"This incident should have been over at the traffic stop"; Chief Mills said Clayton Lasinski apologized for his behavior

"This incident should have been over at the traffic stop," said EPD Chief Andrew Mills. "If Clayton Lasinski had stopped for the CHP officer, none of this would have happened."

Chief Mills said in an interview Lasinski apologized for his behavior.

One passenger in Lasinski's car said that Lasinski fled because he thought he had a warrant; another passenger said that Lasinski thought that law enforcement was helping someone from Modesto, to whom he owed money for "pot."

Chief Mills said a lot of inaccurate information had been put out by various people. "Accurate information will come from here."

One of those inaccuracies was that people believed Lasinski fired at civilians and officers. "That didn't happen."

Lasinski was also under the impression that there was a warrant out for him from Henry County in Illinois for "trafficking cannabis" said Chief Mills. "That was not true."




Some challenges to the investigation are tech related. "Cameras ate fallible, technology can fail."


Officer Linfoot was wearing a body camera, it was not logged in to the computeror activated and not even powered in. Chief Mills and EPD Captain Brian Stephens explained the process of activating the camera. "During briefing, the camera is powered down to save the battery.

If it is not activated, you cannot go back later and turn it on. Officer Nantz's camera had been recording for eight hours straight and the battery went out. Officer Jansen's camera did record.

EPD Detective John Gordon said they tried to get surveilance from Sole Savers but no one there maintains the cameras and there was no footage past October 27.