Dashcam video released from April shooting death involving trooper

It’s not so much what was visible in the dashboard footage from state trooper Donald Jason McBride’s police car, but what was audible that validates the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s narrative of the April 29 shooting in Cape Girardeau County of Jeffrey Darrell Hobbs, 48, of Neelys Landing.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol released the video, an interview of McBride by Division of Drug Control officers, interviews with two witnesses, evidence photos and 52 pages of documents about the case Sept. 15 in response to a Southeast Missourian open-records request filed shortly after the shooting. Cape Girardeau Coroner John Clifton said Hobbs’ family watched the dash camera video when it was decided to not conduct an inquest.

“In our investigation, we try to be as transparent as we can,” Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop E public information officer Clark Parrott said.

McBride remains on leave and is recovering from a torn labrum in his shoulder he suffered during the struggle with Hobbs. He also suffered a concussion.

Highway patrol public information director Capt. John Hotz said highway patrol policy dictates McBride receive psychological counseling before going on leave and twice after he returns to active duty.

A photo submitted into evidence shows wounds Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper Jason McBride sustained on his face during the altercation April 29.Sumbitted

The video began with McBride, 40, turning on his emergency equipment while driving north on Highway 177 at 6:19 p.m. April 29. McBride made a U-turn and began tailing Hobbs, who was driving a gray Cadillac. McBride audibly noted Hobbs was driving 77 miles per hour, 22 miles over the posted speed limit.

Hobbs pulled his vehicle into the driveway of an abandoned day care on Clowen Lane. Hobbs’ vehicle made a jerking motion before pulling into the driveway, but there is not much “swerving” as Sgt. Jeremy Weadon described in his case summary and not pronounced “side-to-side” swerving Parrott described in an initial news release May 2.

Other inconsistencies include statements after the incident that Hobbs did four doughnuts with his car, when the evidence released to the newspaper showed the car traveled in one semicircle. Otherwise, the statements by the police match what is seen and heard in the video and in other evidence.

“He does not pull far enough into the driveway for Trooper McBride to pull in behind him, parallel,” Weadon wrote in the case summary. “This is important, because most of the contact is only audio recorded.”

Hobbs exited his vehicle before McBride stopped. McBride told Hobbs to get back in his car four times. Hobbs’ neighbor, Pam Wilson, said May 3 when she was interviewed by the Southeast Missourian that Hobbs probably was trying to talk his way out of a ticket.

Hobbs told McBride his brakes went out and he had blown a brake line. McBride asked Hobbs what he was hiding while he pulled into the driveway.

“I could see him kind of maneuvering around,” McBride said during a walk-through after the shooting of Hobbs’ activity before he pulled into the driveway. “I didn’t know if he was trying to hide something or what he was doing. ... I walked up there to talk to him, and I could see his pockets were turned inside out like he was trying to hide something. I have not searched his vehicle to see if there are drugs and weapons in there.”

Hobbs agreed to a search of his person and denied drug use. McBride asked Hobbs three times to spread his feet apart, then asked him to put his hands behind his back, according to a summary from Weadon. Hobbs complied and a click of a handcuff can be heard. A struggle ensued right after.

“I went to pat him down, and he wasn’t acting right,” McBride said during the walk-through.

McBride and Hobbs struggled within view of the patrol car’s front-facing camera twice during the course of the video. McBride repeatedly tried to bring Hobbs to the ground. Hobbs appeared to be much bigger than Wilson originally described. Wilson guessed Hobbs’ weight at 150 pounds, but he appeared to be a larger man than McBride during the altercation seen on the video.

“You are under arrest,” McBride told Hobbs during the struggle.

“I don’t want to go,” Hobbs said.

Witness Casey Cattron, who lives one-eighth of a mile north on Clowen Lane, was interviewed by Weadon and described the struggle.

“I saw them wrestling and then the car take off with the officer still in it,” he said. “I see the guy take off an do a doughnut in our driveway.”

Hobbs’ vehicle starts on the video while they still are fighting. The vehicle then turns off but starts again. It drove in a half circle, according to diagrams that were part of the documents.

Shortly thereafter McBride tells Hobbs twice that he will shoot him.

“I had one handcuff on him, and he was dragging me and then he stopped,” McBride said when talking to communications right after the shooting. “And I told him to stop, and if he was going to drag me again, I was going to shoot him. And he took and started dragging me again, so I shot him.”

The shots are not audible in the video, but Hobbs’ autopsy, conducted by Dr. Russell Deidiker, showed he was shot twice in his abdomen. Deidiker described the first shot as a contact wound, and the other was fired 1 inch from the body. The bullets were found in Hobbs’ chest and pelvis, according to the autopsy.

McBride secured Hobbs in handcuffs, then went to get a first-aid kit out of his patrol car’s trunk. McBride tried to administer first aid to Hobbs, Weadon wrote in the report. Hobbs did not die instantly and said, “Oh my God, you didn’t just do that. I just wanted to go home. Oh my God, officer, I’m going to die.”

Randy Cattron, 55, came down from the house after McBride shot Hobbs. In crime-scene photos, there was blood running from a cut just above McBride’s right eye, consistent with wounds Parrott said McBride sustained from the open handcuff. The photos also showed McBride’s muddy pants, evidence he was dragged, and his backup weapon in the yard, dislodged from his ankle.

“There’s this trooper, and he has blood running down both sides of his face,” Cattron said.

Cattron said he tried to help McBride, but the trooper declined help because of evidentiary reasons.

A bag of methamphetamine and two prescription pills were recovered at the scene by Cpl. J. Lacey. Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Limbaugh wrote in a news release Hobbs’ blood and urine contained methamphetamine and oxycodone.

Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Clifton on Saturday night released a toxicology report on Hobbs conducted by a Saint Louis University lab.

According to the report, Hobbs’ blood and urine tested positive for several opiates, plus methamphetamine and amphetamine.

Parrott said McBride followed highway patrol protocol in a use-of-force incident. McBride declined a request for an interview.

bkleine@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3644

Pertinent address: Clowen Lane, Jackson, MO