Staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report. The attorney has said French was “nonverbal” and suffered from schizophrenia. Galipo, who is representing the French family, acknowledged that Kenneth French pushed the officer, but said the exchange wasn’t a justification for the shooting.īefore the officer fired his gun, there was a gap in time when he declared he was a police officer and French’s father stepped between the two men.įrench was normally calm, but he had had a recent change in medication that might have affected his behavior, Galipo said. His son was in his arms, and he was feeding his son some samples when, within seconds, he was on the ground and woke up from being unconscious and he was fighting for his life,” Winslow said.Ĭorona police said the assault, which was captured on Costco security cameras, was unprovoked and led the officer to fire his 9-millimeter pistol.Ĭivil rights attorney Dale K. “He was shopping with his wife and 1½-year-old at Costco. The officer’s attorney, David Winslow, said his client was getting a sample when he was attacked and briefly knocked out by French. Members of the French family have said they believe the video would shed light on the situation. In the weeks following the deadly encounter, sharply different accounts of the altercation emerged.Įven months later, much of what happened inside the Costco remains unknown. The families came together in a food-sample line when Kenneth French got into an altercation with the officer. Russell and Paola French were also inside the store wandering the aisles with their adult son, Kenneth, who family members say suffered from an intellectual disability and needed their care. Police have said Sanchez was off-duty inside the Costco with his young son the night of the shooting. The latter probe could take up to a year to complete, said LAPD spokesman Josh Rubenstein. A shooting at a Costco Wholesale store in Corona, California has left one person dead and two others wounded on Friday. Prosecutors have not made a decision about whether the officer, identified as Salvador Sanchez, who works as a patrol officer in the LAPD’s Southwest Division, will face criminal charges related to the June 14 incident.Ĭorona police are still investigating and the LAPD is in the early stages of its own investigation into the officer’s use of force. after receiving calls of an active shooter inside and arrived at the scene in just under a minute. Keen added that the video may be released at the conclusion of the criminal investigation if no charges are filed or at the conclusion of a criminal case if prosecutors decide to pursue one. According to the Corona Police Department, officers were sent to the scene at 7:46 p.m. No matter who you are, nobody is above the law,” Bonta said in a statement.“Additionally, the court finds that due to the graphic nature of the video and the significant public attention on the shooting, the release of the video prior to the conclusion of the criminal investigation reasonably could result in harm to the suspect, who is out of custody, and could interfere with the integrity of the jury trial process in any potential subsequent prosecution,” Keen wrote in his decision. “Ultimately, any loss of life is a tragedy and being licensed to carry a gun doesn’t mean you’re not accountable for how you use it. The action comes nearly two years after a Riverside County grand jury declined to bring charges against the former Los Angeles Police Department officer, who - according to court documents - was off duty when he fatally shot 32-year-old Kenneth French following a confrontation at the warehouse store on the night of June 14, 2019.įrench was with his parents at the time, and they were also shot and seriously injured. Sanchez was taken into custody in Riverside County Monday morning. Salvador Sanchez has been arrested on charges of voluntary manslaughter and assault with a semiautomatic firearm, according to a news release from the state attorney general’s office. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.Ĭalifornia Attorney General Rob Bonta on Monday announced that his office has filed charges against a former LAPD officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man at a Costco in Corona two years ago. An off-duty LEO was among three people injured during a shooting inside a California Costco that killed one person. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.
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