Document details what led up to officer-involved shooting in Caldwell

The probable cause affidavit against Clifford O. Carter Jr. details the events that brought Caldwell police to his home Nov. 29, but it contains only a brief reference to the shooting that injured the 40-year-old suspect.

“Clifford drove onto the roadway and encountered law enforcement,” Nampa Police Sgt. Donald Peck wrote. “At the conclusion of the encounter with law enforcement, Clifford was transported to St. Alphonsus hospital in Boise.”

Most of what is known about the shooting was announced the next morning, when Nampa police took the lead in a Critical Incident Task Force investigation of the incident. An officer responding to a domestic disturbance call late that Sunday night was approaching Carter’s home on North Indiana Avenue when a car sped toward him as if to run him down, police said. The officer opened fire, wounding the driver, police said. The vehicle then ran into a police car.

Carter was hospitalized for several days, then booked into jail on Dec. 2, prompting investigators to release his name and the charges against him: felony attempted strangulation, aggravated assault and domestic battery with traumatic injury in front of a child; as well as misdemeanor charges of DUI, intentional destruction of a telecommunications device and malicious injury to property.

Details of the shooting are not expected to be released until the investigation is complete. So far, Nampa police have released only who was shot and how many Caldwell officers were at the scene: three.

“I expect the reports to be complete in the next month or so and then be forwarded to (the Canyon County prosecutor) for review,” Nampa Police Chief Craig Kingsbury said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Carter is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Dec. 18. Peck’s probable cause affidavit outlines the information that led to the charges against Carter.

In interviews with police, Carter said he drank six beers while watching football that night, then got into an argument with his wife. He said he blacked out and did not remember everything that happened, according to the affidavit.

Carter’s wife told Peck that Carter “gets grabby when he’s drunk,” and that night he became enraged, hitting her on the head repeatedly and trying to strangle her. Their son tried to stop the battering, and the wife told the boy to call police. When Carter pursued his son to stop that phone call, his wife locked the bedroom door and blocked it with a board to keep Carter out, the affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, Carter broke down the bedroom door and found his wife hiding in the bathroom, on the phone with police dispatch. Carter reportedly threw the phone across the room, and his wife then ran out of the house. While she was in the driveway, Carter got into his vehicle and started backing up. His wife ran out of the way to avoid getting hit, she told police.

Carter’s wife suffered a large bump on the right side of her head as well as scratches on her arm, chest and neck, the affidavit continued.

Canyon County court records show that Carter has been arrested for misdemeanor domestic violence three times, but one of those charges was reduced to disturbing the peace in 2005. The other two, in 2002 and 2003, were dismissed, according to court records. Records also show a separate misdemeanor battery conviction in 2005 that is not listed as domestic violence.

This story was originally published December 8, 2015 at 9:39 PM with the headline "Document details what led up to officer-involved shooting in Caldwell."