About two minutes before killing Valerie Cadwallader last year, Butte County sheriff’s deputy Tyler Dentinger was informed by another deputy that the ranting Cadwallader might be holding a pellet gun.
“The information we have from a person on scene is that it’s possibly a .177 air rifle,” the deputy says in a radio transmission captured on Dentinger’s body-worn camera. At the time, Dentinger was crouched behind the open driver’s side door of his patrol SUV pointing an AR-15-style rifle in the direction of the 48-year-old Cadwallader, who was in mental crisis.
Heavily redacted body-worn camera videos from seven deputies at the incident, long withheld by the Sheriff’s Office, were released to this reporter May 7 — 364 days after Cadwallader’s killing. The videos provide more detail on what took place prior to her death, and mostly confirmed one eyewitness’s recollection of the incident, as told to ChicoSol.
The eyewitness account came from Brian Marklund, whose pellet rifle Cadwallader was pointing on May 8, 2025, when she was killed with a single round from Dentinger’s rifle.
More than a year after the killing, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea and District Attorney Mike Ramsey still have released only scant information about Cadwallader’s death and no records beyond the body-worn camera videos in which officers’ faces have been blurred to hide their identities. Neither public official responded to multiple requests for a response to Marklund’s version of events.
Dentinger’s killing of Cadwallader marked the third time he has pulled a trigger intending to shoot someone during his 10-year career as a Butte County sheriff’s deputy.
In 2019, Dentinger was one of nine deputies who shot a total of 63 rounds in killing Richard Moulton, who was accused of pointing a handgun at deputies. Even though he told investigators he could not see Moulton’s hands, Dentinger fired his handgun six times after other deputies began shooting.
Seth Stoughton, who directs the Excellence in Policing & Public Safety Program at the University of South Carolina, described Dentinger’s action as “contagious gunfire.” Stoughton said contagious shooting is generally not sufficient justification for intentionally using deadly force.
In addition, newly released records by the Sheriff’s Office also reveal that Dentinger, in April 2024, about a year before he killed Cadwallader, tried to shoot a domestic violence suspect, but his gun failed to fire. The suspect, Jason Sampson, was pointing a handgun at his own head in a Chico-area parking lot when Dentinger pulled the trigger. By the time Dentinger chambered another round, he no longer considered Sampson a threat and did not attempt to fire a second time. Sampson was later wounded by another deputy after climbing into a Chico Police Department patrol vehicle.
A Pew Research Center study found that nearly three of four police officers never fire a gun during their careers.
Timeline preceding Cadwallader’s death
Collectively, the recently released videos provide a timeline on deputies’ actions preceding Cadwallader’s death. Of the seven videos, only Dentinger’s is identified by name. The other six are numbered to obscure officer identities.
Videos show that “Deputy 6” was first to respond to Marklund’s Butte Creek Canyon property, arriving at 2:46 p.m., 25 minutes before the shooting. Deputy 6, who had dealt with Cadwallader previously, was surprised to see her waving what appeared to be a rifle from a distance he estimated on the video to be 100 yards away. Once he learned Cadwallader might be holding a pellet gun, Deputy 6 exchanged his rifle for a gun that shoots less-lethal rubber bullets and tried to talk Cadwallader into dropping the rifle.
“I don’t want you to get hurt anymore,” Deputy 6 told her. “I know you’ve been hurt over and over again. I don’t want you to get hurt anymore. … We’re on your side. Let us help you out, please.”
Cadwallader continued to rant.
Marklund, arriving to his property about five minutes after Deputy 6, was surprised she had a rifle and said it was possibly his “single-pump” .177 air rifle.
The heavily redacted body-worn camera videos, released in response to a Public Records Act request, are the subject, along with numerous other records, of an ongoing court case that is now at the appellate level. They are consistent with the account of Marklund — except on one point.
Marklund’s recollection several months after the killing was that deputies had confirmed with a drone that Cadwallader was holding Marklund’s pellet rifle. In fact, as deputies were about to launch a drone for that purpose, they heard Dentinger’s gunshot. They then used the drone to view her condition in high grass before sending in medics.
Dentinger’s body-worn camera video shows him arriving at the entrance of Marklund’s next-door-neighbor’s driveway about five minutes before he killed Cadwallader. After grabbing his rifle, Dentinger drove his SUV up the driveway and appeared somewhat closer to Cadwallader than the distance maintained by deputies on Marklund’s property.
Dentinger and Deputy 6 “weren’t on the same page, or team,” said Marklund.
Dentinger took cover with his rifle behind the open driver’s door, while “Deputy 4” was positioned behind the open passenger’s door. At 3:11 p.m., the yelling Cadwallader pointed her gun toward them.
“Stop pointing it!” yells Dentinger. “Stop pointing it!”
“Lower the rifle!” yells Deputy 4. “Lower the rifle now!”
Two seconds later, Dentinger shoots Cadwallader in the chest and kills her. Deputy 4, with a view similar to Dentinger’s, did not pull his trigger, nor did any other deputy.
Multiple deputies were uncertain after hearing the gunshot whether it had come from a deputy or Cadwallader, according to the videos.
Given Cadwallader’s mental condition and incoherent yelling, which can be heard on videos, it is questionable whether she heard the pleas from Deputy 6 or the orders from Dentinger and Deputy 4.
Dave Waddell is a contributor to ChicoSol.