DA Clears Pleasanton Officers For 2022 Shooting

PLEASANTON, CA — Two Pleasanton police officers will not be held criminally liable for an officer-involved shooting that resulted in the death of a San Jose man in 2022, ousted Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced Thursday.

In January 2023, former Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley’s office found that Officers Brian Jewell and Mario Guillermo were justified in their use of force. However, when Price was sworn in a few weeks later, she immediately announced that a newly-formed Public Accountability Unit would reopen the case, along with seven others involving officer force.

On Thursday, shortly before ending her term, Price announced that upon thorough review of the case, her office “cannot prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, the use of lethal force by Officers Jewell and Guillermo was unjustified."

Price still argued that the case represents “an unnecessary escalation of force and multiple violations of Pleasanton Police Department policies for mental-health crisis interventions and de-escalation at minimum, and procedures for determining the appropriate level of force necessary to respond to this type of situation.”

According to Price, the department deployed at least 19 police officers from the Pleasanton and Livermore Police Departments with militarized equipment to arrest Chavez, a suspect in a domestic violence case, who “posed no imminent threat to the victim, was alone, unarmed, likely under the influence of alcohol and experiencing mental health issues.”

"The Pleasanton Police Department remains committed to ensuring the safety of our citizens and community and supports the earlier findings and the secondary review conducted by the Public Accountability Unit. Both reviews found no justification for criminal charges. Unfortunately, we are unable to comment further at this time because of pending civil litigation," the Pleasanton Police Department said in a statement.

"The Police Officers’ Association (POA) stands firmly behind the actions of the officers involved in the tragic incident," Pleasanton Police Officers' Association Vice President Chris Lewellyn said in a statement. "From the very beginning, we were confident that a thorough investigation would confirm that the officers acted within the bounds of the law and in accordance with their training, ultimately making the difficult decision to use force in a situation where their lives were at risk. Following the incident, the case was thoroughly reviewed by the appropriate authorities, and it was determined that the officers’ actions were justified. Despite this, when a new District Attorney took office, she made the decision to reopen the case and conduct a fresh review of all available evidence. After a comprehensive examination of the facts, the District Attorney concluded that there was no wrongdoing on the part of the officers. The POA continues to stand by these officers, who are dedicated professionals who serve with honor and integrity. The secondary review and findings of the case by the DA only further validates our belief that the officers acted appropriately under the circumstances. We are pleased that the legal process has reaffirmed that no criminal conduct occurred, and we continue to support our officers as they carry out their essential work in our communities."

A few days after the Feb. 17 incident, the Pleasanton Police Department released a video of edited bodycam footage giving their account of events. According to the video and a PPD news release from the time, officers responded to a 911 call from a woman at an apartment on the 4800 block of Willow Road. She told police that Chavez, her ex-boyfriend against whom she had a restraining order, had convinced her to let him back in, then covered her face with a pillow, pulled her hair, and wouldn’t let her leave the room.

Officers went to the apartment and attempted to contact him, though he did not leave. Body camera footage shows officers telling Chavez via megaphone to come outside and open the door with nothing in his hands. “Hands up and you will not be harmed,” an officer is heard saying. Chavez reportedly communicated “intermittently” with a growing crisis management team for the first 40 minutes, but stopped after a while.

After several hours of minimal communication, officers sent a robot into the apartment, which can be seen in body camera footage in the video. Authorities reportedly made a plan to break open the window so that a drone could get inside to observe.

Chavez also reportedly opened and slammed the front door “multiple times,” during which officers could see that he was holding a knife.

Five minutes, nine seconds into the video, Chavez can be seen exiting the building holding a knife, as officers broke his window open. Bodycam and drone footage shows him running toward police.

Police can be heard shouting, “Door open! Get back!” He was shot almost instantly after he began running. The video zooms into shows two officers firing what it describes as a “less-lethal” device (usually a taser), and two officers atop an armored vehicle firing a service weapon.

After that, footage shows Chavez’s blurred out body lying on the ground as medical personnel attend to him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Officers were also advised that Chavez had previous arrests on charges of resisting arrest, assault on officers, assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence, according to O’Malley’s report from January 2023.

The 10-month investigation said that it found “overwhelming, credible, and admissible evidence that Officer Jewell and Officer Guillermo acted lawfully and in defense of others.” Investigators pointed to evidence that:

• Officers tried many other ways of contacting Chavez before resorting to force.
• Chavez continually resisted arrest.
• Available evidence indicates Chavez “posed a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to himself and others” based on prior arrests and other information available to the officers.

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