Body cameras show Sarpy County deputies responding to home where Omaha teacher found dead

PAPILLION, Neb. (WOWT) - Several shots were heard on video from body-worn cameras as Sarpy County Sheriff's deputies responded to the home where they would later find an Omaha teacher dead.

Sarpy County Sheriff Jeff Davis walked through footage from a few such videos during a news conference Thursday morning. It was the second such update he has given since deputies found Rebecca Geiger, 45, dead in her Chalco Hills-area home in the early hours of Monday, Oct. 28.

Deputies were responding to the home after a report of a domestic violence incident. Authorities said Geiger's 19-year-old daughter had called 911 telling operators her father, 44-year-old Rory Geiger, had shot her mother — and that he had a gun pointed at her.

The response ended in a shootout at the home near South 143rd Street and Meadows Parkway. Deputies then went into the home and found Rory Geiger deceased. Davis confirmed Thursday he was shot and killed by responding deputies; previously, they were not sure whether his fatal wounds were self-inflicted or from a shot fired by a Sarpy County deputy.

The incident is expected to go to a grand jury in the weeks ahead.

Davis said Thursday that there was a lot more body-worn camera footage, but that he wanted to release some of it to show what his deputies were facing and provide an understanding of why they responded they way they did.

The couples' two daughters were in the house when the shooting started. David praised the actions of deputies that day, reiterating Thursday that their actions likely saved the lives of one or both daughters as well as their neighbors.

"In my book, they're heroes — each and every one of them," he said.

Four shots can be heard on the video shared Thursday. Deputies came under fire as at least three of them positioned themselves along the garage door of the home.

"Shots fired! Shots fired!"

Davis said Thursday that the suspect took the first shot, using a "high-powered rifle," blowing the glass out of a picture window. He said deputies reported seeing the barrel of what would turn out to be a Savage 270 Winchester bolt-action rifle pointed out of that window in the moments that followed.

Another video showed four more deputies taking cover behind a white pick-up after the first shots were fired.

The shooting stops briefly and then a flash-bang was detonated near the truck. A few more shots are heard as those deputies move into position alongside the truck, their weapons aimed at the home.

"If you guys got a shot, take it!"

Then five more shots.

Deputies found several guns in the house. Authorities had been to the house about a month earlier for an incident, and were told not to return.

Investigators have been looking at bodycams worn by the deputies, as well as cameras inside and outside the home.

"This was a loving family at one point," Davis said, noting that Rory had been dealing with some mental-health issues.

Rebecca Geiger was a special education teacher who had just started her 10th year at Westside High School.

"She was just a very kind teacher," said Elizabeth Power with Westdside Community Schools . "She was so good at helping her students feel very seen and very loved and very much like they belonged here at Westside High School, which is such an important thing for any student, especially her students."

Watch Thursday's news conference