Bodycam footage shows Charles Ryan pointed gun at officers during standoff

Tempe police released unedited body camera footage taken the night of Jan. 6 when former Arizona prisons chief Charles Ryan led an hourslong armed standoff with officers at his residence.

Police reports state that seven homes in the Las Estadas community in Tempe were evacuated during the standoff and Ryan pointed a gun at officers, causing them to fear for their lives.

Ryan's wife told police he had been drinking before the incident.

The footage shows officers addressing Ryan as a person is seen opening a door to his garage, saying, "Charles, let me see both of your hands right now! If you do not comply, force is going to be used against you."

The video shows Ryan opening the door holding a dark object.

In the video, police state that Ryan is holding something in his hands, and then identify it as a weapon. It is unclear in the footage if the dark object being held by Ryan is a firearm.

"That's a gun," officers are heard saying. "Drop the gun!"

One officer is heard saying, "He was pointing it at us. Put it out."

An officer then fires a bean bag round at Ryan, after which someone can be heard yelling, but it is unclear if it is Ryan. He is then seen closing the door and going back into the house.

"It was a black revolver," an officer says in the video.

"If he pops out again, throw another bean bag at him," an officer says. "If I see that at all, he's ... we're not waiting for that to happen again."

The released footage shows a time stamp between 10:48 p.m. and 11:07 p.m., during which officers make no further contact with Ryan. The standoff lasted more than three hours, according to police reports.

In the additional footage, police can be seen surrounding Ryan's house, taking up defensive positions behind an armored vehicle. Police are also seen working with a robot, which was used to enter the front door and communicate with Ryan to come out of the house, according to Tempe police reports.

In a statement accompanying the videos, Tempe police Detective Natalie Barela said, "In an effort to provide information as quickly as possible to community members and requesting media, the attached video is a portion of body worn camera footage from some of the officers who responded to the incident involving Charles Ryan. The sequence of actions in what you’ll see has not been altered or edited, but the video has been redacted in part in accord with the Tempe Police redaction guideline."

Barela said the entirety of the videos requested by The Arizona Republic would be released at a later date: "The processing of that request is ongoing and is expected to take a substantial amount of time due to the number of officers on the scene," she said.

Tempe police reports show that officers believe Ryan's wife called them to the scene after he accidentally discharged a firearm in their bathroom, which caused sink fragments to cut his forehead.

Ryan was taken to the hospital for that injury, as well as an injury sustained to his hand from a bean bag round fired by Tempe police.

Ryan was never jailed after the standoff, which public defenders have called an outrageous disparity compared with how most people are treated after pointing a gun at police.

Tempe police said in a statement that they submitted several recommended charges to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office: two counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer and one count of unlawful discharge of a firearm. As of Thursday, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office had still not announced any charges against Ryan.
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