No officers charged in Osmar Hernandez's Salinas death

No Salinas police officers will be charged in the death of an El Salvador native who was armed with a lettuce knife when fatally shot in May of last year, the Monterey County District Attorney's Office announced Friday.

Osmar Hernandez, 26, died May 9, 2014, in the 900 block of East Alisal Street after being shot 10 times by two officers following a series of events in which he threatened others with the large knife.

The use of deadly force was necessary because "Hernandez was resisting arrest and there was probable cause to believe he posed a future threat of great bodily injury to the officer or others," wrote Monterey County Deputy District Attorney Edward Hazel in a letter to Salinas Police Chief Kelly McMillin.

"As in every case like this, we would much prefer not to use force, and force is not used to punish people, or because they 'deserved it,'" McMillin said in a prepared statement. "As in all cases of use of force, it would have been far better if Mr. Hernandez could have been arrested without force, so he could face a fair trial, and if he needed it, get help. The way use of force is judged is by what was needed to stop someone and make the arrest under the circumstances."

Around 5:38 p.m. the night of the shooting, Hernandez was at Bar Rio in east Salinas where he drank nine shots of tequila and at least three beers over an hour and a half, bringing his blood alcohol level to 0.25, more than three times the legal limit to drive a motor vehicle, according to a summary of events by the DA's office.

Just before 7 p.m., Hernandez took out a 91/ 2 -inch knife and began swinging it around inside the bar before the bartender took it away. Shortly after, Hernandez argued with another patron and threatened to kill him.

The other patron punched Hernandez and was then escorted out of the bar. As Hernandez began to also leave, a bar employee returned his knife to him, the letter says.

Around 7:20 p.m., Hernandez was seen by several people walking with the knife in the same direction as the man who punched him. Multiple calls were made to 911 regarding Hernandez walking with the knife, acting erratically and threatening others.

Some said that Hernandez was repeatedly sharpening his knife on the ground, according to the DA's summary. A woman and her child ran from him and hid in a store from him at one point.

Officers responded, and Hernandez ignored their commands. He was Tasered and fell down to the ground. Three officers stood in a line in front of Hernandez with a police dog-handler off to the side.

He ignored commands and was Tasered again without a full effect, the summary reads. At one point, Hernandez sat up, blew a kiss toward the K9 officer and said in Spanish "Please forgive me" before pulling up his sweatshirt and reaching for his knife.

The officer closest to him was about a step or two away, and the other officers, one armed with a rifle and one with a pistol, fired several rounds at Hernandez.

"The civilian witnesses with the best vantage points all reported that Hernandez was reaching for the knife just before shots were fired," the summary reads.

"If a police officer orders someone to drop a weapon and they refuse to do it, what possible reason could they have for that? Officers have to assume they intend to use the weapon," McMillin said.

He added that "many people think officers should wait for an armed person to attack them. What people don't realize is that, unlike in the movies or on TV, once somebody starts to draw a gun or raise a knife, it's probably too late to respond — you are going to be shot or stabbed before you can do anything about it."

Continuing, McMillin also noted that Salinas officers routinely encounter people carrying lettuce knives and those encounters do not result similarly.

The district attorney's investigation of the shooting was to determine if it was justifiable under state law, McMillin said, while the U.S. Attorney's Office was also invited to investigate the case for any possible civil rights violations. The latter investigation is ongoing.

A federal lawsuit was filed last year on behalf of Hernandez's parents, alleging that Salinas police used excessive and unreasonable force in the death of Hernandez.

Hernandez's death was one of four by Salinas police officers last year that prompted protests within the community. Three of the four have now been found justified either by the Salinas Police Department's own internal investigation (Angel Ruiz, who was armed with an AirSoft pellet gun when he was killed by police in the Wing Stop parking lot on Constitution Boulevard) or by the DA's office — the death of Frank Alvarado and now Osmar Hernandez. No results have been released yet in the investigation in the officer killing of Carlos Mejia at the corner of Sanborn and Del Monte on a weekday afternoon on May 20, 2014. Mejia was armed with pruning shears. That death sparked a small riot a day later.