and a knife standing in the parking lot behind Fred’s Den. The caller reported the male had been involved in a physical altercation inside the bar and had been removed.
As officers responded, the 911 caller reported a man was shooting at a building, firing many rounds. When the first officer arrived on the scene, the man later identified as Fontenot was still firing rounds in the parking lot.
After Fontenot was shot, officers rendered first aid to him and he was transported to Jamestown Regional Medical Center, where he died from his injuries.
Since that incident, Blinsky said the department made sure a support system was in place for the officers involved.
“That’s continued from that day and will continue through the foreseeable future,” he said.
He said assistance offered included a criminal critical incident debrief that was recently completed. In early January, he said the department will hold a shift debriefing where the command staff meets with officers to discuss and go through what was known and how they responded to the incident.
“As anything is when you respond to something like that, you only know the part that you were involved in. You don’t know the totality of the circumstances,” Blinsky said. “So we don’t want them left hanging. We want them to be able to have those questions answered.”
He also said an ongoing administrative review is also being conducted.
“The findings of that review will be forwarded on to our agency, department instructors, specifically to our active-threat instructors,” he said. “This situation as with any situation you can learn from and so this situation will be used as a training moving forward when we do our active-threat trainings in the community.”
When the time is right, Blinsky said a department debriefing with all sworn staff will be held so everyone understands what happened.
“There’s always those questions again, because they only know what’s in the reports around the calls for service, and so that way it just kind of gives that final resolution to everyone in the department, and they’re able to ask questions,” he said.
Blinsky said the morale of the officers involved in the incident is “very high.”
“Officers are stepping up in personal ways too, understanding that maybe it’s something that is not work related, but on a personal level, they’re helping each other out,” he said. “This situation is tragic. Any loss of life is tragic. But I think overall, we’re all just thankful that no other officers or community members were hurt, and so we want to move forward in the best way possible making sure that our staff are being supported.”
The Jamestown Public Works Committee in a 3-0 vote recommended approval for Interstate Engineering to provide engineering services for a new cell at the municipal solid waste landfill.
Mayor Dwaine Heinrich and Councilman David Schloegel were not present at the meeting on Thursday.
In related business, the Jamestown City Council approved in a 3-0 vote to authorize the filing of an application with the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality for a loan under the Clean Water and/or the Safe Drinking Water Act for the landfill expansion. The city administrator and public works director were also authorized to execute all documents.
City Engineer Travis Dillman said it is becoming more imperative that the project to add a new cell at the landfill is scheduled earlier.
“We were looking at bidding it out here probably in March,” he said. “We would like to start construction this spring.”
Dillman said he’s looking for the project to be completed around Aug. 15.
“We’re getting to the point by the middle to especially the end of the summer, we’re going to be out of space there,” he said.