Marine veteran had death wish, but were Sanger police justified in shooting him?

Update: The trial, originally scheduled to start Tuesday, has been delayed. A new trial schedule is expected to be set at a Tuesday afternoon hearing.

A federal civil rights trial will explore whether Sanger police officers were justified in shooting 46-year-old Charles “Charlie” Salinas, a Marine veteran with a history of alcoholism, mental illness, a criminal record and a death wish.

The trial in U.S. District Court in Fresno will give a rare glimpse into an officer-involved shooting. That’s because a cellphone video taken by a bystander shows four officers shooting Salinas as he stood unarmed in a flower bed outside a Sanger business on Academy Avenue in June 2012.

The officers didn’t know they had been videotaped when they gave their account of the shooting to investigators, court records say.

Salinas’ family contends the officers’ accounts conflict with the video.

In court papers, the officers say they feared for their lives when they shot Salinas because he had called 911 and told police dispatch that he was armed with a 9mm handgun and two knives.

“When they get here, tell them to shoot me,” Salinas tells the dispatcher.

In depositions, the officers say they shot Salinas after he went for something in his waistband and then lunged or charged at them.

Court records say the video shows officer Robert Pulkownik firing twice at Salinas with his bean-bag shotgun. Three officers — Jason Boust, Angela Yambupah and Preston Little — then immediately open fire with AR-15 assault rifles. Fresno County sheriff’s Sgt. Joshua McCahill, who also responded to the call, pointed a gun at Salinas but never fired it. (McCahill is not being sued.)

In all, the three officers with rifles fired 22 times without any warning, court records say. Salinas was hit 11 times, including after he fell to the ground, the records say.

Salinas died at the scene.

Salinas’ family is suing the city of Sanger and the four officers for violation of Salinas’ civil rights, saying the officers’ use of deadly force against an unarmed and mentally distraught man was unjustified, excessive and a callous disregard for human life.

A potential witness, and unlikely ally for the family, is former Sanger police Chief Thomas Klose, who says the killing of Salinas was unnecessary.

“They mishandled the incident right from the beginning,” said Klose, who served as Sanger’s police chief for 10 years before retiring in January 2012, six months before Salinas was killed.

Klose said the officers violated department procedures and training because they first should have established communication with Salinas and assured him that they were there to help. “I didn’t see that in the video,” he said.

But if that didn’t work, Klose said, the officers should have waited to see whether the less-lethal beanbag shotgun blasts had an effect on the man. “Our training is very specific,’ Klose said. “They should have waited, but that wasn’t done.”

According to Klose, officers are allowed to use deadly force when their lives are threatened. “You are allowed to fire until there is no longer a threat,” he said.

In this case, the officers kept shooting at Salinas after he fell to the ground, he said. “They shot him in the back while he was on the ground and that’s against all training in law enforcement,” said Klose, a 44-year veteran. “You can’t justify shooting him when he’s on the ground.”

Klose also didn’t like the fact that police used assault rifles to shoot Salinas, who was about 10 feet away from the officers. “It’s overkill at that distance,” he said.

He also said the shooting could have been prevented. “We train our people to watch the hands,” he said. “This way we know if he was armed or not.”

In his final summation, Klose said the city should have settled with Salinas’ family.

But the city has not offered the family a dime, said San Diego attorney Robert Hamparyan, who represents the Salinas family.

“They have never acknowledged any wrongdoing,” Hamparyan said.

City’s response

Klose’s comments caused the attorney for the city and its officers to cry foul.

“He doesn’t know the facts. He’s completely inaccurate,” San Francisco attorney Dale Allen Jr. said of Klose.

Without elaborating, Allen said Klose was encouraged by the Sanger City Council to retire, so now “he has an ill will toward them.”

He said the officers followed correct procedure in confronting Salinas. He said the officers had rifles because they first had to look for Salinas in the neighborhood. “They had to establish a perimeter,” he said. “They also didn’t know what type of man they were confronting and what weapons he had since he had called 911 and reported having a gun and two knives.”

When police found him in the flower bed, Allen said, Salinas “was provoking the officers, acting like he had a gun, and telling them to ‘Shoot me, shoot me.’”

Salinas was shot after “he made a motion coming out of the bushes while moving his hands toward a holster on his belt,” Allen said.

Allen said the video and witnesses clearly show that the officers tried to talk Salinas into surrendering. He also said the incident was a high-stress situation and the officers had to make a split-second decision. “It will be up to a jury to decide if the shooting was justified,” he said.

Hamparyan bristled when Allen referred to a holster on Salinas’ belt. He said it was a cellphone holder. Whether police found a cellphone is unclear; Hamparyan said investigators never turned it over to him for inspection.

“There was no lunging or jumping at the officers,” Hamparyan said. “The jurors will see for themselves that Charles Salinas did not pose a threat.”

“He was begging for their help,” Hamparyan said.

At the time of his death, Salinas had only alcohol in his body — a .30 blood-alcohol level. The normal limit to drive is less than .08 blood-alcohol.

Victim a Sanger native

Salinas grew up in Sanger and joined the U.S. Marine Corp in 1988. He received an honorable discharge in 1991, Hamparyan said.

