Autopsy Shows Officer Shot Man 3 Times

The coroner’s office determined Friday that a gunshot wound to the chest killed an Oxnard man, who was also hit in the back and the wrist by police, after he led two officers on a lunchtime chase through downtown a day earlier.

The autopsy results were released as Oxnard police and other officials maintained that deadly force was justified, the dead man’s girlfriend continued to question the incident and a community leader sought a meeting with Police Chief Art Lopez to discuss the second police shooting of an Oxnard youth in a span of eight days.

Charles Joseph Valdez, 22, was shot three times by an Oxnard SWAT officer during a foot chase through the streets and alleys of downtown Oxnard about 12:15 p.m. Thursday. Police said Valdez briefly stopped during the chase and brandished a revolver.

Valdez was pronounced dead at about 1 p.m. Thursday at St John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard.

While tragic, the shooting underscores the hazardous and unpredictable nature of police work, Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said.

“Real life isn’t like a Roy Rogers movie,” Bradbury said Friday. “When a bad guy points a gun at the good guy, you don’t shoot the gun out of his hand. You shoot to put him down and keep him down.”

Craig Stevens, a senior deputy medical examiner, said the autopsy showed bullet entrance wounds to Valdez’s chest as well as his upper back. He was also shot once in the wrist, Stevens said.

Police Department officials said they would not release the name of the officer, a member of the department’s Special Weapons and Tactics team who was patrolling with a partner at the time of the shooting. Sgt. Jim Seitz of the department’s major crimes unit said the veteran officer is on paid administrative leave, standard policy after an officer-involved shooting. Lopez was unavailable for comment Friday.

Investigators in the district attorney’s office said details of the case have yet to be turned over to them by the Oxnard Police Department.

The shooting was the second in as many weeks involving a member of the Oxnard SWAT unit. On Jan. 10, another veteran member of the SWAT team shot and killed Richard “Midget” Lopez, a mentally ill 17-year-old, as he held a gun to a female student’s head during the lunch hour at Hueneme High School. That officer was also placed on administrative leave.

Authorities said the officer who shot Valdez was not serving in his SWAT role Thursday but was patrolling the area as a member of the department’s special enforcement unit.

As with the Lopez case, Valdez also had a criminal history as well as Oxnard gang connections.

Officers noticed Valdez standing at Tacos La Placita, a fast-food restaurant on C Street across from Plaza Park. The owner of the restaurant, Miguel Ernesto Tovar, said police arrived just after Valdez and his pregnant girlfriend had argued about where to eat their meal.

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Officers recognized Valdez, who was wanted for parole violations, and took off after him on foot once he began running.

Police officials at the scene of the shooting initially said Valdez was shot after he spun around and pointed a small-caliber handgun at the pursuing officer. Officials later clarified the chain of events to say that Valdez brandished the weapon as he faced officers but did not actually point it at them.

One bullet hit Valdez in the first volley, police said. The Oxnard man then turned and ran briefly before turning and again facing the officer who then fired the fatal shot, authorities said.

Three witnesses interviewed by The Times said they heard two shots and then three more a few seconds later after the officer and Valdez disappeared behind parked cars as the chase continued.

Seitz said Friday that in a hectic chase of a suspect it’s not unusual that Valdez was shot in the front and the back. He said that fact would not change the department’s view that the officer acted properly.

“It goes to the state of mind of the officer,” Seitz said. Valdez “still had the gun in his hand. We know he had the gun. After the first rounds were fired he began to flee and he made movement. The officer believed Valdez was going to shoot.”

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Nicole Carter, 18, Valdez’s girlfriend for the past four months, who is seven months pregnant, said the shooting was unnecessary and ended a life that was on the mend after a rough period that included prison and gangs.

She said in recent weeks that she and Valdez had bounced from the homes of friends and relatives and motels from Ojai to Oxnard while she continued attending a parenting class at Rio Mesa High School. The day Valdez died, Carter said, he was set to drop her off for class after a night spent at a Ventura Motel 6.

Carter said that while Valdez was not the father of her child, he was looking forward to becoming the adoptive father. Carter said she will name the child, a boy, after Valdez.

“I do think the cops overdid it. They should have shot him in the leg. What they did was not right at all,” Carter said. “I have no more tears left. None.”

The second shooting involving alleged gang members comes as the city was enjoying a lengthy period of peace after several gang shootings last fall.

Jess Gutierrez, a retired parole officer who had been part of an effort to stop last fall’s spate of gang shootings, said the recent shootings raise questions about Police Department operations that need to be answered.

“It’s possible that he ran and turned, but it needs to be investigated into what happened,” said Gutierrez, who planned to set up a meeting with Lopez to discuss the shooting as well as the Hueneme High School incident.

“Officers have a very difficult job. It’s dangerous out there,” he said. “Any time in the street a crazy person can pull a gun and blow you away. That’s the reality on the street.”