A Fountain police officer’s body-worn camera was off when he shot a 17-year-old teenager last week, and the police chief said Thursday the incident is a prime example of how the cameras aren’t perfect, and neither are people. It’s a lesson ripe for sharing with other departments new at body cams, and it’s an opportunity for Fountain Police to learn and improve its own polices.

Officer Jonathan Kay shot Patrick O’Grady in his home Sept. 24, after O’Grady reportedly displayed a handgun. O’Grady was later pronounced dead at a hospital. Details about what happened inside the house after Kay arrived on scene have not been released because of the ongoing investigation.

“Do I wish, as police chief, I had the whole incident on camera?” Fountain Police Chief Chris Heberer said Thursday after a news conference. “Absolutely. But we don’t.”

Kay thought he turned on the camera when he got out of his car near O’Grady’s home, and did not realize it was off until he looked down to radio for help after firing his gun, Heberer said. Some people likely think it’s convenient the shooting wasn’t captured, but the chief views this is an opportunity for the department to improve, he said.

Fountain police officers have used body cameras since 2013, and the department started experimenting with them long before that. The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and Colorado Springs Police Department started experimenting much more recently, and are now soliciting public feedback about potential policies.

Often, with other trends or equipment, Fountain looks to those two larger agencies for guidance after they’ve already put practices into place.

“It’s great to be first, but in this instance, we’re going to provide lessons we learned to (them),” Heberer said.

Fountain’s cameras are constantly recording and writing over the footage when they’re off, so that when they’re turned on, the camera saves about 30 seconds of silent footage that was recorded while the camera was “off.” Heberer would not say Thursday how or if that feature proved useful in the ongoing investigation, which is led by the Sheriff’s Office. Footage starts after Kay’s gun was fired.

In stark contrast to the riots that have occurred in other cities after deadly officer-involved shootings, the Fountain community has supported the Police Department in the wake of O’Grady’s death, Heberer said. After the shooting, a family brought 10 pizzas to feed police who were working late.

Heberer became chief in March after a lengthy military career that included time as a Fort Carson military police battalion commander. Since then, he has often talked about how he tries to fill the “love bank” through community policing – treating everyone with respect, being transparent, doing good deeds and building trust.

After he was hired, he told The Gazette in an interview that he hoped and prayed Ferguson, Mo., would never happen in Fountain, and that he would do all he could to make sure the Fountain Police Department would never go “bankrupt” of community trust. He has repeatedly promised to release all the evidence in the shooting investigation once the case is closed.

“You always wonder how it’s going to affect the community, how it’s going to affect the cops,” Heberer said Thursday, adding that the community has been largely supportive. “I just feel like if we tell them the truth, if we tell our community the truth, then they’ll believe it. Especially if, over time, what we say and what we do is absolutely the truth.”

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Fountain Police Chief Chris Heberer. Photo by Kassondra Cloos