Mother, Partner of Man Slain by CHP Officers in Oakland File Federal Suit

A federal lawsuit filed Monday alleges that three California Highway Patrol officers, as-yet unnamed, didn't face a threat when they opened fire on a stolen car last month in East Oakland, killing the 23-year-old man behind the wheel and wounding his pregnant girlfriend, "which caused the death of her unborn child."

The California Highway Patrol has released scarce details about the shooting and so far withheld the identities of the three officers who fired.

CHP officers attempted to stop a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat a few minutes before 11 p.m. on June 6, according to statements from the Oakland Police Department, which is leading a criminal investigation. The car was among several dozen reported stolen from a San Leandro dealership a few days earlier.

According to OPD, the driver of the Dodge began ramming CHP vehicles and three officers fired into the car.

Officers fired approximately 40 shots, according to the lawsuit, striking Erik Salgado at least 18 times.

"I am seeking justice to find out the names of the officers that killed my son," Salgado's mother Felina Ramirez said in Spanish at a Monday press conference and commemoration of what would have been her son's 24th birthday. "I don't understand why, with such cruelty, they had to do what they did. And why were there so many gun shots? Why so many?"

Civil rights attorney John Burris is representing Salgado's mother, girlfriend and 3-year-old daughter in the lawsuit filed Monday.

"It was a massacre," Burris said. "The number of shots fired was enough, in my view, to kill a militia of terrorists."

Brianna Colombo, 23, was shot three times, including in the abdomen, "putting her in a critical medical emergency which caused the death of her unborn child," the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit argues that the Dodge was effectively pinned by unmarked CHP vehicles in front of and behind it, and "bumped into" them as he attempted to maneuver around the cars.

"He didn't smash them in ways that would jeopardize anybody's life," Burris said, adding that officers had already exited the vehicle. "Their lives were not in danger."

The lawsuit says a plainclothes CHP officer in front of the Dodge first yelled at the driver to turn off the car's engine. The officer began to fire several seconds later, despite the car not having moved. Salgado was shot in the chest and slumped forward, and the Dodge revved and collided with another vehicle. Two other officers then shot at the car from behind.

The shooting was "deliberately indifferent to human life, premeditated, and criminal," the lawsuit says. Attorney Jim Chanin, who also represents Salgado's family, called on the Alameda County District Attorney to file criminal charges.

"These officers should be prosecuted," he said. "They should be indicted."

The California Highway Patrol has declined to comment on the shooting and has yet to provide a response to a public records request for the officers' identities and any other information on the shooting, including any video.

KQED's Kate Wolffe contributed to this report.