Report shows timeline of Zapata's death

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) - The clearest timeline of what happened the night Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Officer Eric Zapata died was released Tuesday.

Zapata was killed in the line of duty on April 18, 2011. He was backing up another officer on a shots-fired call in the city's Edison Neighborhood.

KDPS on Tuesday released its full internal investigation, which 24 Hour News 8 obtained using the Freedom of Information Act.

The investigation cleared the officers' actions that night. The department's Office of Professional Standards wrote: "No policy violations occurred and all officers and employees involved acted appropriately and admirably under the circumstances presented."

The investigation shows a timeline of how quickly things turned from what appeared to be a routine dispatch and turned into a murder-suicide scene.

The report shows about 75 seconds passed between the initial contact with suspect Leonard "Danny" Statler until the moment Zapata was shot.

The times were compiled through analysis of recording devices in the officers' cars and microphones on their person.

Timeline of the night of April 18, 2011 as per the report:

- 11:22:15: Officer John Schipper arrives on the 1400 block of Hays Park Avenue on a 'shots fired' call. He spots Danny Statler on the porch of 1411 Hays Park. The officer asks Statler if he heard anything in the area, to which Statler doesn't answer. After two more attempts to talk to Statler, Schipper gets out of his car to continue questioning him. Statler then pulls up his sweatshirt and pulls out a handgun.

- 11:22:34: Statler and Schipper trade gunshots. Neither are hit.

- 11:22:40: Schipper radios "shots fired." Officer Eric Zapata is one block south on Reed Street.

- 11:22:58: After reloading his .40 caliber gun, Schipper fires three shots between two houses. Zapata radios "1415 Reed in the alley."

- 11:23:04: Schipper warns "Don't come down Hays Park" while running through an alley south of Hays Park Avenue.

- 11:23:08 Schipper radios, "He's got a long gun and a short gun and he's coming after me."

- 11:23:18: Schipper calls for more units. Seconds later, he requests officers with long guns. Zapata is climbing a wooden fence to get to the alley just south of Hays Park Avenue.

- 11:23:28: Statler shoots Zapata. He has no time to pull his gun after Statler ambushes him in the alley.

- 11:23:30: Zapata tries to radio he's been shot, but his radio microphone cannot be heard. Statler shoots him once more.

Statler then turned the gun on himself.

The medical examiner said his blood alcohol content level (BAC) was 0.24 -- or three times the legal driving limit of .08.

In the investigation that followed, Statler's future sister-in-law told police that just days earlier Statler mentioned that if things got bad enough he would kill himself and try to take out officers if he could.

Five officers was his goal, she said, but she chalked the conversation up to Statler being drunk at the time.

Zapata is the only Kalamazoo officer to have died in the line of duty.