DA clears Salinas police in fourth 2014 shooting death

Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo announced Friday that no charges will be filed against the Salinas police officers involved in the shooting death of Carlos Mejia Gomez last year.

Mejia's death, third in a string of four officer-involved killings in 2014, was the last to be reviewed by the DA's office. All have been found justified by prosecutors.

The slaying of Mejia garnered widespread community attention after cell phone footage of the incident went viral. He was fatally shot near the busy east Salinas corner of Del Monte and Sanborn in bright daylight the afternoon of May 20, 2014. His death resulted in a small riot the next day, during which a bystander was fatally shot and a police officer trying to help him was hit in the head with a bottle.

The incident started when, around noon May 20, a woman referred to as Jane Doe heard knocking at her door, and when she opened it, Mejia, a stranger, stepped in and demanded food, according to the DA's account.

She shoved him from the doorway, and he then began choking her poodle, which was leashed to a tree outside. When the woman told him to let the dog go, he reportedly threw the dog down and retrieved 22-inch long gardening shears with 7-inch blades from his nearby backpack.

Opening and closing the shears as he walked, the man then said he was going to cut the dog's head off and kill the woman, according to the DA's office. He then also exposed his penis to the woman.

The woman called 911, and Salinas Police Officers Danny Warner and Officer Josh Lynd responded, giving multiple commands to Mejia to stop and drop the shears.

Mejia, a Salvadoran national, was severely intoxicated at the time of the event with a blood alcohol level of 0.27, more than three times the legal limit for driving, and was also under the influence of methamphetamine, according to toxicology reports cited by the DA's office.

He ignored the commands, and officers followed him for more than 100 yards as he intermittently swung the shears at the officers, "using them as a weapon to thwart his arrest," the DA's office said.

The officers tried to deploy their Tasers on him, but one malfunctioned due to "low voltage battery" while the other one only fired one prong into Mejia, thus having no effect.

Mejia began to approach the intersection of Del Monte and Sanborn, a busy corner where a bakery is located.

When he was about 25 feet from there, Lynd moved within about nine feet of him to try to "kick or knock" him to the ground and disarm him, the DA's office said. Mejia reportedly then turned toward him while pointing the shears. At this crucial moment, the phone on which the viral video was shot slips in the hand of the woman holding it, and a surveillance camera on the corner also failed to capture Mejia's actions at the moment the officers fired.

Both officers shot him, and he died at the scene. He was shot a total of six times, including a graze-type gunshot wound of the left forehead, a penetrating gunshot wound to the right cheek, and four wounds to the chest.

Warner shot three times at Mejia, and Lynd shot four times at him. Both officers are veterans of the department.

"Everyone suffers here," Flippo said Friday. "It hurts everyone, certainly the family of the victim, but it really impacts the officers who, in their view, are forced to use deadly action to take a life, so it's important to reach out to the community so they understand what the law is."

Self-defense doesn't require proof that Mejia intended to stab Lynd with the shears, Flippo and Assistant District Attorney Rolando Mazariegos wrote in their findings.

"Any person, including a police officer, is allowed to use deadly force in self-defense or in defense of others if the person reasonably believes the immediate use of deadly force is necessary to defend against an imminent danger of great bodily injury or death," the two prosecutors wrote in a letter to Salinas Police Chief Kelly McMillin. "The danger does not need to have actually existed as long as the person reasonably believed the danger existed."

"Police officers can lawfully use deadly force even if from the 20/20 hindsight other feasible, and even less dangerous, options existed," they said.

The DA's review included video footage from four sources, including a camera on top of the bakery, a security camera, and two witnesses' cell phones. However, not all of those captured footage of the actual shooting.

Salinas Police Detectives also interviewed witnesses, some of whom said Mejia didn't have garden shears or act aggressively toward officers. However, "these accounts are inconsistent with the events captured on video, and are inconsistent with statements from the majority of civilian witnesses and statements from the officers involved," according to the DA's summary of facts.

Flippo said it's not uncommon for witnesses of the same scene to report different details. The summary of facts also includes details from the chain of events as reported by about about a dozen other witnesses.

In addition to a wrongful death claim against the City of Salinas, a lawsuit has also been filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of Mejia's family, who is seeking $75,000 in damages.

In the federal complaint, it's alleged that Mejia obeyed officers' orders and wasn't in striking distance of either officer before the shooting, according to past reports. Moreover, the civil rights attorney representing the family, John Burris, has said that Mejia was simply looking for work the day of the incident.

The case remains under review by the U.S. Department of Justice for any potential civil rights violations, a review that was requested by McMillin, and the FBI is reviewing the DA's investigation.

McMillin also addressed the findings in a press conference Friday afternoon.

While acknowledging the tragedy, he noted that "independent of whether his death was legally justified, we have, and will continue to, constantly search for ways to reduce violence and the loss of life, no matter the circumstances."

McMillin emphasized police use of force is not used to punish people because they "deserved it" but rather to address a serious threat to the public and officers.

And in acknowledging that many may contend that officers shouldn't have used lethal force against Mejia since he was intoxicated and/or mentally ill, McMillin stated that "Salinas police officers contact intoxicated and mentally ill people every day, and very rarely use any amount of force at all."

If it had been possible to establish a secure perimeter around him, the officers would have talked to him as long as it took to arrest him peacefully, he added.

McMillin said he welcomes any protest of the DA's findings as long as it remains calm and peaceful.