APNewsBreak: Video shows last year’s fatal shooting of speed-camera van operator in Phoenix

APNewsBreak: Video shows Ariz. speed cam killing

PHOENIX — The operator of a speed-camera van was shuffling through paperwork when he was knocked to the side by multiple gunshots that killed him hours later, according to video obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The minute-long video, taken from the interior of the van, shows Doug Georgianni, 51, sitting in the front seat with an overhead light on as he went through paperwork on April 19, 2009. Georgianni is then shot and can be heard mumbling shortly after.

The video is “really, really disturbing,” Phoenix police Detective James Holmes said.

“The fact that it actually happened in the first place broke your heart,” he said. “Now almost a year later you see it, it just brings all of that back again and adds credence to the fact that this was absolutely senseless.”

A second video, also provided by Phoenix police, shows a Chevy Suburban slowly pull up behind the van and then alongside it. The shooter is not shown.

Thomas Patrick Destories, 69, was arrested the day after the killing. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, drive-by shooting and firing a gun at a structure in the killing. His lawyer, Vanessa Smith, did not return a call for comment.

“I’m sorry. I was going to turn myself in,” Destories told police at the time, according to court records. “I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt. I saw it (the shooting) on the news. The gun is in the saddlebag.”

His lawyer said in court documents that Destories has a history of mental illness dating back to 1970, that their conversations have been disjointed and that he has exhibited paranoia. He recently was found competent to stand trial and remains jailed.

In finding Destories competent, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael Kemp ruled that Destories understands the court proceedings and can assist in his own defense.

Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty because they weren’t able to find aggravating factors to do so, prosecutor Vince Imbordino said last week. Such factors would include a crime being committed in an especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner.

Destories faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted on the first-degree murder charge, but the jury could find him guilty of a lesser charge of second-degree murder.

Authorities haven’t released a motive in Georgianni’s killing but said Destories and Georgianni had never met. Many assume the killing was the most extreme backlash against the state’s speed-enforcement program, which began in September 2008.

Arizonans have used sticky notes, Silly String and even a pickax to sabotage the cameras since they began snapping the photos of speeders. A citizens group is seeking to get a measure on the November ballot to ban the cameras.

Mobile units that are part of Arizona’s statewide speed-enforcement program are no longer staffed with people, but are operated remotely.

Georgianni, who lived in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, called his wife after he was shot, and she called 911. It was the last time the two spoke to each other.

Georgianni had just a few days left on the job before he was to leave to sell insurance. His family has said they want Destories sentenced to at least 30 years in prison because that’s how long they estimate Georgianni would have lived had he not been killed.