From CalMatters criminal justice reporter Nigel Duara:
Officers from the Anaheim police SWAT team were rightfully fearful of their lives when they killed a man who was reported to be armed, but was instead holding a black drawstring bag, the state Justice Department announced Wednesday.
The investigative summary found insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges against the four officers who fired at least 23 rounds and killed Brandon Lopez after a four-hour standoff on Sept. 28, 2021.
It was the fourth decision issued by attorney General Rob Bonta’s office under a 2021 law that requires a Justice Department investigation into fatal police shootings of unarmed people.
Forty-four cases remain open, the oldest dating to August 2021, according to the CalMatters tracker.
Lopez, who had four outstanding warrants for charges including armed robbery, led Anaheim police on a half-hour chase into Santa Ana, where his car crashed onto trolley tracks. He tried and failed to dislodge the car, and police blockaded him.
About 6:10 p.m., less than an hour into the standoff, Santa Ana Police Officer Nelson Mendendez, sitting in an armored vehicle parked next to Lopez with a view into his car, reported that he could see a gun in Lopez’s right hand, according to the Justice Department investigation.
Lopez, in fact, did not have a weapon, but the Justice Department found that the other officers’ belief that Lopez had a gun contributed to their assertion that they were acting in self-defense.
At 10 p.m., officers pushed a chemical agent through the car’s rear windshield and Lopez ran out, first turning away from a line of SWAT officers, then turning toward them. Anaheim Police Officer Catalin Panov saw a drawstring bag in Lopez’s waistband, mistook it for a weapon and yelled out that Lopez had a gun.
The officers fired at least 23 rounds, striking Lopez 18 times and killing him.
The Justice Department’s legal review found that officers’ fears were reasonable because of Panov shouting “Gun!” along with Lopez’s outstanding warrants, Menendez’s misidentifying an object as a gun and communication with a girlfriend who said Lopez wanted to commit suicide.
The false reports about a gun, “while incorrect, were not objectively unreasonable given the information relayed to the officers and the facts known to them at the time,” Justice Department investigators wrote.
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