The San Mateo County District Attorney's Office announced Tuesday that five police officers involved in the shooting and killing of a domestic violence suspect in Redwood City in November 2022 will not be charged in the case.
Abran Gutierrez, 36, was killed in a shooting Nov. 15 on El Camino Real, a major thoroughfare in the city near the intersection with Maple Street, police and prosecutors said.
Luke Shoats, William Wolfe, Nicholas Muniz, Víctor Figueroa and José Montoya were the five agents who opened fire on Gutiérrez after a confrontation in which the latter allegedly tried to use a woman and children as a shield, the prosecutor said on Tuesday. Steve Wagstaffe District.
In a letter to Redwood City Police Chief Dan Mulholland, Wagstaffe described the case as "a dynamic and traumatic event in which young children and infants, the most vulnerable among us, were exposed to direct threat of great harm." bodily harm or death due to the reckless and dangerous acts of Mr. Gutiérrez.”
An investigation by the Prosecutor's Office determined that the police had responded at around 3:00 p.m. on November 15 to a report of a disturbance in El Camino Real and found Gutiérrez along with the mother of his son and some small children on the sidewalk along to parked cars.
An argument inside the car escalated, causing the woman to stop and say she was calling 911. After a brief interaction between Gutierrez and a responding officer, the attacker allegedly drew a handgun and pointed it at the officer, who backed away. to people in the area, prosecutors said.
Gutierrez then held the woman and two children in a car while pointing the gun at them as other officers arrived on the scene. The officers were finally able to open fire on Gutierrez when he appeared in the rear passenger seat, away from the woman and children, according to the district attorney's report.
After being beaten and incapacitated, Gutiérrez was taken to a hospital and died there. The woman suffered injuries unrelated to the shooting and was also hospitalized, while the children involved were not injured, Redwood City police said.
An autopsy on Gutierrez found that he had methamphetamine and other substances in his system at the time of his death, and his son's mother reported that he had been experiencing paranoia and hearing voices for approximately two months prior to the day of the shooting.
That same day, Gutiérrez had insisted that the little girl they shared was sick and needed to go to the doctor, but when they arrived at the health center, he refused to release the girl so that the nurse could examine her. After they left, the argument ensued that led to the police response and eventual shooting, prosecutors said.
Wagstaffe's report concluded that the five officers "were justified in using deadly force under California law" and spared the lives of the victims "as well as their own lives and those of civilians who were present on a very busy roadway." traveled».
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