Escondido Here We Go Again

[Yul Lose]

An Escondido Police Officer shot a man this morning that charged him with a crowbar. The guy violated a restraining order to stay away from his house and the police stopped him and he was shot. My step daughter works in Escondido and she says all of the downtown businesses are being boarded up again and most have already closed for the day. The guy that got shot was Hispanic and is in the hospital. There was already planned protests downtown tonight even before the shooting. 

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

Apparently local media would feel your version of the story is wrong. Local news reports the man was “holding” or “approached” the officer with a crow bar. How do we not know he went back to take care of a few home repairs to make amends for whatever initiated the restraining order?

[Capt. R. Hugh Kidnme]

Maybe he was helping take the initial plywood " boarding up of Escondido" down with his crowbar. Could happen ya know..........

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

Absolutely

[Warden Callaway]

Maybe another way to stop this protesting would be to go around the neighborhood about bed time and roust them out to protest. Make them carry banners and such for an hour or two.  About the third night,  I bet they would have had enough protesting. 

[Subdeacon Joe]

We have our own share of morons up here.
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/11047895-181/santa-rosa-police-to-conduct?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR18Ygxk9K0LO0b9auNo-_KcQ6v_xKkkF-PKN1QRBE0aNazYYa6YLbkwZZs

 

Quote

The recorded road-side arrest of a suspected gang-member wanted in connection with two Santa Rosa attempted murders and an armed robbery has rekindled the raging local debate on law enforcement use of force but with another complicating factor — whether bystanders’ willingness to get involved created an even more dangerous situation.

A video sent to The Press Democrat and shared on Facebook Thursday shows the arrest of Undra Moore, 22, whom Santa Rosa police and Sonoma County sheriff’s detectives think is responsible for gang-related shootings last month that seriously injured two men. He also was wanted on the armed robbery of a convenience store May 12.

Police said they trailed him from southeast Santa Rosa to north of Healdsburg, where the tires of his vehicle were punctured by a set of spike strips laid across Highway 101 by a sheriff’s deputy. Once stopped, police said, he took off running from the vehicle, as did a male passenger who was quickly detained.

A Santa Rosa officer and his dog caught up to Moore in the grass shoulder next to the highway as traffic continued in the median lane. The officer, whose name wasn’t released, punched him several times, while the dog, Riko, bit him, police acknowledge.

What happened next raised the stakes on the already violent and tense arrest. Two women, at least one of whom was in the car with Moore, according to police, came within feet of the area where he had been detained by the Santa Rosa officer. One of the women, later identified as Tiffany Ann Lawson, of Santa Rosa, was yelling loudly at the officer and even walked between him and Moore. The other recorded the encounter on her phone.

A third woman, a motorist who had stopped and who did not appear to be affiliated, recorded the confrontation on her phone, later posting a video that drew 35,000 views on her Facebook page before she took it down.

It showed the Santa Rosa officer who’d detained Moore flagging down an approaching Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy for help as the confrontation with the two women escalated.

 

Within seconds, that sheriff’s deputy was at the scene and pointing his gun at Lawson, and at the motorist who had been recording the incident.

Comments on the video ranged from criticism over a violent arrest to support of officers and anger at the woman ­— identified by police as Lawson — who interjected herself in the arrest, as well as at the videographer.

Santa Rosa police Lt. John Snetsinger said a standard use-of-force review was under way Friday since the police dog was used in the takedown. The use of a dog is allowed under policy if the suspect is believed to have committed a crime or if the person is resisting or fleeing.

“So, yes, you can use a canine to apprehend this person,” he said.

Lawson, 27, whose infant child was in Moore’s vehicle during the incident and who was later cited on suspicion of obstructing police, was shown screaming at the dog handler and walking in between the officer and Moore as he lay prone in the grass. The officer ordered Lawson and the other two women multiple times to “get back.” Only one of the people, the unaffiliated motorist, appeared to comply.

At that point, the dog briefly slipped loose from the handler’s grasp as he tried to fasten the leash and bit Moore again, Snetsinger said. Moore sustained scrapes that required first-aid, but not serious bite wounds, he said.

When the deputy approached seconds later with his gun drawn and ordered Lawson and the videographer to back up, Lawson retreated several feet while continuing to yell at both officers, while the videographer backed up even further, urging those on scene to “calm down.”

Sgt. Juan Valencia, a sheriff’s office spokesman, said the deputy, whom he didn’t name, acted appropriately in drawing and pointing his weapon at the women. No further review will be conducted since simply drawing a weapon isn’t a use of force.

“The officer is saying ‘Get back,’” he said. “What do you expect us to do? We don’t know what’s going on yet or who these people are, but we know the person we were chasing is armed and dangerous.”

That the woman was recording was not a problem, but all of the women went from being bystanders to inserting themselves into a dynamic, potentially dangerous situation, he said.

“The guy was wanted for two shootings and an armed robbery. Don’t interject or put yourself in that situation and when it’s chaotic like that, or you might get a gun pointed at you,” Valencia said.

Both departments said their officers were using their body-worn cameras, but both declined Friday to release the videos. State law requires the release of video from certain cases, including officer-involved shootings or force that results in great bodily injury to a suspect.

Valencia said the sheriff’s office wouldn’t release its video. Snetsinger said the case doesn’t rise to the level of the state requirement, and Chief Ray Navarro declined to release it following a Press Democrat request.

Snetsinger said the dog slipping loose and biting Moore again was unintentional, caused in part by the chaos of Lawson and the other woman approaching the handler as he was securing the dog and trying to keep an eye on the handcuffed Moore.

At the time, the officer was the only one at the scene.

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“The officer was in the process of handcuffing our suspect, and before he even had handcuffs on him, she is already standing right next to him screaming. He has no idea who she is,” Snetsinger said.

“He gets the handcuffs on, gets the dog off and is trying to leash the dog and trying to keep an eye on her. She interjects herself in between the wanted suspect and the officer. He’s still there alone.”

Lawson is fortunate the dog didn’t bite her since she was an apparent threat to his handler, Snetsinger said.

Valencia and Snetsinger said their officers don’t object to people taping their actions. It’s a legal right to do so. But, they both said, anyone getting too close to a crime scene – especially a fast-moving one with potentially armed suspects – puts everyone in jeopardy.

“It really started with the smartphone age,” Snetsinger said. “But people feel emboldened now with the national movement going on.

“A person standing off further away holding a camera, it’s pretty obvious to us that’s what they’re doing, that they don’t have any other motive or purpose. People do it all the time... But she was standing over the top of our attempted murder suspect yelling at our officer. That endangers everyone.”

Moore faces 17 charges in multiple case, including two attempted murders, an armed robbery and child endangerment because Lawson’s infant was in the car during the incident.