Investigation reveals new details leading up to Dec. 3 officer-involved shooting
Numerous officers were in the area of 35th and College due to an unrelated traffic crash at about 12:22 p.m. Dec. 3. An officer in the area of the incident saw a red truck chasing a purple Mustang and broadcasted that occurrence on the radio. Officers in the police helicopter located the red truck and started to follow it while broadcasting its location to officers on the ground.
A transcript of the radio traffic of the officers is as follows:
Officer: Eastbound 43 and Cleveland - there’s a red truck chasing a maroon-colored Mustang.
Dispatcher: Copy. Are you going to follow the vehicle?
Officer: I didn’t know if 690 was still flying. It’s almost caused several accidents
Helicopter officer (aka 690): Yeah we’re at 35th and Hardesty right now heading that way. Where are they at?
Officer: They’re going so fast. I’m at 43 and Spruce. It’s like a deep purple Mustang with a white top, and there’s a pick-up truck chasing it.
Helicopter officer: What direction did you last see them at? I’ve got a red truck going WB on 45th.
Officer: They were eastbound 43 and Cleveland. Doing about 90.
Helicopter officer: Yeah this red pick-up’s doing about 60 coming down 45th Street, coming up on Cleveland now. He’s gonna’ run the red light and go NB. He went around a vehicle.
The driver of the truck presented a clear danger to other drivers, particularly the occupants of the purple Mustang he was chasing. The helicopter officers saw the truck back into a residential lot behind a house in the 4100 block of College. They directed officers on the ground to that location. They needed to determine why the driver was chasing the Mustang.
One officer went to the south side of the house, and one to the north. The officer who came from the south made contact with an individual in the back yard who was working on vehicles. The other officer from the north watched Cameron Lamb back the truck down the driveway. He saw Lamb pull a gun and point it in the direction of the other officer. The officer on the north side fired at Lamb. Lamb never exited the truck. The other individual who had been working on cars was not involved in the incident and was not injured.
Lamb was found with his left hand hanging out the truck’s window with a gun on the ground underneath it.