Officer Is Cleared in Shooting
An Oxnard police officer was acting in self-defense when he shot and wounded a motorist who mistook the officer for an assailant and charged at him with a crowbar, the Ventura County district attorney’s office announced this week.
Officer Andrew Salinas’ shooting of Epigmenio Barragan in the leg in May 2003 was justified, said Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Harman. The wounds were not life-threatening.
The shooting occurred after Barragan’s car was rammed by a vehicle containing two men, Harman said.
When Salinas arrived, he helped stop those two men from leaving, then returned to Barragan’s vehicle.
But Barragan, of Oxnard, apparently thought Salinas, who was in plain clothes and driving an unmarked car, was also an assailant, and charged the officer while holding a metal object under his coat, Harman said.
The metal item turned out to be a tire iron. No charges were filed against Barragan.
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