Posted on 11/05/2013 11:24:07 PM PST by Hetty_Fauxvert
The parents of the 13-year-old Santa Rosa boy shot dead by a Sonoma County sheriff's deputy filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Monday and laid out the findings of their own private investigation into the shooting, which they claim was unjustified.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by the parents of Andy Lopez, accuses Deputy Erick Gelhaus of acting recklessly when he shot Lopez seven times as the boy walked through a southwest Santa Rosa neighborhood with an airsoft BB gun that resembled an AK-47 assault rifle.
The lawsuit also faults the Sheriff's Office, accusing it of “encouraging, accommodating, or ratifying” the use of excessive force by deputies.
[. . .]
Terry Leoni, an attorney representing Gelhaus in the criminal and administrative investigations, said that any implication that Gelhaus was reckless goes against his decorated 24-year history with the Sheriff's Office.
“He has never fired his weapon in the line of duty before, he trains younger deputies,” Leoni said. “Calling him reckless is certainly out of character.”
She noted Gelhaus received the office's Medal of Valor in 2004 for pulling occupants of a burning vehicle to safety.
[. . .]
The federal lawsuit questioned Gelhaus' fitness to be a deputy.
It pointed to an incident in 1995 when he accidentally shot himself in the leg. In 1996, the suit said he pulled his gun on a woman carrying her young son when he responded to a neighbor dispute. The suit said Gelhaus chased her around her car, causing “great fear and anxiety.”
The same year, according to the suit, Gelhaus and a partner falsified reports in a domestic violence case, leading to the partner's firing.
More recently, the suit said Gelhaus pulled a gun on a Santa Rosa man during a traffic stop last month.
(Excerpt) Read more at pressdemocrat.com ...
The impression I'm getting from these stories is that Gelhaus is brave, having saved civilians from harm in difficult circumstances, but also seems to be hypervigilant and pulls his gun on "suspects" (at least sometimes) with minimal provocation.
PTSD.
PTSD.
* * *
Very possibly. He’s a vet, a shooting instructor for the Sheriff’s department, and like all other LEOs in this country, has been steeped in the “shoot them before they shoot you” mentality for the last several years.
... It wasn't Officer Gelhaus.
Whoever pulled that plug signed the boys death warrant.
Doesn’t excuse what happened, but does explain the “why” of it.
But then creates a new question, “Why didn’t the higher ups catch it?”
I agree that there’s plenty of blame to be spread around. The orange tip should *never* have been removed from that BB gun.
However, does that mean that it IS okay to yell “Drop the gun!” and then just start firing at someone with a *real* gun? I believe that open carry is illegal in CA. But should it be worth an immediate death sentence? That seems extreme.
Maybe I missed it, but why were the cops called there in the first place? Was a citizen fearful of a person with a gun? Is that the way it went out over the radio?
I thought we’d seen elsewhere that the Airsoft guns are required to have an orange tip.
Remind me to paint the flash suppressor on my MAC 90 blaze orange...
... It wasn't Officer Gelhaus.
Whoever pulled that plug signed the boys death warrant.
Orange plug or no, cops in CA are not allowed to shoot someone simply because they are carrying a weapon. From what I have read this kid was shot at eight times, from the rear, being hit with seven of the rounds fired.
Being shot in the back begs the questions,"Did the boy know the cops were even there? Did they give him a chance to turn around and place the bb gun(not ever a real bb gun, an airsoft)on the ground?" It is still lawful in CA to carry firearms(long guns) in the open depending on the circumstances.
The person who signed this kids death warrant was not the one who removed the orange plug, but the idiot trigger happy cop who shot him.
We should retrain all LEO’s to wait until they are shot first before they can deploy their weapons...there...problem solved...
There was no call to 911. The Deputies were just on patrol and spotted the kid. Makes it even a worse shoot in my book.
“We should retrain all LEO’s to wait until they are shot first before they can deploy their weapons...there...problem solved...”.
Tell that to the hundreds of veteran’s who have lost their lives in battle or have been wounded since odumbo came along and took the bullets away from of our people, gave the order, “Do not shoot unless fired upon”. That was/is a stupid order. Look how that order solved the problem.
I understand that Gelhaus did a tour of duty in Iraq in 2005. He might have been part of the reason for that change in rules of engagement there because of similar type of abusive shooting practices. He wasn't getting a chance to shoot anyone over here in Santa Rosa so he went over there to Iraq to be a hero and show his firing prowess.
Actually the 3 inches of the end of the barrel are cut off which should have been a clue that it was a toy and that someone had cut off the orange tip -- something that kids do to their orange tip guns all the time.
Last year a bill was presented to the legislature to require all pellet and bb guns to be painted pastel colors but it was opposed by many in LE because they claim that bb and pellet guns can also hurt. Those in LE who opposed it want these guns to look like the real thing so that they shoot those carrying them as well as those who carry the real thing and then disingenuously claim "oh we thought it was real."
Why are they shooting people carrying rifles in the first place -- it's not against state law.
Sorry...forgot the sarc tag...
Hetty, everyone should listen to the video of the press conference at the link — it is stunning.
The driver of the car that pulled up in front of the deputies said that it was clear that it was a kid carrying a toy gun — no doubt.
But most stunning was the fact from the autopsy that the first shot that Gelhaus fired dropped Andy. It was the one that went through his chest and into his heart.
The next 7 shots fired at him were after he was down on the ground.
The bullets that went into his buttocks went travelled the length of his body indicating that they were fired when he was already lying on the ground.
This was beyond eggregious.
That is the reason I maintain that he murdered the kin, willful and Wantonly, with malice aforethought.
and yet the biggest pontificators of this are also this guy's biggest defenders.
Can we spell "hypocrisy".
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