Experts are analyzing body camera footage of the officer-involved shooting

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Newly released dash cam footage shows the moment a Department of Public Safety officer spotted a speeding vehicle on November 3. According to police reports, 33-year-old Tyler Pugh was approximately 25 miles over the speed limit on Chippewa Road. The officer turned on his lights and sirens. The video shows the SUV stop for a moment and then drive away.

The film picks up speed as the chase heads onto the interstate, reaching speeds of nearly 100 miles per hour at some points. Minutes later, the video shows the suspect’s car and officers exiting onto College Drive and passing the car on the off-ramp. The chase continued through several neighborhoods. It finally ended after the SUV hit a power pole. According to police, that’s where the suspect tried to run over the officer, who then fired at the SUV.

Investigators say Pugh suffered minor injuries and his passenger suffered serious injuries.

After watching video of the police chase, expert Thomas Gleason had some doubts. From the beginning, he wonders whether speeding should trigger a pursuit at all.

“Do our actions create greater risk than the reward on the other side? And that’s where we go from there, especially in this residential area, all it takes is for someone to get hit by vehicles and get hit and die, and then we look back and say, ‘Well, should we really be chasing’ at those speeds in a residential area?” Gleason asked.

But he also says it’s important to understand that what you see on screen may be perceived differently by officers in the heat of the moment.

“In situations like this, officers have to make split-second decisions, when you look at it later and make the case, you’re not going to come to the same conclusion as the officer, so a lot of it goes back to the decision he made at the time of the incident,” he said Gleason.

Court records show Pugh had an ankle monitor attached to the shooting case and was already on probation for a drug conviction stemming from a previous police chase. He was arrested and held without bail on outstanding warrants related to his previous case. Investigators say more charges may be filed.

District Attorney Hillar Moore says because of this, officers made the right decision.

“In this case, they obviously made the right decision to pursue this individual. From what I saw, they had it under control. There were a lot of police officers there blocking the streets to make it as safe as possible,” Moore said.

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