TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

A Kern County Sheriff's Department incident review board announced Monday that two deputies acted within department policy in January when they fatally shot a man in a Buttonwillow park.

Deputies Jeremy Storar and Tommy Robins shot and killed Christian Chavez Jan. 23 after Chavez pulled out a knife during a pat down. Family members said Chavez, who had just turned 18, suffered from schizophrenia and depression.

The attorney for the Chavez family, Daniel Rodriguez, wrote in an email Monday that the board's ruling shows the need for "an independent, objective and outside investigation."

"We all trust the police to do the right and fair thing. Unfortunately, when it comes to police shooting review boards, 99 percent of the time the sheriff's department justifies their shooting, no matter how substandard their police work may have been," Rodriguez wrote.

Speaking by phone Friday, Rodriguez said deputies erred when they shot Chavez, whose family members said he pointed the blade at himself.

"In this situation, since the boy hadn't threatened them, they were not authorized under the law to use deadly force," Rodriguez said.

Law enforcement officers are trained to use a scale of escalating force when dealing with criminals, Rodriguez said, but applying the same approach with a mentally ill person may only scare the person.

Rodriguez said that according to the accounts he has heard, a deputy commanded Chavez, who wouldn't make eye contact, to get out of the car and yanked the young man from the car.

If the deputies didn't have the skills or training to handle the situation with Chavez, they shouldn't have gone to the call, Rodriguez said.

"They treated the boy as if he were a criminal instead of a person needing help," Rodriguez said.

Sheriff's department spokesman Ray Pruitt also said that law enforcement officers are trained to use increasing force to defused the dangers they encounter, but Pruitt stressed that officers are not obligated to respond to a threat with the same level of force. Hypothetically, if someone brandishes a knife, which is considered a deadly weapon, officers are not expected to also pull out a knife and enter in a knife fight, Pruitt said Thursday.

"Law enforcement officers are always trained to react with greater force to neutralize the threat, to stop the threat," Pruitt said.

After the shooting, Chavez's family members were reeling and questioning how the situation escalated so quickly. Contacted by phone Monday, Chavez's uncle, Paul Chavez, summed up his feelings by asking how someone would feel if they lost a brother in this way. When Chavez needed help, law enforcement did the opposite, Paul Chavez wrote in a message.

In an interview the day after the shooting, Paul Chavez, who said he considered Christian Chavez a brother, said his mother and Chavez's caseworker saw the shooting and said Chavez pointed a small kitchen knife that he had taken from his aunt's house at himself, not deputies.

"(Deputies) didn't even use the Taser gun or nothing. They just pulled out the gun and just shot him," Paul Chavez said. "They were all wearing their bullet (proof vests) and everything so what could a knife do compared to a gun?"

Pruitt said the deputies were likely armed with other, less-lethal gear such as batons and Tasers, but that second-guessing what other force options they could have used is not something the department will do.

"We're not going to speculate as to what could have been done differently," Pruitt said.

Buttonwillow Substation deputies Storar and Robins were dispatched to a Buttonwillow park after Chavez's caseworker called 911, deputies said. She reportedly said that Chavez was possibly suicidal during the call and talked with deputies briefly when they arrived, Pruitt said.

Chavez was sitting in the caseworker's car when deputies approached him and spoke with him for a few minutes, Pruitt said. Chavez cooperated when they asked him to step out of the car, Pruitt said.

Standing behind Chavez, Storar began patting down Chavez. Robins was standing slightly behind Storar and Chavez, Pruitt said.

While Storar was searching him, Chavez reached into the front pocket of his pants and turned toward the deputy with a knife raised in his hand. Pruitt said the knife was a fixed blade kitchen knife similar to a steak knife.

Both deputies fired their guns at Chavez, who fell to the ground and dropped the knife.

Chief deputies Kevin Zimmermann, Shelly Castaneda, Francis Moore and David Nelson comprised the review board that examined the shooting.

After a review board makes its determination, the ruling is forwarded to the sheriff, who has the final say. The sheriff also decides what, if any, additional details about a deputy-involved shooting are released.

"Generally speaking we don't release the shooting review incident report," Pruitt said.