Officers Justified in Shooting Suspect Near Border, D.A. Says

The district attorney’s office has ruled that two San Diego police officers were justified in the controversial shooting in December of a 17-year-old robbery suspect near the U.S.-Mexico border in San Ysidro, according to a report released Friday by the Police Department.

The district attorney ruled that the officers opened fire when threatened by the victim, who was wielding what appeared to be a knife but turned out to be a screwdriver.

The shooting left the victim, Manuel Martin Flores Campo, a Mexican citizen, paralyzed from the waist down.

Marco E. Lopez, the San Diego attorney representing Flores, disputed the district attorney’s account, contending that Flores was shot in the back as he was running in the Tijuana River area.

Flores has already filed a claim against the city alleging that the shooting was unjustified, and next week he plans to file a formal complaint in U.S. District Court in San Diego seeking $9.3 million in damages, Lopez said. Flores is claiming that the officers assaulted him and violated his civil rights, Lopez said.

The shooting resulted in the temporary reassignment of the police squad, which is known as the Border Crime Intervention Unit. After the shooting, the unit--designed to cut down on crime on undocumented people who traverse the border each day--was revamped and changed from primarily a foot patrol to a highly visible motorized unit.

Flores was charged in Juvenile Court with brandishing a deadly weapon. The judge dismissed the charges.

The district attorney’s report provided the following account of the incident, which occurred last Dec. 7:

Members of the San Diego Police Border Crime Unit were in the southern levee along the Tijuana River at 11:15 p.m., when an officer witnessed two robberies. The officer reported that several thieves ran west on the levee into a crowd of 25 to 35 people. Sgt. Joseph Wood identified one of the thieves from a description radioed to him by the officer who witnessed the robbery, the report stated.

Wood saw the suspect, Flores, brandishing a “shiny, sharp-edged obvious knife-type” weapon at the crowd, according to the district attorney’s account. Flores then ran down the north side of the levee, after someone in the crowd threw rocks and dirt at him, the report said. Near the bottom of the levee, the account continued, Flores turned and brandished what police believed was a knife.

Officer Cesar Castro said he told Flores in Spanish to drop the knife. According to police, Flores approached the officers, and turned and ran north as police fired several shots at him. He suffered three gunshot wounds and collapsed on the other side of the Tijuana River. A screwdriver was found nearby.

Flores was flown to UC San Diego Medical Center.

A witness, Border Patrol agent Clark J. Messer who was parked atop the north levee, said he heard something that sounded like firecrackers and footsteps. Messer said he saw Flores running north while shots were fired at him.

Gene Wolberg, a criminologist for the Police Department, examined Flores’ clothing and determined that a jacket worn by Flores showed evidence of two shots on the front right sleeve indicating that Flores was facing the officers when the shots were fired. The second bullet entry was on the back of the jacket.

According to the report by Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael R. Pent, the facts supported the conclusion that Wood and Castro were justified in shooting the victim.

“Sgt. Wood and Officer Castro had observed Flores use a deadly weapon to assault persons on the south levee. They confronted him and identified themselves as police officers, then pursued him when he ran. Rather than submitting to arrest, Flores confronted the officers with what they believed was a knife. It was reasonable for both officers to respond by firing at Flores. They were also justified in continuing to fire at Flores as he again ran away from them, since such force seemed reasonably necessary to dissipate his potential deadly threat to them and other persons and to apprehend him,” the report concluded.