Newly released video of a fatal police shooting last year in Danville shows an officer run toward and then fire into the vehicle of a man who had fled police and was steering toward a gap between two squad cars.
In a package of pre-produced video and audio segments released Thursday by the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office, which polices Danville under contract, a spokesman said the Nov. 3, 2018, shooting "occurred as a result of a suspect trying to run down an officer." Sheriff David Livingston said earlier this year that the shooting "is about a dangerous and reckless person trying to run down and murder a police officer."
Videos and other information on the case were obtained in response to a public records request filed by the California Reporting Project, a coalition of news organizations seeking records from law enforcement agencies under a new state transparency law.
Police car dashboard-camera video shows a Danville officer, identified as Deputy Andrew Hall, running toward Laudemer Arboleda's vehicle, stopping near the right front fender and then stepping backward as he began to fire.
Two police cars had nearly boxed Arboleda in, but there was a small gap between them. Body-camera video shows Hall drawing his gun as he ran toward that opening while Arboleda steered to the right, also toward the space between the patrol cars. Hall can be seen firing several rounds through the right front windshield and continuing to shoot as Arboleda drove by, shattering the front and rear passenger windows.
Civil rights attorney John Burris, who represents Arboleda's mother in a federal lawsuit against Danville and Hall, said "the claim that he was about to be run over is bogus, given what we can see."
"The officer did not have to shoot into that car," Burris said. "The car was going past him at the time, and more importantly, he had a duty to get out of the way."
