SAN DIEGO
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History shows it is extremely rare for a police officer involved in a shooting to be charged with a crime in San Diego County.
Convictions are even more rare.
Only two local police officers have been criminally charged for shooting people while on duty in the past 25 years, and both men were acquitted by juries.
The exceptions: Two sheriff's deputies were convicted in an off-duty shooting from 1981, and a San Diego police officer pleaded guilty to another from 1982.
The county District Attorney's Office is about to begin its review into the March 15 police shooting in Oceanside, which has drawn intense public scrutiny, in large part because an 8-year-old boy was wounded.
The Oceanside Police Department on Thursday provided more details of the incident between off-duty San Diego police Officer Frank White and 27-year-old Rachel Silva and her son in the parking lot of a Lowe's home-improvement store.
White reported being sideswiped before firing five shots into Silva's car.
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Officer-involved shootings
The District Attorney's Office reviews all shootings by law enforcement officers involving injury or death in the county, except for shootings by federal agents.
217: Shootings from 1996 to 2008
126: Fatalities
93: Injuries
0*: Officers prosecuted
*Several investigations are still under review by the district attorney.
SOURCES: District Attorney's Office; The San Diego Union-Tribune
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Silva, who was shot twice, gave her version of events in interviews March 26.
Oceanside police are awaiting results of forensic tests before turning over their investigation to District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, who will determine whether the shooting was justified.
Dumanis declined to discuss the case until she makes a finding.
Records show that the District Attorney's Office reviewed 200 police shootings from 1996 to 2006, and so far all have been found to be justifiable. Some of those cases are still under review.
Paul Pfingst, district attorney from 1995 to 2002, said few officers are charged in shootings because it is difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer acted either with malice or extreme disregard for human life.
An officer must have reasonable fear of great bodily injury, not necessarily death, for a shooting to be ruled justifiable under law.
“There's a big difference between being a police officer and being a citizen,” said Pfingst, who now works in private practice. “They have to run to the danger, while the rest of us can run away from the danger.”
The last instances when police officers were charged in shootings were in 1995 and 1983. Both shootings occurred while the officers were on duty, and both men were acquitted.
“Juries do not like to convict police officers,” said Assistant District Attorney Dave Tomkins, who handles officer-involved shootings in Santa Clara County. “Juries hesitate to second-guess a police officer on something they had a split second to consider.”
It's a little more complicated when an off-duty officer shoots someone. When not on duty, officers often have the choice to walk away or call other officers to handle the situation.
Pfingst said off-duty encounters can be more personal and less objective when compared with the encounters officers have with people while on duty.
The District Attorney's Office has twice filed charges against officers in off-duty shootings, in 1981 and 1982, and neither involved a death.
Former District Attorney Ed Miller, who headed the office throughout the 1970s and '80s, said he used to send the particularly troublesome shootings to a grand jury to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.
That happened in 1983, when a county grand jury indicted Escondido police Officer David DeLange on a charge of involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting a bank-robbery hostage. He was later acquitted.
While criminal charges are rare, that doesn't necessarily mean officers are off the hook for the shooting.
Law enforcement agencies conduct their own internal investigation into each shooting. The result can end in changes in training, or the officer's suspension or termination, experts say.
In the case of Sheriff's Department and San Diego police shootings, civilian boards also examine incidents and can make recommendations to the agency on training issues, tactics and discipline.
Of the 61 shootings reviewed by San Diego's board between 2001 and 2006, four were found to have violated department policies.
Pfingst said the majority of police shootings in the county are easy to deem as justifiable because they are circumstances in which the officer “behaved bravely.”
“The few that don't fit into that category are troubling ones that need to be looked into,” he said.
Kristina Davis: (619) 542-4591; kristina.davis@uniontrib.com
