![]() The Riverside district attorney's office said Monday it would assist Bonta's office in the prosecution, but noted that its own investigation ended when the grand jury did not find enough probable cause to move forward with the case. No matter who you are, nobody is above the law." Ultimately, any loss of life is a tragedy, and being licensed to carry a gun doesn't mean you're not accountable for how you use it. "That's exactly what these charges are about: pursuing justice after an independent and thorough review of the evidence and the law. "Where there's reason to believe a crime has been committed, we will seek justice," Bonta said Monday in a news release. He was off duty acting as a father in self-defense and protecting his child."īonta's office in July announced that state investigators would respond to police fatal shootings of unarmed civilians after lawmakers passed legislation last year amid civil unrest over the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis officer. ![]() "Sal was not acting as a police officer when he was attacked. "The arrest of Sal Sanchez is a product of the politically motivated program by the California Attorney General to prosecute police officers," Winslow said in a statement Monday. Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin previously said Sanchez believed he had been shot in the head and that a gunman was on the loose in the store after he and his 1½-year-old son were knocked to the ground in French's unprovoked assault.ĭavid Winslow, Sanchez's attorney, called his client's arrest a "political stunt that does absolutely nothing to protect the public." The charges filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta came after the Riverside County district attorney declined to charge Sanchez criminally when a grand jury did not bring an indictment in September 2019. French's parents have filed a federal lawsuit against Sanchez and the city. Kenneth French was nonverbal and had recently been taken off his medication for mental illness due to other health issues, the family's lawyer previously said, adding that the change may have affected his behavior that night. Authorities said French was not armed and was moving away from Sanchez when the officer opened fire. Sanchez had told investigators he believed French had a gun and that his life and his son's life were in immediate danger. Sanchez was knocked to the ground and quickly opened fire, fatally wounding French and critically injuring French's parents, Russell and Paola French. Sanchez was with his young son in a Costco in Corona when he was attacked from behind by 32-year-old Kenneth French, who was described by his family as non-verbal and intellectually disabled. The LAPD says he was terminated from the agency in July 2020, but it declined further comment on Sanchez's arrest. He faces one count of voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm. Officer Salvador Sanchez, who was a seven-year veteran of the LAPD at the time of the shooting, was arrested Monday in Riverside County. That means the city may be liable for much of the award.Ī statement from the city attorney's office said the city will review all of its options, including an appeal.LOS ANGELES - California's attorney general has filed manslaughter charges against a former Los Angeles police officer who was off duty when he fatally shot a man who was shopping with his parents in 2019. ![]() The jurors in the lawsuit trial concluded that Salvador Sanchez, a seven-year LAPD veteran, was acting within the scope of his employment even though he was off duty. ![]() "The family is grateful for the jury's verdict and hoping that this can bring them some sense of justice and begin the healing process," Dale Galipo, an attorney for the family, said in a statement to Eyewitness News. The panel ruled in a lawsuit filed against the city of Los Angeles and the former officer in the June 14, 2019, killing of 32-year-old Kenneth French. A federal jury in Riverside awarded $17 million in damages to the family of a mentally disabled man who was fatally shot by an off-duty LAPD officer inside a Costco in Corona in 2019.ĬORONA, Calif (KABC) - A federal jury in Riverside Wednesday awarded $17 million in damages to the family of a mentally disabled man who was fatally shot by an off-duty LAPD officer inside a Costco in Corona more than two years ago.
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