DA Clears Law Enforcement In Five Shootings, Including El Cajon Officer Who Killed Olango

The police shooting that brought protesters to the streets of El Cajon last year will not be prosecuted by the San Diego District Attorney's Office. District Attorney held a news conference yesterday to outline why she found the shooting of Alfred Olango justified as well as four other officer involved fatal shootings in San Diego. I am joined by reporter Megan Burks who covered the story. Welcome. Remind us about the circumstances of the Alfred Olango shooting. El Cajon police were called by his sister because of some strange behavior he exhibited. That is right Olango's sister called police and that her brother was having a mental breakdown. He was sort of walking in and out of traffic and she wanted an officer to come taken to a mental health facility. Over 911 she had said that he was unarmed and he was having a mental breakdown. When police arrived on the scene? It took about 50 minutes to an hour for police to arrive on the scene and within about a minute officer Richard Gonsalves is walking up to Olango and Olango has his hand in his pocket and Gonzalez says over and over again take your hand out of your pocket Olango does not and so can's office fires his gun and write about the same time another officer shoots Olango with a Taser. There were a number of videos released of this incident or any of them played yesterday? There were videos played if they were available in terms of the Olango case we saw the same video that we saw back in September. Surveillance footage and a cell phone video the differences that the cell phone video was zoomed in and slowed down so we had a clear picture of what happened the moments before Gonzales fired his gun. In September we had seen a still shot from a similar angle zoomed in and the argument then was that could have grabbed any frame that communicated the message they wanted to come indicate -- communicate. Yesterday we saw full sequence zoomed in and slow down. Can you describe what we saw? They narrated the video as it was plane and when you look at it from in this way this version of the video it appears that the shooting stance is deliberate and she also points out that officer Gonzalves docs. To her that says that he feared for his life and he thought that a longer was holding the gun. She detailed what witnesses had told her there were two witnesses that she spoke to during the investigation and both said that they thought the large vapor pen that had pulled out of his pocket was a gun. Both of them said that they felt the officer was in the right. Obviously everybody agrees that Alfred Olango was unarmed and what he held in his hand was a vaping at -- device that did not pose a threat to the officers. What is the criteria that makes shooting justified in the eyes of the DA office? What they said yesterday as her role in this case was very specific. She had to decide whether or not they had the legal right to shoot. In that case she has just looking at very specific criteria. Did he reasonably believes his life was in danger and others lives were in danger. She said that for people who want a discussion about how policing ought to be this is an answer that is going to please them. The circumstances surrounding Alfred Olango's death are tragic. I don't take any sides but the side of justice. Taken that position often never pleases everyone. Of the two officers on the scene you told us one of them had a Taser. Was there any explanation why it was not the Taser that was used in the situation. They mentioned that it is common practice if two officers respond to a scene if one is using nonlethal force the backup officer will be at the ready with lethal force in case that does not work. She said that is neither here nor there. Her job here was to determine whether or not Gonzalves feared for his life. What has been the reaction of the family to the decision. They are unhappy. We heard from their attorney yesterday and he said that questions remain why was the officers gun drawn so quickly, why was somebody who was better equipped to deal with the mentally else -- will not called to the scene. There following through with a civil suit claim with for wrongful death but the El Cajon Police Department. What about the other four please shootings that the took about yesterday were any of them as controversial? And all of those cases the suspect or person being pursued by police was clearly armed and using that weapon. Has the district attorney ever found a police shooting to be not justified? Only once in her tenure. The have been more than 150 police shootings during her tenure. The only case that she found was not justified was the case back in 2009 where an off-duty San Diego police officer was accused of shooting a woman and her son in a road rage incident in Oceanside. She found that the officer in that case was criminally liable. Of course that was not court of is sort of what we think of as officer involved shootings what is happening on the job in response to a call. Ultimately that officer was acquitted. I have been speaking with reporter Megan Burks. You so much. -- Thank you so much.