D.A. Clears Officer in Chicano Park Shooting

The San Diego County district attorney’s office has determined that a San Diego police officer was justified in shooting at a man who allegedly took part in a drive-by shooting aimed at the officer’s car.

In a letter to San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen, Dist. Atty. Edwin L. Miller cleared Sgt. Adolfo Gonzales of any fault in the shooting, which took place July 22 at Chicano Park.

The shooting occurred after Gonzales, a detective in the Police Department’s gang unit, was notified that someone had been shot at the park. He went to the hospital to interview the victim and, on his way back, at about 3:30 a.m., picked up his wife, a police dispatcher, from work, then stopped at the park to see where the shooting had occurred, Miller’s letter says.

At the park, he left his car to look for the site while his wife, who was five months pregnant, waited in the vehicle. Gonzales heard gunfire and saw a pickup with two people in the back driving by his car and the occupants firing at it, the letter says.

Gonzales pulled out his gun and fired two rounds, but the truck left the scene.

The suspects were arrested in September, and one, Guillermo Yanez, told police he had been shot at by Gonzales that night. One of the bullets grazed his thigh, but did not penetrate his pants, he told police. Yanez was charged with attempted murder and firing into an occupied vehicle and is scheduled to go to trial Tuesday.

Miller said Officer Gonzales was justified in the shooting because California law says that a law enforcement officer has the right to use deadly force “when he reasonably believes that force is necessary.”

“By firing at Sgt. Gonzalez’s car with his wife sitting in it, the people in the truck put his wife’s life in danger. He was legally entitled to use force to stop them, and to protect his wife’s life,” Miller’s letter says.

Since 1984, the district attorney’s office has reviewed numerous police shootings and ruled that each was justified.