dangerous objects

Alfred Olango was in El Cajon, California, when he was walking towards a fast food restaurant with a vaping device in his hand. Security camera footage from the restaurant shows Officer Richard Gonsalves approaching Olango in the parking lot, and Olango backs away from Gonalves frightened, turning around to walk away from the officer. Olango pauses, walks away from the restaurant, and a police car comes into view, driven by Officer Josh McDaniel. Olango is then cornered towards a white pickup truck in the parking lot of the restaurant, and he points the vaping device towards Gonsalves. Eyewitness video from inside the drive-thru window shows Gonsalves firing four shots at Olango, striking him in the neck, chest, upper back, and arm, while McDaniel is reacting by firing his taser. Alfred Olango bled out in the hospital at 38 years old.

Alfred Olango’s sister, Lucy, had originally called the police three times seeking to help her mentally distraught brother after the recent death of a close friend. She believed he was suffering from a mental breakdown. Alfred Olango’s wife and father filed a lawsuit against the El Cajon Police Department alleging excessive, deadly use of force against his son about a week after San Diego county prosecutors said they wouldn’t file any criminal charges against the El Cajon police because the shooting was justified. A San Diego federal judge dismissed the case at the request of the city of El Cajon and Officer Gonsalves. It did not come without criticism of the officers by the judge for failing to de-escalate the situation nor calling for a Psychiatric Emergency Response Team clinician to help assess Olango although the officers heard the dispatch radio call “5150,” the police code for mentally ill. Judge Bashant said, “Instead, the officers separated and went to look for Olango... Olango’s perceptible mental instability should have given the officers pause in determining how to handle the situation.”

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Sources: 

Father of man killed by police sues California department. (2017, January 18). Retrieved from https://www.apnews.com/15dff5fb15404456bc942e119c6ce20f

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News, A. (2016, September 30). Alfred Olango Shooting Video Released. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkb7sJsJKF0

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Repard, P. (2019, March 08). Federal lawsuits dismissed against city of El Cajon, officer in Olango shooting. Retrieved from https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/courts/sd-me-olango-cajon-police-shooting-ruling-20190307-story.html