By Nate Gartrell
Bay Area News Group
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ANTIOCH, Calif. — The city has released unedited footage showing the high-speed, life-or-death negotiation that played out when a robbery suspect sped off with an Antioch officer inside his getaway car, then attempted to negotiate out of trouble until being shot in the leg.
The whole thing played out in the early morning of Feb. 20, when Donaldson was one of several officers to respond to a reported break-in at a FoodMaxx store. Surveillance video shows a vehicle backing through the store’s front doors, and three hooded and masked people emerging from the vehicle and going inside.
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Moments after arriving, Donaldson confronts the driver, who was still inside the car; the officer ends up being pulled into DeSouza’s getaway car by the force of acceleration, while attempting to reach in and pull him out.
“Stop the car! Stop the car!” Donaldson yells repeatedly from the front passenger seat, only to be rebuffed by the driver, a man identified as 23-year-old Dominick DeSouza, who had his own counteroffer.
“Get out … Get out, bro,” DeSouza yells back, the footage shows. He repeatedly threatens to “crash this motherf—er” and tells Donaldson, “I have family,” as the vehicle speeds through Antioch city streets.
The two men wrestle over the car’s gear shift, with Donaldson attempting to put the car in neutral. DeSouza, meanwhile, accelerates repeatedly, even as he is trying to convince the officer to get out of the car
Even when Donaldson threatens to “shoot your a–” and “put one in you,” holding the gun inches away, DeSouza is undeterred. He repeatedly tells Donaldson to exit the vehicle, offering to slow down to about 10 miles per hour to reduce Donaldson’s chance of injury and ignoring Donaldson’s attempt to take down the temperature and, “talk to me, bro.”
When Donaldson finally pulls the trigger, firing a round into DeSouza’s leg, DeSouza begins to scream and cry out in pain. He eventually stopped the car and attempted to flee on foot, but was arrested, authorities said.
Police say Donaldson deliberately aimed for DeSouza’s leg to decrease the risk to both men in a last-ditch attempt to get him to stop the car and surrender.
Now DeSouza faces serious felony charges. Not only has he been accused of kidnapping Donaldson, but Contra Costa prosecutors also charged him with assaulting another officer with his vehicle during the harrowing incident, as well as the underlying robbery of a FoodMaxx where the trouble started, and earlier, unrelated incidents of burglary, grand theft, and car theft, court records show.
DeSouza has been jailed in lieu of $600,000 bail. He is due for a preliminary hearing in June and has pleaded not guilty.
The alleged kidnapping of Donaldson was the second time this normally rare type of crime — the abduction of a policeman during the course of his job — has occurred in the East Bay in two months. Last New Year’s Eve, a man named Jonathan Vaca , 32, allegedly pulled California Highway Patrol Officer Timothy Brown into his vehicle during a traffic stop, then took off at an estimated 80 mph down the freeway. Brown yelled at Vaca to stop, warned Vaca he could crash and kill them both, then drew his firearm and convinced Vaca to let him out, Brown wrote in his police report.
Vaca was charged with kidnapping and arrested three weeks later, court records show. He was later released from jail on $75,000 bail.
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