The fatal shootings by police of two men on Wednesday — one in Joshua Tree, one in Santa Clarita — will be investigated by California’s Department of Justice.
A California law that went into effect in July 2021 mandates the investigations because the men were apparently unarmed. There are now 29 pending cases on the list to be investigated, six of them added in the past month; reports have been issued for only two.
In Wednesday’s first shooting, San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies arrived around 8:25 p.m. at a home in the unincorporated community of Joshua Tree where a man was reportedly trying to break into a house and yelling at the resident. The deputies said they believed he pointed a gun at them before they opened fire, but no weapon was found.
The second shooting was around 10:50 p.m. outside the Valencia Town Center mall in Santa Clarita. A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy responding to a report of trespassing was allegedly attacked by a man in the parking lot, and “a deputy-involved shooting occurred,” the sheriff’s report said. A female deputy was treated at a hospital for injuries suffered in the fight.
The cases on the investigations list can be found on this map.
The two reports issued so far determined that no criminal charges were warranted against law enforcement officers in these cases:
July 15, 2021, Los Angeles: Police officers fatally shot a man in front of a McDonald’s on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It turned out he was brandishing not a gun but a butane lighter.
Aug. 21, 2021, Guadalupe: A bullet fired by a police officer attempting to subdue a suspect ricocheted 60 yards and killed a man who was sitting in his SUV in the driveway of his home waiting to take his wife to dinner.
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