First Person, Second Thoughts

Steve Searles didn’t see what he thought he saw. 

And it’s messing with him a little bit. 

“It’s a humbling thing,” he said this week. “When you’re a person who prides himself on being truthful and accurate.” 

Searles was an on-site witness to last week’s officer-involved shooting in Mammoth. 

He had been running errands in the vicinity when he noticed police vehicles and officers at the curb leading to the Mammoth Lakes Library and school district offices. 

He then drove into the mall entrance at Giovanni’s to get a closer look. 

As he was pulling in, straight ahead, in the gap between the dumpster and the snow bank, he could see a guy running – like he was doing a looping buttonhook, curling down the hill and then back up towards the Library stop sign. He assumed this was a suspect. 

Searles then backed out, and parked his vehicle blocking the street entrance. This helped secure the perimeter and also gave Searles a dual view – towards the events unfolding at the library as well as a view towards the high school. He was concerned about school letting out for lunch and kids streaming towards potential danger. So his attention was split.

Through his passenger window looking up the hill, he saw three officers standing just off the sidewalk, their backs to him, their guns drawn. He saw the guy who’d been running, now standing at attention, his arms at his sides. 

He wasn’t expecting gunfire. He’s been on hundreds of calls with MLPD officers over the years. He’d seen guns drawn in plenty of situations – squirrelly situations – but never fired. 

He turned away again to check the school. 

He didn’t hear the shots. A trick of windows up, wind direction, who knows. But when he turned back, he saw a man hit the sidewalk concrete. 

But what Searles didn’t understand in the moment was that the man who hit the sidewalk and the man he’d seen running weren’t the same man, even if he saw them both in the same exact spot a few seconds apart. 

The man he’d seen running, he believes (but isn’t sure), was a plainclothes officer. 

The suspect (at the time), later identified as Mammoth resident Jesus Uribe, was located on the other side of a berm, in between the officers and the library. 

In the time that Searles looked away, Mr. Uribe apparently charged the officers’ position. Searles assumes the plainclothes officer made evasive action to get away. Mr. Uribe was shot and killed and dropped in almost the exact same spot where the plainclothes officer had been standing. 

Searles said the experience has given him perspective. 

“We’re all confused,” he said. “I was, too. I was an eyewitness. I perceived bad things [had occurred]. It colored my opinion.” 

Now he’s prepared to reserve judgment and wait for the release of the bodycam footage. 

“We should all watch that footage closely and make our own determinations,” he said. But until then, he hoped the community would take a collective breath.

Instead, perhaps say a few prayers. There’s a lot of healing to be done. “We’re all going to live with this memory for the rest of our lives.”

“I’ve read the comments online. ‘Mexicans aren’t safe.’ ‘Murdering Motherf*****s.’ It’s natural to be upset, to cast blame, for feelings to be raw. But you’re saying these things without all the facts.” 

“Don’t be like me,” he concluded. 

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As far as an update from MLPD, Chief Dan Casabian issued this statement on Thursday afternoon:

“We understand this event’s impact on the community and everyone involved. The public has a right to know the facts surrounding this incident, and MLPD is determined to release the body-worn camera video and more information as soon as the investigation allows.”