Linn County Attorney rules July officer-involved shooting in Cedar Rapids was justified

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Linn County Attorney’s office has completed its investigation of an officer-involved shooting that injured a Cedar Rapids man last month.

Two Cedar Rapids Police Officers — Officer Blair Klostermann and Officer Matt Jenatscheck — shot at 23-year-old Brandon Nelson, of Cedar Rapids, after he pointed a gun at the officers and shot at them during a traffic stop in the 2200 block of Glass Road NE in Cedar Rapids. The incident happened at about 4 a.m. on July 30.

Nelson fired a shotgun once. Klostermann shot four times and Jenatscheck shot eight times, according to the attorney’s office’s official memorandum about the investigation.

“Criminal charges against Officers Kostermann and Jenatscheck are not warranted. Without question, this was clearly a justified shooting,” Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks concluded in the memorandum.

Nelson sustained three gunshot wounds but survived his injuries. He still is in the hospital, according to Maybanks.

Prior to the traffic stop, Nelson had been driving recklessly around Cedar Rapids in a silver Chrysler Sebring. According to the memorandum, he was first spotted by a police officer at 3:13 a.m. driving 93 mph in the 3000 block of Edgewood Road SW.

Officer Alexander Rink attempted to follow the Chrysler but lost sight of it multiple times. At one point, the Chrysler crossed onto the wrong side of the road and came at Rink’s squad car, which was driving the opposite way, head-on. Rink maneuvered outside the lane to avoid a crash and was advised by his supervisor to stop pursuing the Chrysler due to Nelson’s reckless behavior.

The Chrysler was spotted numerous times over the next half-hour or so, driving recklessly. In one instance, it traveled head-on at an ambulance, the memorandum states.

Klostermann began following the car northbound on Edgewood Road NW near F Avenue, and Jenatscheck began following shortly after. The two followed Nelson until he came to a stop on Glass Road NE.

Nelson then sped up again, reaching 77 mph, and Klosterman requested and was granted permission to conduct a traffic stop. She activated the lights of her squad car, and the Chrysler continued speeding away until it suddenly stopped in the 2200 block of Glass Road NE.

Nelson got out of the Chrysler holding a long black gun. He pointed it at Klostermann twice. Both officers pulled out their own guns and ordered Nelson to drop his gun, which he didn’t do. He then pointed the gun at Officer Jenatscheck, and both officers began shooting, at the same time Nelson discharged his weapon toward Jenatscheck. Jenatscheck was not hit.

In an interview with an Iowa DCI agent, Jenatscheck “stated that he was looking down the barrel of Nelson’s gun and that he didn’t want to die so he shot Nelson until he could not see him, meaning he had fallen to the ground,” according to the memorandum.

Klostermann reported similar feelings in an interview with an Iowa DCI agent.

“She stated that she knew (Nelson) was going to kill them, could not give him any more time to do it and had no other option so she began shooting at him until he fell to the ground. She heard the shotgun fire and initially believed that Officer Jenatscheck was shot and possibly dead,” the memorandum states.

Two more officers had pulled up behind Klostermann and Jenatscheck, and the four officers provided emergency medical care to Nelson pending the arrival of Area Ambulance. One of the officers kicked the shotgun toward the side of the road and away from Nelson.

Cedar Rapids Police Department investigators spoke with friends of Nelson’s who had been with him earlier that night, one of whom is the owner of the silver Chrysler. The friends reported that Nelson had been drinking alcohol and was driving recklessly before he dropped them off around 1:30 a.m.

The owner of the Chrysler told investigators there was a shotgun in the trunk of the car when he left the car with Nelson.

Nelson was also interviewed by Cedar Rapids investigators and Iowa DCI agents. He told investigators that he had no memory of what happened between dropping off his friends at 1:30 a.m. and finding himself on the ground outside the Chrysler in pain.

“He admitted to consuming alcohol the night of the incident and assumed he was intoxicated and acted the way he did in order to get shot by the police,” the memorandum states.

Charges against Nelson are being considered and the investigation is continuing, according to Maybanks.

Nelson was charged in 2018 with multiple eluding charges for two separate incidents in which he led police on high speed chases in Cedar Rapids, according to court documents. He accepted plea agreements and pleaded guilty in both cases to one count of eluding.

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