The official story regarding the police shooting of an unarmed man in Grand Forks may be a colossal lie fabricated by Grand Forks Police Chief Mark Nelson.
 |
| Grand Forks Police Chief Mark Nelson |
The reason…
To cover up the fact (former) UND police officer Jerad Braaten (now a GFPD officer, hired by Nelson after the shooting) was stalking David James Elliott to kill him the night he shot Elliott in front of the Altru Hospital Emergency Room.
Evidence shows Nelson has moved heaven and earth to hide the fact Braaten’s explanation for shooting Elliott was contradicted and debunked by Nelson’s own police officers via statements they made that were captured on video at the scene.
Braaten’s official reason for shooting Elliott was that he thought another police officer was in danger and claims that is the sole reason he opened fire.
However, that story has completely collapsed in upon itself.
Write Into Action was contacted by a person identifying himself as “David James Elliott” who revealed the public has been totally deceived by the police and media about the entire event.
Elliott said he was intimidated by the Grand Forks States Attorneys Office into accepting a plea deal, and that his attorney, Darla Schuman, was told the State was charging Elliott with felonies to keep him from filing a lawsuit over the shooting.
“When [Jerad Braaten] shot me everyone was yelling ‘cease fire’ and nobody even knew who was firing until it was all done - and the cop that supposedly got drug by my vehicle wasn’t ever in danger - let alone near the driver’s window - and the cop that shot me on video said ‘I thought you were in danger’ and he yells ‘I wasn’t in danger at any given time and was upset,” Elliott said.
Police body and dash-cam obtained by Write Into Action through public records requests is so heavily (almost completely) redacted that the statements and observations of the officers cannot be heard.
And that appears to be by design of Nelson.
If an officer can be heard telling Braaten he was never in danger and the video shows he was nowhere near where Braaten places him; then a first attempt by Braaten to shoot Elliott several minutes prior at a separate location shows Braaten was hunting Elliott.
Elliott talked to Write Into Action about what can be seen in some of the videos and said the police and media are deceiving the public.
“What they don't tell you is that the officer that shot me tried to shoot me at the top of the university bridge were I stopped and was hanging half way out the window with my hands straight out but his gun misfired - so he pulled his gun back on top to dislodge the bullet and they found that bullet there on top of the bridge with nobody taking claim to it until they pulled his finger prints off of the damn thing,” Elliott said.
Elliott’s statement about Braaten’s action on the bridge is corroborated in the BCI records of Braaten’s interview.
UND Police Department Officer JARED BRAATEN stated that on the Columbia Road overpass DAVID ELLIOTT slowed down, eventually stopping on top of the overpass. UND Police Department Officer JARED BRAATEN indicated that Grand Forks Sheriff’s Office Deputy Nathan (Nate) Moen’s vehicle was in front of UND Police Department Officer JARED BRAATEN's vehicle. UND Police Department Officer JARED BRAATEN exited his vehicle, drew his service weapon, opened the door of Grand Forks Sheriff’s Office Deputy Nate Moen’s vehicle, and “press checked” his service weapon to ensure that a round was in the chamber. UND Police Department Officer JARED BRAATEN could not reset the round in the chamber so he ejected it.
- ND BCI
According to BCI records, Braaten’s body-cam was found underneath his UND squad car after the shooting. BCI records further state Braaten did not place a memory stick in his dash-cam on the night in question. He also was not wearing his ‘regular uniform’.
Elliott said there were serious questions about Braaten’s general activity on the night in question. “His own dispatch [at] UNDPD was trying to reach him on the radio for over an hour and had no clue were he was or what he was doing,” Elliott said.
According to Elliott there was “gigs (gigabytes)” of missing video from GFPD officers too.
“There is so much video that is missing its unreal as it seems all the sudden at the end of the chase everyone’s video that would and is the most important disappeared like a fart in the wind - oh but after the shooting its a freaking miracle all the sudden their body cams and all are working just fine,” Elliott said.
“One supposedly fell off and went under my truck and broke - the other malfunctions and on and on it goes,” Elliott said.
“There is so much shit like audio video and statements that just has not been shown and seen that would just blow peoples minds,” Elliott said.
What Nelson is hiding is of epic proportions.
“There is so much to this whole thing that people will never know or even understand. Heck after the first two to the third shot fired, my pickup was stopped and he just kept on shooting me. He fired 14 times total until his gun was empty and 8 hit me - and a total of ten hit my truck - and two hit the Kidney Dialysis Center way off to the right and two hit the E/R hall way way off to the left,” Elliott said.
“I got shot 8 times - not 6 or 7 - and then after I got shot and was laying on the steering wheel knocked out with blood all over the place and my left hand missing two fingers -two other officers from GFPD ran up to the drivers window and freaken tazed my lifeless body not once but twice - and they’re yelling put your hands up quit resisting as they open the drivers door and my body falls out of the truck like a sack of potatoes,” Elliott said.
“That’s the video nobody has seen - and I have it,” Elliott said.
DAVID ELLIOTT DESCRIBES HIS WOUNDS
 |
| David James Elliott |
“They at first, from what I understand, were not going to put [my fingers] back on but the one surgeon at Altru, thank God, said ‘I will be damned if were not going to put them back on as we have them and or what's left of them’. So he pieced them back together and pinned them in place. Well they are shorter and don't have feeling in all of the two and there on crooked a bit but I can grab things - but can't move them up and out. I can release stuff as I just let go but they release but don't move away from what I am letting go,” Elliott said.
“When I got to Grand Forks County Jail they were infected and I had a 101 temp and so they finally took me to the E/R around midnight. My back was and is still broken and I have a bullet in my spinal cord pinching it. T-6 vertebra is total gone and shattered and T-5 is cracked and not all there. The bullet that hit T-5 went straight up and missed every vital organ and it stopped and still is just behind my right top lung,” Elliott said.
“They had to rebuild my whole right side of the bone on my right face and right side jaw as the one bullet went through the back of my head, through my ear drum etc. and came out in pieces just under my right eye, which broke my eye socket and now have vision loss in that eye,” Elliott said.
“The fingers [that were shot off were] my little finger and the other was my ring finger. The bullet took my ring with it and stopped with my ring imbedded in it on the left front pillar in the vehicle. They had to dig it out of there. Well, my ring is destroyed, diamonds gone, but the gold is there; but I don't care I want my ring back as it said “dad” on it from my wife and kids,” Elliott said.
TWO FINGERS FOUND IN EAST GRAND FORKS
Elliott said the doctor at Altru re-attached his two fingers. However, the fact that two of Elliott’s fingers were shot off has created questions and public concerns about two human fingers found on a picnic table in the campground in East Grand Forks.
On May 27, 2016, the Grand Forks Herald reported ‘Severed fingers found on picnic table in East Grand Forks’.
Write Into Action produced a You Tube video which shows the Grand Forks Police Department criminally altered police body-cam of the police shooting.