D.A. Says No charges in Maria Irma De La Torre’s death
Look in the D.A.’s hand!!! Does that look like a weapon that is worth shooting someone over?!?!
http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20090415/NEWS01/904150307
The district attorney announced Tuesday that he won’t file criminal charges against a Salinas police officer who shot and killed a woman last year, saying the officer believed he was saving his partner from a knife attack when he opened fire.
Officer Steve Mattocks thought 45-year-old Maria Irma De La Torre was wielding a knife or ice pick when he made the “split-second decision” to pull the trigger of his service weapon, said Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo.
The item in De La Torre’s hand turned out to be a 5-inch metal crochet hook.
“[De La Torre] exited [the van] with something in her hand. … That heightened their sense of concern and danger,” Flippo said. “[Mattocks] makes a split-second decision … he states that he believed Officer Balaoro was going to be stabbed, killed.”
In the press conference, Flippo provided a brief summary of the events that occurred in the wee hours of July 13, including the four minutes between the officers’ arrival and the eruption of gunfire outside De La Torre’s home in the 1100 block of East Laurel Drive in Salinas.
D.A.: Don’t blame De La Torre
An 18-page district attorney’s office report provides lengthy details of the incident, from Mattocks’ and witnesses’ accounts to the measurement of the crochet hook. It also goes into De La Torre’s medical history of “intractable complex partial seizures,” and the law that applies in the case, including the U.S. Supreme Court’s caution against second-guessing a police officer’s actions.
“You cannot blame Ms. De La Torre simply because we’re not filing charges,” Flippo said. “We do not ascribe any blame to her actions, which apparently was a result of her illness. … This is an individual who had no criminal record, unlike other cases we’ve reviewed.”
At his home on Tuesday afternoon, Jose Licea, De La Torre’s widower, said it was the officers – not his wife – who were acting aggressively the morning of the shooting.
“There is no justification for what happened. She was really sick,” Licea said, holding back tears. “I don’t feel safe in Salinas. [Police] just write the report however they want.”
Lawyers for both Licea and Maria De La Torre, her mother, filed separate wrongful-death lawsuits in February against the city of Salinas, and then against Police Chief Daniel Ortega, and officers Mattocks and Robert Balaoro.
Deputy Chief Cassie McSorley said an internal affairs investigation on whether the use of force was justified is expected to begin this week. If the department determines that Mattocks – 24 at the time of the shooting – used excessive force, he could face disciplinary actions ranging from counseling to being fired.
In February, Salinas police Officer Christopher Swanson, 36, lost his job 15 days after he opened fire on an unarmed couple in a vehicle because he thought he had been shot by one of them. Mattocks was also involved in the incident and had fired at the couple. His actions were found appropriate, however, because he thought Swanson was being attacked. Swanson was still on his probationary period with the department.
Three 911 calls on night of shooting
On the morning of De La Torre’s death, at least three 911 calls came in to county communications beginning at 3:47 a.m., the district attorney’s office report states.
The initial call reported that a person was having a seizure. The two subsequent calls reported, respectively, a “woman acting crazy,” needing medical attention, and a fight in which rocks were being thrown.
Medical help was not requested until after Mattocks shot De La Torre, according to the report.
Mattocks and Officer Balaoro arrived about 3:50 a.m. and encountered De La Torre in a parked white van in the driveway, the report said. The officers gleaned from brief interviews with family members and neighbors that De La Torre had not been acting like herself since finding out about her father’s death a couple of days prior, and had slipped out of the house through a window before locking herself inside the van.
De La Torre’s behavior was described, in the report, as out-of-control – ignoring the officers’ request to calm down and jumping to and fro from the front and back area of the van. At one point, the report says, Mattocks saw De La Torre stabbing her neck with a safety pin.
‘Looking right through them’
“It’s fair to say she seemed to be looking right through them,” Flippo said, referring to Balaoro’s statement, adding that the officers thought her behavior was suicidal.
The officers recounted that De La Torre was angry and aggressive. A 9-year-old neighbor described her as “acting a little crazy,” he said.
Both officers had initially pulled their service weapons, Flippo said, but Balaoro switched to his Taser stun gun as he opened the van’s sliding door to access the lock of the right-front passenger door. Soon after, the report said, Balaoro backed away from the van while ordering De La Torre out of the vehicle. As she exited the van, the report said, Balaoro shined his flashlight on her and saw in her right hand “what appeared to be an ice pick or sharp object.” He yelled his observation out to Mattocks. He said De La Torre walked toward him, her arm raised, as he backed away. Backing to the rear of the van, Balaoro fired his Taser and heard a simultaneous “pop,” later identified as the gunshots from Mattocks. Flippo said Balaoro faced De La Torre, while Mattocks was directly behind her.
According to the report, Mattocks recalled hearing Balaoro making “a moaning type sound” shortly after seeing “something glistening off a metallic object” in her raised arm. He fired his weapon when he saw De La Torre lower her arm in a stabbing motion at Balaoro, shooting her twice in the back.
•The Salinas Californian staff writer Maria Ines Zamudio contributed to this report.
