On Thursday, March 5, dozens of Clarkdale residents filled into the auditorium at Clarkdale-Jerome School for a public forum discussing the fatal shooting of Joshua David Hernandez Lord following a domestic violence incident on Thursday, Feb. 27.
Lord, 33, is alleged to have fatally beaten his 4-year-old son prior to police arrival. The boy was airlifted to Flagstaff Medical Center, where he later died.
Lord’s mother, 51, who was present during the incident, was also hospitalized due to injuries she allegedly received from Lord before police arrived.
At the forum, many from the community expressed the traumatic emotions they felt from a grisly event in a normally quiet Clarkdale neighborhood.
Representatives of Spectrum Healthcare, Verde Valley Sanctuary and other local support agencies stressed the importance of caring for mental health after a traumatic experience, especially involving domestic violence. Neighbors shared memories of Lord, his family and his son and expressed shock and horror that something like this could happen in what many described as a seemingly happy and healthy family.
Clarkdale Police Department Chief Randy Taylor provided a detailed account of the body camera footage of Officer Carlos Godina, who responded to the call and fatally shot Lord.
The Cottonwood Journal Extra has since obtained the body camera footage and can verify Taylor’s account of the incident as accurate. Below is the verbatim account given by Taylor at the forum, edited for clarity:
“At approximately 3 p.m, a week ago today, Officer Carlos Godina was in the downtown area, and he received a medical call to assist medical with a child that was bleeding and a mother who was yelling.
“He responded — not code 3, just code 1, which is regular response — because medical had already been dispatched and were already on their way.
“On his arrival he quickly determined that there was a chaotic situation, and he asked for backup. When he was on the porch, he encountered a disturbed individual by the name of Joshua Lord. Joshua was inside the house, and he made repeated remarks to our officer, to kill him.
“Officer Godina had attempted to try the front door. It was locked. As he saw the suspect go to the front door he took a couple of steps back off the porch, [and] drew his Taser. The suspect came after him with a guitar — we’re talking about an electric guitar, not one that would be easily broken. He came after him with the electric guitar.
“Officer Godina fired his Taser. The Taser was not effective, so Officer Godina continued to move toward the back of the house, along the side of the house and into the back, while the suspect continued to pursue him.
“Officer Godina grabbed the tricycle — many of you who have watched the news have seen the tricycle on the front porch. That tricycle was in the back yard. He grabbed the tricycle, so that he could defend himself against the guitar, and then he approached the subject, pushing him in front of the residence and on into the house. While I can’t tell what he was thinking, I believe he most likely thought, ‘OK, I have him contained inside the house. I’ll wait for backup.’ That’s when he was told there was a child injured inside the house, and he made the decision to go inside the residence.
“At some point he saw that the subject now had a knife, and the audible says, ‘He has a knife now.’
“Backup had arrived. The closest backup was an officer [School Resource Officer Mike Brundridge] at the school, and when he asked for backup, the officer didn’t respond code 3 immediately. It wasn’t
until later when Officer Godina gave out a code that every police officer knows to respond as quickly as they can. At that point in time he responded as quickly as he [could].
“Officer Godina made entry into the house. At this point, his techniques were sound. He pied [panning from side to side to see potential hostiles on the other side of a door rather than be caught unawares] every part of the room, looking for the suspect, keeping himself safe. He found the suspect in the back part of the residence.
“At that point the suspect said that he had severely injured his son. Officer Godina argued with him, saying, ‘you didn’t,’ trying to de-escalate, trying to get him to forget the tragic event, trying to take his mind off it, so that he could de-escalate him. The person got elevated and continued to challenge Officer Godina.
“Officer Godina went into the living room. He actually put himself at risk by going into the living room, but the suspect was telling him this child was on the couch, and Officer Godina felt that he needed to check on the safety of the child. It was obvious that the child was in dire straits. He reached down, felt the child, then he continually addressed the suspect, asking the suspect to drop the knife and to drop the guitar. The suspect would not comply.
“A few seconds later, the suspect charged Officer Godina. I say charged. I want to make sure I get this part right, because if at some point in time you view the video, I want to be as transparent as possible. When I say charged you might say something different, so he took aggressive maneuvers toward Officer Godina, and when he was within a very dangerous distance to Officer Godina, he was forced to end the threat.
“At that point in time, Officer Brundridge was on scene. He was at the back of the house. He was attempting to make entry. When he heard shots fired he didn’t know who the shots came from, so he took cover and immediately entered the house.
“Upon entering the house, he went to the child, and began providing medical attention to the child until ambulance and fire personnel arrived on scene.”
Shortly after the incident, Taylor asked the Arizona Department of Public Safety to investigate the incident. DPS has not yet made any part of its report public.
