Man shot by Clovis police was suicidal, chief says. No mental health clinician called in
A man shot last week by Clovis police officers was looking for “gunpowder therapy,” Chief Curt Fleming said Tuesday.
In an encounter that began nine hours earlier during a domestic disturbance call with 48-year-old Paul Morrison, whom police say was suicidal, officers did not call in a mental health clinician, Fleming confirmed.
He said officers are equipped with training related to de-escalation and mental health crises.
“I think this situation was so dynamic that we never really had that opportunity to engage him in a long conversation on the phone where we could try to have somebody talk him down,” Fleming said.
The shooting took place about 10 p.m. July 12 in front of a home near El Paso and North Burl avenues, near Nees and Armstrong, after police received a call about a possible armed person.
Morrison was taken to an area hospital and was in stable condition after being shot at least once. Fleming on Tuesday could not immediately say how many times he was struck by gunfire.
The two officers, who fired 30 shots between them, remain on paid leave.
The 911 calls
Police first got a 911 call at 12:42 p.m. that led officers to supervise Morrison as he packed up his belongings to leave the residence where he was eventually shot, Fleming said. Morrison had a falling out with his fiancée.
Morrison then called 911 at 4:18 p.m., telling officers to expect a suicide, Fleming said. He then called his fiancée and said he was coming back for his guns and would shoot police if they were on scene.
Fleming said officers went to the home and confiscated two firearms that belonged to Morrison.
There were several calls between officers and Morrison over about three hours later that day before he told police about 10 p.m. he was near the home and wanted a shootout, Fleming said.
At one point Morrison cut into the police radio channel, Fleming showed during the news conference.
Police did not name the officers involved in the shooting but said one had less than two years on the force and the other had more than four. They were both within 50 feet of Morrison.
The less experienced officer fired 11 rounds from the Sig Sauer MCX rifle and the more experienced fired 19 from his Glock 45 pistol, which means he unloaded the handgun clip.
“I thought the officer did an amazing job for somebody that’s that set on committing suicide either at the hands of the officers or by himself,” Fleming said.
He also noted Morrison was behind a car. “I don’t think that’s an excessive amount of rounds fired,” he said.
Morrison was holding a 9mm handgun when he was shot by police, Fleming said. Officers learned after the fact that the pistol was a ghost gun, a privately manufactured gun that is not registered.
The gun’s high-capacity magazine that held 15 rounds was one bullet short, Fleming said, but police have not determined if Morrison fired at officers.
Fleming played body-worn camera that showed one officer speaking to someone police identified as Morrison on speaker phone. The officer asks him to surrender without violence.
“I’m going to do (inaudible) gunpowder therapy,” police said Morrison says in the video.
Officers waited eight minutes to approach Morrison after shooting him and placed him in handcuffs, Fleming said.
Officers fired 30 rounds
Fleming said most of the rounds fired were traced to the car, which Morrison hid behind.
“We had a few that made it into the residence beyond the residence in question,” he said.
There were people in the other homes, but nobody reported injuries, he said.
Morrison could face assault with a deadly weapon charges and others related to pointing a gun at an officer and interfering with police radios, Fleming said.
The last time Clovis police shot anyone was Aug. 30, 2020, when officers killed a 26-year-old man who pointed a Daisy BB gun at them in the Walmart parking lot at Peach and Shaw avenues.
Police said that man was suicidal, as well.
This story was originally published July 19, 2022 at 11:55 AM.
