OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — The Oklahoma County Sheriff is releasing more information about the man who died in a crash after leading police on a high-speed chase.
Deputies said this is not the first run-in with him, and that time, they had to pull their on weapons on him.
“A split second determines lethal force or not lethal force,” said Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson III, while describing the previous encounter with the chase suspect.
On Sunday, deputies said they tried to pull over Jeffrey Riess, 39, near NW 178th and MacArthur, after he allegedly kicked in his girlfriend’s door hours before.
“Mr. Riess did not respond to commands and instead took off,” said Deputy Aaron Brilbeck. “The chase reached speed up to 120 mph.”
Riess crashed, then his car caught on fire. He died at the scene.
On August 12, two months to the day of Riess’ death, Oklahoma County Deputies were called to Riess’ home for a domestic dispute.
“He had pulled a firearm inside the house with his girlfriend, shot off a round in that house, threatening to commit suicide,” said Sheriff Johnson.
When deputies arrived the two were wrestling over a gun.
“Oh, he’s got a gun,” said the deputy on the body cam footage. “Get your hands up, man!”
Deputies said that’s when they heard the sound of “‘Racking’ a round into a gun.”
“Suspect took possession of it. Took the gun over, was pointing it in the direction of our deputies and then dropped the gun,” said Sheriff Johnson.
“Just keep your hands up dude, keep them up!” said the deputy on the footage.
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Riess later told investigators he planned to kill his girlfriend, then have deputies kill him. Instead, he surrendered.
“He was taken to Oklahoma county jail where he was booked in and ultimately bonded out on a $1,000 bond, and the cycle just kind of repeated itself with these two,” said Sheriff Johnson.
After Riess was arrested, deputies said they found his pistol in the yard. There was no magazine and the chamber was not loaded.
The magazine and bullet was found in the passenger seat where Riess was leaning when they arrived.
