A just released report by the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s office says the fatal officer-involved shooting of a man was justified.
It happened last October, in Santa Maria. A Santa Maria Police officer spotted Salvador Meceda standing in a dumpster. The officer ordered the 36-year-old man to get out. Meceda complied, but then then pulled out a knife.
Officers used non-lethal sponge bullets to try to disable, and arrest him. But they didn’t work, and Mecdea ran to the balcony of a nearby apartment.
The woman who lived there saw what was happening, and barricaded herself and her nine-year-old daughter inside their bathroom. Police tried for three hours to get Meceda to surrender. They finally decided to use non-lethal pepper balls. Meceda smashed the apartment’s front window, apparently to get inside. Officers fired one shot, killing the man.
Prosecutors say the shooting was justified, because officers feared for the safety of the mother and daughter trapped in their apartment.
