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Sacramento, California — California’s attorney general said Thursday that he will not file criminal charges against a Los Angeles police officer who fatally shot a man on Hollywood Boulevard last year, even though the gun he was carrying turned out to be fake.
The shooting caused panic on the busy street, as tourists and onlookers ducked for cover.
Such a review is under a new California law that requires the state Department of Justice to review all incidents in which an officer in the state shoots and kills an unarmed civilian.
In this case, officials said they responded to reports of Matthew James Sowa walking the Walk of Fame with a handgun just before noon on July 15, 2021, and at least one person reported seeing him point a gun at someone. He also pointed a small black folding knife with an open blade at a building security guard earlier, according to the department’s report.
Sowa “pointed what looked like a pistol, but was actually a lighter that looked like a gun, at Officer (Christopher) Tabela,” Attorney General Rob Bonda said. “After a detailed analysis, the DOJ concluded that there was substantial evidence that Officers (Isaiah) Galvez and Tabela acted in self-defense and in defense of others.”
Sova was fatally shot by two LAPD officers less than a block from the famous corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, where the Oscars are usually presented.
“Man, why?” Tabela could be heard asking Sova before the officer began performing CPR to no avail.
Although Bonda’s office cleared the officers, the LAPD recommended that officers be trained to call the department’s mental evaluation unit and review whether Zoa’s death “could have been avoided.”
The initial call to the LAPD said Zova was “acting crazy and saying different things out loud.” He had 12 prior contacts with law enforcement regarding his mental health, 10 of which were with the LAPD Mental Health Unit.
Using other means “may have given officers time to engage in meaningful de-escalation … to deal with a potential mental health crisis,” the review found. In this case, “both officers switched to non-lethal response as soon as they arrived on the scene.”
Chief Michael Moore said the LAPD will review the proposals.
State lawmakers in 2020 are asking the attorney general to decide whether police broke the law in cases where civilians die. Previously, local prosecutors usually made such decisions, but nationwide outrage over police killings and concerns that county district attorneys are too close to the local law enforcement agencies they work with on a daily basis have prompted legislators.
A law transferring the investigation to the state took effect on July 1, 2021, days before the Walk of Fame shooting.
On July 7, 2021, Bonda announced how his office would handle investigations. According to those procedures, the department’s California Police Shooting Investigation Team of Southern California went to the scene as soon as the Los Angeles Police Department was notified of the shooting. The team sent a report to the department’s Special Prosecution Unit to decide whether the officers had broken the law.
In this case, investigators interviewed seven emergency workers and 13 civilian witnesses. They also examined other evidence, including video from surveillance cameras and cameras worn by officers.
He said the department’s goal is to complete reviews within a year and that this first investigation took longer than he would have liked. But he said the results of the other 24 cases currently under review should come more quickly now that investigators are more comfortable with their approach.
Bonda co-authored the Act while in the state assembly. It was shortened from a broader version that allowed local officials to request state investigations where armed suspects were killed. That change came after Bonda’s predecessor, the attorney general, raised concerns about costs and workload. This does not apply to non-firing deaths.
“This effort is personal for me. I have heard first-hand the pain and anguish many families and communities feel in the moments after these events. I have witnessed the lack of trust,” Bonda said. Shifting responsibility to the state “gives us an opportunity to include more transparency and accountability in these investigations,” he said.
The law leaves it up to local law enforcement agencies to review whether the officer followed departmental procedures or has any civil liability, as well as any crime that may have led to the shooting.
Copyright © 2022 The Associated Press. all rights reserved.
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