A security guard at a Perris apartment complex who investigators say fatally shot an unarmed man five times in the back has been charged with voluntary manslaughter, following an almost six-month investigation.

Steven Ray Dillick Jr., 34, of Perris was arrested Tuesday, March 29, in the death of Isaac Jermaine Kelly, 33. Earlier that day, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office filed charges and issued a warrant.

Dillick remained in jail Wednesday, with bail set at $500,000, sheriff’s officials said. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Friday, April 1.

Dillick shot Kelly about 12:30 a.m. Oct. 3 at the Meadowview II Apartments at 150 E. Nuevo Road. Dillick told investigators that he fired because Kelly was running at him, not responding to commands, and he thought Kelly had a gun.

But the autopsy showed that Kelly had five gunshot wounds to the back, and a sixth possible gunshot wound to the outside of his right arm, according to a report filed by Riverside County sheriff’s investigator Matthew Posson.

“There were no entry wounds identified in the front of Kelly’s body,” wrote Posson

He concluded: “with the exception of Dillick’s statements, I was unable to show what, if any, threat Kelly posed to Dillick. Kelly only had a set of keys in his possession … Kelly had only been walking with his hand out of view of Dillick.”

In addition to the criminal charge, Dillick is facing a lawsuit filed by Kelly’s family that alleges wrongful death and negligence. The suit also names the security company Dillick worked for and several companies affiliated with the apartment complex.

Kelly’s mother Janice Sly, who lives in Port Arthur, Texas, said Wednesday by phone that she was glad to hear the guard had been arrested.

“I just thank God,” Sly said. “It’s a relief.”

Sly said she hopes justice is served. She would not comment on the lawsuit.

THE SHOOTING

Dillick told Posson that just before the shooting, he had parked in his personal Jeep next to a wall in the parking lot to write his notes for the day. That’s when he saw “a black figure” walk out from in between some cars 50 feet away from him.

Dillick loudly said “Hey, how’s it going” to the person – who turned out to be Kelly – but got no response. Kelly then began running and put his arm behind his back “as if he were reaching for a weapon,” Dillick told investigators.

Dillick said he began giving verbal commands to the person, such as “Let me see your hands,” as he tried to get out of his Jeep. The person kept running and said something that Dillick couldn’t make out, Posson wrote.

When the person got to about 6 feet away from Dillick, the guard fired with a 9mm handgun, but the person kept coming, so he fired several more times until the person fell, he told investigators.

“Dillick did not see his shots hit the man but he remembered seeing the man spin and fall to the ground,” Posson wrote.

When deputies arrived at the scene, Dillick told them, “I told him to stop,” and “I thought he had a gun, he wouldn’t stop,” according to Posson’s report.

Prior to the Oct. 3 shooting, Dillick had “multiple threats to his life made against him by mostly non tenants,” Posson wrote.

Dillick’s mother told investigators that Dillick “expressed his concern for his safety at work” before the shooting and even wrote a will that he emailed to her “in case anything bad were to happen to him at work resulting in grave injuries or death.”

Still, Dillick felt as though he had a good relationship with the tenants of Meadowview. In the days after the shooting, many residents of the Meadowview apartment complex told reporters that both Kelly and Dillick were well-liked and easy-going people.

ARMED GUARDS

Following the shooting, the California Department of Consumer Affairs opened an investigation that could lead to disciplinary action, said spokeswoman Joyia Emard. She was not able to get information about the status of the investigation on Wednesday afternoon.

According to the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, Dillick has been licensed as a security guard since 2007, and is qualified to carry several firearms including a 9mm, as well as a baton. The website says the licenses are still active, and lists no disciplinary actions.

Before allowing a security guard to carry a gun while on duty, the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services requires training that includes time at a range and classroom instruction on the “moral and legal aspects of firearms use.”

That includes training in how to “de-escalate” a situation, said Roy Rahn, executive director of the California Association of Licensed Security Agencies, Guards and Associates, in an October interview.

Those who complete the necessary training and background checks are issued firearms qualification cards, which expire two years from the date of issuance. Applicants must requalify four times during the life of the permit: twice during the first year after the date of issuance and twice during the second year.

A security guard is supposed to report and observe and pass along information to law enforcement agencies, according to the bureau’s “Security Guard Guide.” Those who attempt to make citizen’s arrests or take actions that could be construed as policing do so with the knowledge they have only the authority of a private citizen – not the “qualified immunity” provided to peace officers, which protects them from liability if they act in a manner that would be considered reasonable under the circumstance.

“He’s a civilian and he’s not a police officer, but the laws of self-defense in the state of California affect him,” said Ron Martinelli, of Martinelli & Associates, Justice & Forensic Consultants in Temecula, in an October interview.

“The citizen has to have an objectively reasonable belief that the person he encounters is going to threaten him imminently – not potentially – with serious bodily harm or death,” Martinelli said. “It’s not a guess. It’s not speculation.”

WRONGFUL-DEATH LAWSUIT

Kelly’s family filed the wrongful-death lawsuit in February in Riverside County Superior Court against Dillick, Reiner Communities, LVM II Affordable, 19th Street GP, Kenneth Jude Reiner and the security company Dillick worked for, Star Pro International.

It asks for a civil jury trial and seeks burial and funeral expenses, general and special damages, medical and related expenses, legal costs and “further relief as the Court deems just and proper.”

The suit contends that Kelly posed no “reasonable or credible threat of violence” to Dillick. “Kelly did not do anything to justify the violence perpetrated against him, and the same was deadly, unnecessary, unlawful and not used in defense of self or others.”

Kelly’s family is being represented by Brian Dunn of The Cochran Firm California. Dunn represented the family of Lamon Khiry Haslip, an 18-year-old man who was handcuffed and shot to death by Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputies in 2012. The county paid Haslip’s family $500,000.

Staff writers Alex Groves and Aaron Claverie contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9284 or atadayon@pe.com