In Napa, two police incidents, two very different outcomes

Napa police has identified two veteran officers as the shooters in the death of Noel Russell outside a Napa Home Depot earlier this month.|

The 911 calls reporting a man wandering in the street and a man with a knife “attacking” people in a Napa parking lot came from the same shopping area, just minutes apart, in a southwest area of the city.

Officers heading to the area thought at first the calls were about the same person, but it turned out to be two different men, both in their 20s and possibly under the influence of drugs. They both exhibited what police described as “aggressive” and “erratic” behavior.

Minutes after police arrived, a 23-year-old man holding a knife was shot and killed by police. The other, age 28, was booked into the Napa County Jail on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance.

New details about the March 13 shooting and arrest show different outcomes for two men 911 callers described as behaving erratically and “high.”

Napa police identified two veteran officers as the shooters: Officer Jack Thomson, who has worked in law enforcement for 25 years, and Sgt. Ryan Cole, who has been with the Napa Police Department for 22 years. They are on administrative leave while supervisors conduct a review of the shooting.

Napa Police Capt. Jennifer Gonzales said the main difference in the two outcomes is only one of the men was threatening people with a knife.

The first 911 call came in at 6:21 p.m. March 13 from shoppers outside the Napa Home Depot store.

Noel Russell, 23, had vandalized vehicles and was “jabbing” a folding knife in the direction of a group of shoppers, Gonzales said.

The first officers to arrive saw Russell acting aggressively toward a group of people in a parking lot near the Napa Black Bear Diner, the captain said.

“Officers got between him and that group of people” and began ordering him to get onto the ground, Gonzales said. He didn't comply and “turned his aggression toward the officers,” according to a police statement.

Gonzales declined to describe in detail what happened next other than to say the officers “feared for their safety and the safety of others.” Gonzales also declined to say how many times Cole and Thomson fired their weapons. Neither wore body cameras.

The Napa County Sheriff's Office is investigating the shooting, and relaying what information Napa police can release to the public, she said.

Around the corner on Soscol Avenue, responding deputies found a 28-year-old man “running into traffic and acting bizarrely,” according to a police statement. They detained the man, identified as Wally Williamson, 28, of Napa, and arrested him on suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance and booked him into Napa County Jail. He was later released.

Napa County Sheriff's Capt. Keith Behlmer said they found no evidence Russell and Williamson knew one another.

Russell had been in the Napa area for about a year and was described as transient, Gonzales said. In that time, he'd had several encounters with law enforcement leading to warrants for his arrest on suspicion of possession of a methamphetamine pipe, obstructing or resisting police and battery against a police officer.

His family, in a TV interview and on a fundraising page, described Russell as “sweet,” “goofy” and “the life of the party.” Interested in filmmaking, he had attended classes at Pacific Union College in Angwin, according to KRON 4 TV.

On the GoFundMe page, his family wrote about Russell having thrived after he left the foster system at age 12 when a cousin took him in and raised him as her son, but that he'd been introduced to drugs in college and “a new struggle would begin.”

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