VENTURA : D.A. Clears Officer in Fatal Shooting

A Ventura police officer was justified in fatally shooting a knife-wielding man who threatened the officer in December, the district attorney’s office has concluded.

Aaron Klemm, 21, was shot once in the abdomen as he advanced on Officer Colin Patrick on Gershwin Lane about 4 a.m. on Dec. 8, according to a report by Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Saundra K. Brewer.

Klemm was carrying a knife and refused Patrick’s repeated orders to drop the weapon, according to the report, which was released Wednesday.

Patrick and another officer, Fred McGill, had been dispatched to the area--which is near Telephone Road and East Main Street--after Klemm’s girlfriend, Rachel LaBrum, called 911 to report that Klemm was stabbing himself, the report said.

When the officers found Klemm on the street, he was carrying two knives and he repeatedly yelled:

“Shoot me, I want to die,” according to the report.

Klemm then dropped one of the knives but began stabbing himself in the stomach with the other, the report said.

Although the law did not require the officer to retreat, Patrick backed up while repeatedly ordering Klemm to drop the other knife.

When Klemm came within six feet of Patrick, still holding the knife, the officer shot once and Klemm fell.

Although Klemm had many knife cuts, it was the gunshot wound that resulted in his death the following day at Ventura County Medical Center, an autopsy disclosed.

The autopsy also showed that Klemm’s blood alcohol level was 0.22%, nearly three times the point where a person is considered too drunk to drive. LaBrum told investigators that Klemm had been drinking a lot of beer and tequila in the hours before the shooting.

In Brewer’s analysis of the shooting, the attorney wrote:

“Any person placed in the same situation that Officer Patrick found himself in would be entirely reasonable in believing that (1) there was imminent danger that Mr. Klemm would stab and kill him or cause him great bodily injury, and (2) it was necessary under the circumstances to shoot Mr. Klemm to prevent such death or great bodily injury.”