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In late June, State Attorney Albert Peisinger, Jr. announced that his office is declining to bring charges against the deputies involved in the Harford County shooting death of 53-year-old John Fauver on Saturday, April 23 in Forest Hills.
On Thursday, July 7, the Independent Investigations Division (IID) of the Office of the Attorney General released footage from the fatal incident.
At approximately 4 p.m. on the day of the shooting, the AG said that deputies with the Harford County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a suicidal person with access to firearms.
Upon arrival, deputies located Fauver in a truck in the 1500 block of Rock Spring Road in Forest Hill.
Sgt. Bradford Sives exited his patrol car and ordered Fauver out of his truck at gunpoint, according to authorities. Fauver then began to drive away, crashing into a police vehicle, at which point Sives fired his gun multiple times at the truck’s tires.
Fauver continued to drive and stopped in an adjacent parking lot, exited his truck, and began communicating with responding deputies, the AG said. During that dialogue, Fauver retrieved an item from his truck and pointed it at deputies, at which point Sives and Cpl. Christopher Maddox fired their service weapons, striking and killing Fauver.
During the entire exchange, Fauver could be seen visibly agitated while arguing with deputies while initially refusing to leave his truck.
“He’s reaching down…” Sives can be heard saying in the video, shouting “It’s a cane! It’s a cane!,” when he realized it wasn’t a weapon.
Officials noted that the cane was recovered near Fauver’s body. Deputies treated Fauver for gunshot wounds until paramedics arrived. He was rushed to an area hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
No other injuries were reported.
“The IID will generally release body-worn camera footage or dashboard camera footage within 14 days of an incident,” according to the Attorney General's office. “The release of the body-worn and dashboard camera footage in this incident was delayed to ensure witness interviews were not compromised by their viewing of external evidence.”
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