The Cathedral City Police Department has released video that shows an officer shooting a man last year, resulting in injuries that required hospitalization.
Police say the video shows the man pointing a gun at the officer from inside a car, but that portion of the footage is too dark to clearly make out.
The man, 39-year-old Benjamin Scott Cohen of Cathedral City, remains in jail facing attempted murder and weapons charges.
According to the video, a resident called 911 at 1:41 p.m. June 16, 2023, to report hearing four gunshots and finding her rear glass door shattered. The video uploaded to YouTube by police shows an apparent bullet hole in the window of the caller's door.
The caller says she does not know who fired the shots, but notes her neighbor had been seen peeking into her window the previous week, which had prompted her to report it to the police.
An officer was dispatched at 1:45 p.m. to investigate. Police had already identified Cohen as a suspect, the video shows. A dispatcher informed the investigating officer Cohen had four firearms registered to him.
Officer Peter Shubin, described in the video as having seven years of law enforcement experience, was also dispatched to the scene at 2:20 p.m. Shubin noticed the suspect's vehicle pass the residence at 2:43 p.m. Most of the video released by CCPD involves footage from the dashboard of Shubin's vehicle or his body-worn camera.
Radio traffic from just before the shooting is muddled, but in the video one of the officers appears to say the suspect had just discharged a firearm before turning into the residential complex.
Dashboard footage shows Cohen's vehicle approaching before being blocked in the road by Shubin's police car. Shubin quickly exits his vehicle moments before firing once at the car.
The interior of Cohen's car is too dark to make out in the video, but a CCPD caption claims to show the suspect pointing a firearm at the officer.
After Shubin fired a single shot, a bullet hole forms in the window of the Cohen's car. Shubin then tells Cohen to put his hands up several times, although there is no movement from within.
The video shows a loaded Smith & Wesson SD9VE with 10 rounds recovered from the suspect's vehicle.
Cohen was taken to the hospital for treatment before being booked into Riverside County jail on suspicion of attempted murder of a peace officer, commission of a felony while armed with a firearm and shooting at an inhabited dwelling.
Riverside County prosecutors later filed formal charges on the same counts, which remain pending. A court hearing is set for July 24 for a judge to hear Cohen's motion to set aside the charges, records show.
Sam Morgen covers the city of Palm Springs for The Desert Sun. Reach him at smorgen@gannett.com.
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