The PD reported that District Attorney Jill Ravitch announced that the county will not file criminal charges against Erick Gelhaus for shooting Andy Lopez. Here's the video of the press conference:
It's worth a watch.
The "report to the public" is here.
The case turns on the question of whether office Gelhaus acted "reasonably" for someone involved in the incident as it was unfolding, not with 20-20 hindsight.
In my opinion, there is a range of actions that could be judged as "reasonable". It seems to me that officer Gelhaus's reaction is on the edge of what might be considered reasonable. He had reason to believe that his life and those around him were in jeopardy by the 5' 3" "man" that carried what appeared to be a AK-47.
On the other hand, I think many other officers would have acted with more restraint, which would been more "reasonable".
So I suppose I can accept this decision, though uncomfortably, in that officer Gelhaus acted "reasonably" however he did exhibit very poor, and lethal, judgement. While his judgement was tragically incorrect, I could accept that it was not "unreasonable" enough to judge it to be criminal.
However, as I said, it is on the edge of reasonableness , and given that, I think it may have been more appropriate if a jury was asked to decide, rather that the D.A.
I'm also concerned about the politics of this case. I wonder if it was ordinary citizen that was acting in self-defense in the same circumstances, would charges not be pressed? Or what if the person who was mistakenly shot in self defense was white and the shooter is brown? Or what if it was the police officer who was mistakenly shot? Would the DA still not press charges?
What is warranted though, in my opinion, is some type of restorative justice, on both an behalf of officer's Gelhous and the Sheriff's Dept to acknowledge the grave miscalculation that took Andy's life and whatever else that can be done to help Andy's family and community heal.
Furthermore, Officer Gelhaus should be prohibited from accessing any form of lethal force both as part of the his employment or personal life. Should he remain part of the sheriff department, he should be prohibited from any role where his demonstrated lack of judgement and restraint could cause further harm.
What do you think?