Attorney general says trooper justified in fatal shooting of fugitive Shawn Sheridan

Dec. 25—RUSSELL — A state Attorney General's Office of Special Investigations report says a state police trooper was justified in the Aug. 10, 2023, fatal shooting of fugitive Shawn G. Sheridan.

The 34-year-old was hiding in the Donnerville State Forest with his girlfriend, Chantelle A. Myatt, now 20, near his family home after having been sentenced to 12.5 years in state prison for shooting his ex-fiancee in the neck.

On that morning, police tactical teams that included state troopers and county sheriff's deputies located and surrounded Sheridan and Myatt's campsite where he'd been hiding for a month. After finding Sheridan armed with two guns, each of which was later found to be loaded, state police K9 handler Trooper Connor Sutton released his dog, Skiff. Sheridan then fired one .30-06 round and Sutton returned six shots from his .223 rifle. One of them hit Sheridan in the left eye, exiting the back left of his skull, the report states.

"Through counsel, Trooper Sutton refused to be interviewed by OSI or to provide a written statement," the AG's report says.

Part of the incident was caught on county sheriff's Det. Benjamin Rockwood's body-worn camera. He activated it at 12:50 p.m., which the AG's report says is "immediately after the shooting." Included in the shooting report is 23:30 of that footage, "redacted pursuant to OSI's published video release policy."

The audio at the beginning is difficult to hear because there is a helicopter hovering overhead. A minute and 57 seconds in, Myatt and a police officer can be seen walking across the camera shot as she's being escorted from the scene.

Starting at three minutes and two seconds, officers can be heard shouting commands to Sheridan.

"Shawn! Move the gun off your chest! Do it now!"

"Shawn take your hand off the gun so we can get you some aid, get you some help. Let us get you some help!"

Every so often, Rockwood and other officers can be heard saying they can still see Sheridan breathing. Rockwood's camera is facing about 90 degrees right of where Sheridan was on the ground. His body can't be seen until the very end, after he's dead.

For about the next 13:30, Rockwood is hiding behind a tree yelling commands at Sheridan, off camera, to push the gun off of his chest. Other officers on the video can be heard yelling similar commands. At this point, Sheridan is lying on the ground bleeding out from the bullet wound to his head. Photos of his corpse included with the report show he had a shotgun across his chest with his right hand just below the grip, with a rifle on the ground to his right. His left arm is extended horizontally. He's wearing full camouflage and what appears to be three bandoleers of shotgun and rifle ammo across his abdomen.

At the 16:45 mark, a sheriff's deputy in full camo comes into view on Rockwood's camera. Holding up a pair of binoculars, the camouflaged deputy says, "he's not breathing." The officers in the last minute of the video walk over to Sheridan, whose face is blurred out, and one of them says he's "clearly deceased." That's the end of the body cam video.

The report details how police zeroed in on Sheridan. After failing to appear on July 18, 2023, for sentencing on an attempted first-degree assault conviction, the court issued a bench warrant for Sheridan's arrest. Nine days later, Myatt's mother reported the then-19-year-old missing. Police used cell phone data, bank records and business records to track the pair near a foot path in the Donnerville forest near Sheridan's family's cabin. On Aug. 10, 2023, police in a helicopter hovering above the area used a device called Triggerfish to find Myatt's cellphone, which she'd been using and was turned on.

"A 'Triggerfish' is a mobile cell site simulator that receives and transmits signals like a cell tower," the attorney general's report says. "Nearby cellular devices identify the simulator as a cell tower and transmit signals to it. Based on the direction and strength of the signal, law enforcement can identify the general location of a cell phone. Believing exigent circumstances existed, officers did not obtain a search warrant or court order authorizing the use of the Triggerfish."

Following the shooting, the report says state police forensic investigators found Sheridan's rifle with one discharged round in the chamber and six .223 casings on the ground where Sutton fired from, about 45 feet south from Sheridan's body. Testing showed the .223 shells matched Sutton's rifle, according to the report.

"An ATF Firearms Trace revealed that Mr. Sheridan's twin brother had purchased the guns in 2021," the report says.

The complete report can be read at http://wdt.me/q4DRgM, which includes a link to the body camera video.

Three weeks after the shooting, Myatt sat down with the Times and talked about her relationship with Sheridan and the month they spent together in the woods leading up to his death. She said she didn't know about Sheridan being convicted of shooting his ex-fiancee and wanted on a bench warrant for not showing up to be sentenced. After a couple of weeks, she wanted to leave but stayed because she started to feel threatened.

"No physical threat that was given. There were statements, 'You're not going to like what happens if you step away at this point,'" she said Sheridan told her. "Shawn was the only one with the firearms," she said, adding that she had no weapons of any sort. Go to http://wdt.me/fFtafV for more details.

On March 9, 2022, Sheridan was arrested after shooting his then-fiancee, Katrina A. Pierce, in the neck. He was charged with felony counts of first-degree assault and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. They are both punishable by lengthy terms in state prison.

The deputy who responded to the shooting, Matthew T. Merria, was later credited by Sheriff Brooks J. Bigwarfe with saving Pierce's life by applying pressure to her neck wound after cuffing Sheridan. The bullet narrowly missed her carotid artery.

In a previous interview with the Times, Pierce said that day she had been house-sitting for her dad in Rossie, a secluded town, when the two began verbally fighting — so much that they took their daughter to her mom's house so she wouldn't hear them yelling.

They went to a friend's house in Gouverneur and then to a Stewart's Shops, continuing the argument until arriving back at her father's house in Rossie.

Shortly after 1 a.m., Pierce said Sheridan retrieved a .22-caliber gun and threatened to use it on himself. As the argument worsened, Sheridan turned the gun on her and shot her in the neck. More details on that can be read at http://wdt.me/L7Gb9H.