DA Confirms No Charges In Oakland Police Shooting Death
OAKLAND (CBS SF) - The Alameda County District Attorney's Office has decided not to file charges against two Oakland police officers who shot and killed barbershop owner Derrick Jones during a confrontation in East Oakland on Nov. 8.
Assistant District Attorney Richard Klemmer said in a 12-page report that Officers Omar Daza-Quiroz and Eriberto Perez-Angeles fired their weapons because they believed Jones was about to shoot them.
Klemmer said it appears that the two officers "actually and reasonably believed they were in imminent danger of great bodily injury or death" and cited a "lack of evidence to support a prosecution against either officer."
The report was completed on Feb. 8 but wasn't made public until Tuesday.
The death of Jones, who was 37, provoked protest marches by community members who alleged that the officers shouldn't have shot Jones, because he was unarmed.
Because of the community members' concerns, Police Chief Anthony Batts has asked the FBI to conduct an independent investigation into the shooting.
Klemmer's report states that Daza-Quiroz and Perez-Angeles were flagged down near Bancroft and Seminary avenues at about 9:15 p.m. on Nov. 8 by a woman who said Jones had tried to strangle and kill her.
The woman told the officers that Jones was her boyfriend and said he had broken the windshield of her car and broken her cell phone to prevent her from calling police, according to the report.
The woman said Jones worked at a nearby barbershop in the 5800 block of Bancroft Avenue, so the officers went to there to look for him, Klemmer said in the report.
The officers spotted Jones, who matched the description provided by the woman, but when they asked him if his name was Derrick Jones he lied to them and said Derrick Jones had left the area, according to the report.
The officers later told investigators that Jones ignored repeated commands to surrender over a period of at least several minutes, and that they shot at him because was reaching into his waistband, which they thought indicated that he was reaching for a gun, the report states.
No weapon was found at the scene, but officers found a small metal scale and a small amount of marijuana, according to the report.
Klemmer said in the report, "Witnesses corroborate the officers' recount of the event, including that the officers repeatedly and clearly shouted for Mr. Jones to stop running and to show his hands and remove his hands from his pockets."
The report states that Daza-Quiroz thought he had fired four shots, but an inspection of his pistol and magazines established that he had fired seven shots.
Perez-Angeles thought he had fired twice and that was confirmed by an examination, according to the report.
An autopsy disclosed that Jones had suffered six bullet entry wounds. The wounds were to his chest, abdomen, right thigh, right knee, lower right leg and lower left leg, the report states. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The report said Jones' blood-alcohol level was 0.13.
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