Allegan Central’s own recording of the radio traffic from the night a deputy shot Joey Nagle, transcribed minute by minute, with the audio linked below.
This piece transcribes the Allegan Central Dispatch recording from the night of Joseph Nagle’s shooting. The transcript below preserves what is audible, including background voices, but tone and pacing do not fully carry onto the page.
Joseph Maverick Nagle was 22 when an Allegan County sheriff’s deputy shot him during a June 16, 2022 traffic stop on 26th Street in Monterey Township. This is the Allegan Central Dispatch recording from that night, transcribed in full. The deputy’s radio call sign on the tape is Adam 6. [1]
The recording opens on a routine status check and runs roughly thirteen minutes, ending with dispatch clearing first responders to approach while Adam 6 continues CPR.
Joey’s own voice is audible in the background once, clearly, before the shot fired call, asking “will you stop?” A second background sound minutes later, which the source transcript labels as him saying “Don’t,” may be an audio artifact rather than a distinguishable word.
Adam 6 reports “shot fired” three times in nine seconds before dispatch asks directly whether he was hit.
Dispatch reads clock times into the recording six separate times, 22:09 through 22:17, anchoring the tape to the same clock already used elsewhere in this investigation.
Quick FAQs
What does the Allegan Central Dispatch recording capture?
The audio runs from a routine status check on Adam 6 through his backup request, three shot fired transmissions, dispatch confirming he was not hit, and CPR in progress at the scene of Joseph Nagle’s shooting.
Does the recording include Joseph Nagle’s own voice?
Yes, at one point clearly. At 6:42, before the shot fired call, Joey is audible in the background asking “will you stop?” A second background sound at 7:34, which the source transcript labels as him saying “Don’t,” may be an audio artifact rather than a distinguishable word.
Where can readers listen to the recording itself?
The full audio is linked at the top of this piece and hosted at clutchjustice.com. Readers are encouraged to listen alongside the transcript, since tone, pacing, and audible background sound do not fully translate to text.
The recording, minute by minute
Times below are elapsed minutes and seconds into the released recording, not clock time, unless the transmission itself states a clock time. Dispatch reads six clock times into the tape over the course of the recording, and those are preserved in the transmission text exactly as spoken.
What the tape adds and what it does not resolve
The recording gives this investigation something the written reports do not: real-time radio traffic, in Adam 6’s own voice, moving from a routine stop to a shooting in under seven minutes. Between the first backup request at 6:42 and the first shot fired call at 8:12, ninety seconds pass on the tape. That is the recording’s own elapsed time, not a claim about how the earlier MSP radio log’s separately timestamped 82-second interval lines up with it. The two intervals come from different sources and have not been reconciled here. [1]
The tape documents three separate “shot fired” transmissions from Adam 6 in nine seconds, then dispatch asking directly whether he was hit before he answers he was not. It documents dispatch reading a clock time into the recording six times, 22:09 through 22:17, matching the same clock already used elsewhere in the investigation to fix the stop’s timeline. What it does not do is resolve any of the open questions in that investigation: the wrong LEIN plate query, the undocumented movement between vehicles, or the vehicle search Criger and Petersen later conducted. Radio traffic documents what units said to dispatch. It does not document what happened between the deputy and Joey where no radio was keyed. [1]
Joey’s own voice is audible in the background at 6:42, clearly, as Adam 6 requests backup: “will you stop?” The recording does not establish what either man was doing in the moment those words were captured. It establishes that they were said, and roughly when. A second background sound at 7:34, on a transmission with no logged words from Adam 6 himself, is what the source transcript labels as Joey saying “Don’t.” On review, that label is uncertain. It may be an audio artifact, not a spoken word, and it is not treated here with the same confidence as the 6:42 instance.
Times given without a colon-formatted clock reading are elapsed minutes and seconds into the released audio file, not clock time. Six transmissions include dispatch reading an actual clock time aloud, 22:09, 22:11, 22:14 (twice), 22:15, 22:16, and 22:17, and those are reproduced as spoken. Passages marked “Unknown” reflect speakers the released transcript did not identify by unit number or name. Ellipses mark words inaudible or cut off on the recording, not an editorial omission.
One transmission at 6:46 gives the cross streets as “26th and 138th.” The established location of Joey’s stop, used throughout this investigation and confirmed by a later transmission on this same recording at 7:58 and 10:07, is 26th Street and 136th Avenue. That is preserved here as transcribed rather than silently corrected, and is noted as a likely transcription or radio-clarity artifact rather than a second location.
The source transcript labels a background sound at 7:34 as Joey saying “Don’t.” That identification is not treated as established here. It may be an audio artifact rather than a distinguishable word, and it is preserved in the log below with that qualification attached rather than presented as confirmed speech.
- PrimaryAllegan-Central-Dispatch-Recording.mp3, Allegan Central Dispatch radio traffic, June 16, 2022. Hosted at clutchjustice.com. Transcript supplied to Clutch Justice and reproduced here in full, with elapsed-time stamps as logged in the source transcript.
- ClutchRita Williams, Joseph Nagle: Why the Released Record Does Not Resolve the Deputy’s Account, Clutch Justice (Sept. 17, 2026). Companion investigation drawing on the MSP report, the deputy’s June 21 letter, autopsy, toxicology, and scene photography.
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