Coroner: Man killed himself after shooting deputy

A Gardnerville man who fired on deputies early Saturday morning was found dead in his father's bedroom wearing the handcuffs placed on him by arresting officers.

Joshua Able Petri, 27, killed himself inside his mother's Kingslane mobile home after waking up the family in the early morning hours by firing an AK-47 at deputies who made a traffic stop not far from his home.

Petri was the right front passenger in a white Chevrolet pickup traveling on Highway 395 at about 4:15 a.m. when it was spotted by Douglas County Sheriff's Deputy Robert Duffy.

Duffy turned on his emergency lights after he saw it was driving erratically, according to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.

That traffic stop set into motion events that would leave Petri dead and Duffy injured by the end of the morning.

Court records and Petri's family agree that he was no stranger to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. Petri had been arrested for driving under the influence, alternative sentencing violations, attempts to elude officers and possession of marijuana during the 11 years he lived in Carson Valley.

During that time, he held jobs at the Pizza Barn, worked as a janitor at Kirkwood Ski Resort or helped his father install floors.

He once told a justice of the peace he dropped out of school in the seventh grade.



Shots fired

Early Saturday morning, the white pickup took Petri within a few feet of his home as Duffy followed it into the mobile home park. When the pickup stopped, Petri ran from the passenger's seat and into the darkness.

Duffy, surprised by Petri's action radioed for backup and instructions, as he took the other two occupants of the pickup into custody with a deputy who arrived shortly after he did.

According to Petri's father, Don Petri, Joshua ran into the family home at 1326 Kingslane Court where he obtained the AK-47 he kept in his room.

It was not unusual for Petri to come home early in the morning after being out with friends, his father said.

"I heard him scuffling in there and lay awake, then I heard the gun cock and I got up," Don said Monday morning. "I told him to put down the gun, but he knocked me out of the way and went to the door and shot at the deputies."

Outside, Duffy and the other deputy had just finished handcuffing the other two occupants of the pickup when seven shots came out of the dark at them. Because of the close quarters inside the mobile home park, deputies could not tell where the shots came from. Most of the bullets hit an unoccupied mobile home behind the deputies. Both officers took cover behind their vehicles, but at some point Duffy darted out from behind his car and radioed that he had been hit.

According to call logs obtained from the Carson City Sheriff's Office, the report of officer shot was broadcast at 4:23 a.m. Officers from all over Douglas County were racing to the scene, according to Sgt. Tom Mezzetta of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.

Outside, deputies were backing from the scene and waiting for reinforcements as residents began to step from their homes awakened by the shooting.

Kingslane resident Linda Skaggs said her dog, Zoe, awakened her at about 4 a.m.

"I heard yelling and looked down the street," she said. "I could see the lights from the sheriff officer's car."

Skaggs said Zoe growled, something the dog doesn't normally do, so she retreated back into her home.

"I heard about eight gunshots and saw the Sheriff's SUV start backing up with another officer running alongside and yelling into his radio that shots were fired," she said. "It looked like the SUV was giving the other officer protection. It was very scary."



In custody

The first deputy to arrive on the scene after the shooting teamed up with the other backup officer. Mezzetta said Duffy had disappeared into the darkness and could not be accounted for.

Inside the mobile home, Joshua had stepped back inside and Don Petri grabbed the rifle away from him and laid it on a table.

"I told him now he's done what he's done so he has to make it right," Don said. "He went over and hugged his mother and brother and he went back out pretending he had a gun and telling them 'shoot me now, why don't you get it over with.'"

Petri ran at the two deputies with one arm held to his chest and the other extended straight out from his body as if he were carrying a rifle and dared them to shoot him.

Deputies ordered Petri to get on the ground but he continued to come at them. According to Mezzetta, one of the deputies thought he saw a rifle and fired four rounds at Petri. One of the bullets struck Petri in the left ring finger and he went down.

One of the deputies approached Petri and handcuffed him. They had never seen who fired at them, Mezzetta said, so they still didn't know if the situation was under control.



Six in custody

"I could hear the officer say, 'He's down,' so we went outside," Don said.

Petri's mother, Patty Munyer, Don Petri and brother Jason Petri came out of the mobile home.

Mezzetta said the three came out of the mobile home yelling at the pair of deputies who, at that point, had three prisoners - one of them wounded.

The deputies ordered the family members to the ground and handcuffed them while trying to remain under cover.

Don Petri said that when his ex-wife complained about her heart, deputies told her to stay down or they would use the Taser on her.

During the arrest, Petri got up, Don said, and tried to see to his mother, but a deputy kicked his legs out from under him.

Joshua got up again, despite being handcuffed. His father said deputies used the Taser on him, but Joshua made his way back into the yard.

"This is a guy who wears three or four shirts, so the Taser didn't look like it stopped him," Don Petri said.

The family heard the sliding glass door open and close and a short time later, heard two gun shots.

Don said the family only allowed Joshua to keep one gun in his room, so Joshua went into Don's bedroom to retrieve a derringer he kept there. That was the weapon that killed him

"I kept most of his guns, because we didn't like that he had them in the house," Don said.

Joshua's brother, Jason, said that was when the family knew Joshua was dead.

Mezzetta said deputies also heard the muffled gun shots, but thought they might have again been under fire.



Reinforcements arrive

By the time help arrived, Joshua Petri was already dead, but Mezzetta pointed out there was no way for deputies to know that.

Once significant forces gathered Saturday morning outside the home, Special Weapons and Tactics team members fired tear gas shells through the windows and launched a percussion grenade inside after attempting to contact the occupants.

At 8:05 a.m. they found Josuha dead inside his father's bedroom, handcuffed with a .410-gauge handgun by his hand.

The Washoe County Coroner, who conducts autopsies for Douglas County, reported that Petri's head wound was self-inflicted. Mezzetta said Petri was able to maneuver the right handcuff about three inches up his arm, which allowed him to bring the hand gun up and around his torso to fire the shot.

Duffy was located by medical personnel near the entrance of Kingslane and was taken to Washoe Medical Center where he is recovering from surgery to save his finger.

Parallel investigations into the incident are being conducted by both the Douglas County Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney's Office.