D.A. Clears Police Officer in Shooting

The district attorney’s office has absolved San Diego Police Officer Thomas Rizzo of any criminal wrongdoing in the nonfatal shooting of William McHugh last Dec. 21.

Rizzo shot McHugh with rubber bullets. McHugh was in the home of his ex-lover, Amanda Baker, threatening her and her new husband with a .22-caliber rifle.

“After announcing himself as ‘Clairemont Police,’ McHugh broke into the house through a front window and confronted Ronald and Amanda Baker with the rifle,” according to a district attorney’s three-page statement. “During the course of this confrontation, he expressed the intent to kill everyone in the house.”

The district attorney sent its statement to Police Chief Bob Burgreen on May 1. The Police Department released to the public on Wednesday.

Apparently, McHugh, who was highly intoxicated at the time, became distracted and the Bakers fled. Police entered the house in the 8000 block of Chalet Place in San Diego and tried to coax the gunman into giving up. He refused.

An eye-witness, John Ingram, testified in court that McHugh told an officer, “I’m holding all the cards in my hand. I’ve got a .22 rifle and I’ve got nine bullets, and I don’t want to die because life is too precious, but if I have to and if I have to come out, I’m going to take somebody with me.”

Rizzo and other officers later entered the house, and Rizzo ordered McHugh to set his gun down and let him see both of his hands, but McHugh set the weapon down two to three feet from his left hand.

Rizzo then shot McHugh, aiming at the left clavicle, but instead struck his left ear.

The district attorney’s office praised Rizzo for using the rubber bullet skillfully and intentionally inflicting minimal trauma on McHugh, while protecting his fellow officers and bystanders.

McHugh pleaded guilty to assault with a firearm, a felony. He received probation on condition that he serve 240 days in custody, which he is presently doing.