Above: In May video, community members called for continued peaceful response to Andy Lopez case.
The Sonoma County District Attorney's Office will not file criminal charges against a sheriff's deputy who shot and killed a 13-year-old boy carrying a realistic-looking toy assault rifle.
Last October's shooting of Andy Lopez by sheriff's Deputy Erick Gelhaus touched off a series of protest marches in Santa Rosa, in which the community's Latino community accused police of a history of excessive force and lack of accountability. Activists, through a May video (see above) and social media, have called for the community response to remain peaceful.
District Attorney Jill Ravitch told reporters at a press conference in Santa Rosa that Gelhaus “fired his weapon in response to what he honestly and reasonably believed was an imminent threat of death to himself or others. As such, he was lawfully acting in defense of himself or others, and no basis for seeking criminal charges exists."
In an extended statement, Ravitch recounted the events that led to the Lopez shooting on Oct. 22.
Those events unfolded rapidly after Gelhaus and another sheriff's deputy, on routine patrol, spotted the teenager as he walked in a residential neighborhood on the southern edge of Santa Rosa. Lopez was carrying a replica AK-47 that Gelhaus told investigators he believed was a real firearm.