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“Any policy violations do not support charging the involved officers with a crime, but they require careful internal review among appropriate personnel within the San Jose Police Department,” Baker wrote.Īfter an inquiry by this news organization, the police department issued a general statement about the criticisms described in the report. But he also referenced the experts’ criticism of officers’ decision to chase Tovar into an occupied apartment complex that “put the lives of innocent residents of the La Pala apartments at unnecessary risk.” Prosecutor Robert Baker concluded the report by writing that “there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that the shooting was unlawful or grossly negligent. But he also questioned whether the officers needed to engage him directly, sparking a foot chase, rather than monitoring him from a distance.
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Jody Stiger, the second expert consulted for the DA report who also provided expert testimony in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd, stated that Tovar’s shooting was reasonable and within SJPD policy. No Santa Clara County police officer has been charged for an on-duty shooting in modern history, though a state narcotics agent was tried for manslaughter and acquitted in the 2004 fatal shooting of Rudy Cardenas during a chase in San Jose. Those admonitions, included in the report released Thursday, stand out given that these reviews focus mostly on whether officers’ actions meet the legal threshold for criminal prosecution.
Heal further criticized a seeming lack of clarity in command and roles in the unit, saying if the issues persist, “the reoccurrence of a similar Tovar situation is not just possible but likely.” But he said the covert unit’s decisions “were not the preferred course of action” and went on to describe the unit’s training as emphasizing “tactics and techniques more than strategy and thorough planning.” Sid Heal, a pioneer of the SWAT team concept and use-of-force consultant, called the shooting “awful but lawful” in concluding it was legally justified, according to the report. Ultimately, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office stated in a formal shooting report that considering the violence for which Tovar was suspected, the officers “reasonably believed him to be armed and intent on killing police and would ‘do anything’ to avoid arrest, and they believed it likely they were going to get into a shootout with him.”
The controversy was inflamed after body-camera video footage of the shooting was released and showed that the three officers who shot at Tovar opened fire within seconds of seeing him. The shooting also elicited criticism because some of the bullets fired at Tovar went into occupied apartments along a second-floor walkway of the Villa Fairlane apartments on La Pala Drive in the city’s east foothills. 21, 2021, prompted outcry from community activists and leaders after it was learned after the shooting that he was unarmed while running from the police officers seeking to arrest him in connection with a deadly shooting in Gilroy and at least one other shooting. who was unarmed and being sought in a homicide and other violent crimes - but experts criticized police tactics and suggested the death could have been avoided with better training. SAN JOSE - Three San Jose police officers have been cleared of criminal liability in the 2021 fatal shooting of David Tovar Jr.