Klose said Salinas was well-known to law enforcement. Court records show he had three misdemeanor drunken-driving convictions and one high-profile incident in September 1995, when Sanger police said he took two employees of a pizza parlor hostage during a drunken rampage — he fired at least four rounds into pinball machines after the hostages were released.

Salinas, who was armed with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun and a .223 semi-automatic rifle with four loaded magazines, kept police officers and sheriff’s deputies at bay for about 30 to 40 minutes. “He wanted one of the detectives to come in, but we managed to get him to come out with his hands up without incident,” police Lt. Martin Stumpf said then.

Stumpf told reporters that Salinas had a history of mental illness and that he had been drinking during the standoff.

Salinas spent time behind bars for the incident.

Hamparyan said jurors won’t be told of the1995 incident because it plays no direct role in the slaying of Salinas. But, he said, it does highlight that police knew Salinas had mental illness and should have helped him instead of killing him.

Hamparyan said Salinas was diagnosed with post traumatic stress syndrome and depression. He was receiving treatment at the Veterans Administration hospital in Fresno.

Court records say Boust was hired by Sanger police in 2000. Pulkownik, Yambupah and Little were hired in 2010.

911 call

On the final day of his life, Salinas called 911 around 3 p.m. June 15, 2012. The first words out of his mouth: “I’m going to kill myself.”

He then told the police dispatcher he was “armed and dangerous” and was wearing “combat gear.”

He also told the dispatcher he had been drinking.

“Too much,” he says, telling the dispatcher that he had been walking and drinking for three days with one goal in mind — go back to his childhood home to die. “This is a nice place to die,” he tells the dispatcher.

When the dispatcher asks why, Salinas says, “Everyone is dead,” apparently referring to his parents.

Salinas tells the dispatcher point blank: “When they get here, tell them to shoot me.”

And he repeatedly says: “I will not hurt anybody. Make sure that’s in the record.”

He then tells the dispatcher he will wait for the officers outside his childhood home on L Street near 11th Avenue. The dispatcher tells Salinas to put his weapons down before police arrive. But when police arrive, he is gone.

The 911 recording also has radio contact between dispatch and patrol officers and their frantic search for Salinas. The officers frequently ask dispatch whether Salinas is armed and what he is wearing. (Salinas told dispatch he was wearing a black Dodgers shirt, blue jeans and white tennis shoes. He also said he had a tattoo on his right forearm showing he is a Marine.) The dispatcher tells the officers that Salinas is suicidal and has been drinking. “He says he won’t hurt you, but you will have to do a suicide-by-cop,” the dispatcher tells officers.

Twenty minutes into the 911 call, the officers locate Salinas in a raised flower bed along Academy Avenue between 11th and 12th streets, next to an auto parts store. In the 911 recording, an officer tells dispatch that Salinas is uncooperative and “refusing to come out of the bushes.” Dispatch says a police dog will be there within two minutes.

During the encounter with police, Salinas tells officers: “I’m worthless.”

Within two minutes, an officer yells, “Shots fired” and requests an ambulance “Code 3” (lights and siren).

After the shooting, Boust, Pulkownik, Yambupah and Little gathered as a group and met with their union lawyer, Michael McGill, and police Chief Silver Rodriguez, court records say. They later split up and gave statements to investigators from the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, the records show.

Hamparyan and Klose said the group meeting violated department policy of ensuring a fair investigation. The officers should have been kept separated until after they talked to investigators, Hamparyan and Klose said.

But Allen, in defense of the city, said the officers had a right to meet with their lawyer so they could understand their rights before giving a statement.

Unlike other fatal police shootings across America, Salinas’ death didn’t draw protests.

His family built a memorial for him in the flower bed. There is a photo of him as a Marine, decorated with flowers and mementos, including a portion of a medal that says “rifle sharpshooter.” The flower garden has solar lights that illuminate the photo in the dark.

“It’s a tragedy he had to die that way,” said Sanger resident Mary Cantu, who for the past eight years has taken care of the garden where Salinas died. She said the Salinas family comes by the garden often, especially on his birthday, the day of his death and on Christmas.

Cantu said it bothers her to hear that police said Salinas refused to come out of the bushes. “There’s no bushes. Those are flowers and a lemon tree. I also planted potatoes.”

Cantu, 58, said she wasn’t home when Salinas was shot. When she got home from work around 10 p.m. his body was still on the ground.

“Why couldn’t they taze him?” she said, referring to a Taser, which sends an electrical shock through a target.

Sanger community activist Osvaldo Vera shared similar thoughts. Vera said when he is in the area, he will stop and pray for Salinas. “It’s such a shame. He served our country only to be killed by police in his hometown.”

Allen said the officers had no choice but to fire their weapons. In his statement to investigators, Boust said Salinas “broke into a sprint” and “came at us full speed.” Pulkownik and Yambupah said Salinas sprinted toward them. Sheriff’s Sgt. McCahill, however, said he did not fire his weapon “because he wanted to see if the beanbag round would take down Charles Salinas,” the records say.

In the trial, there will be experts on law enforcement practices regarding officer-involved shootings. Experts also will explain the extreme stress officers suffer in these types of situations.

Salinas’ mental illness and his desire to die also will be probed, Hamparyan said.

“Police are suppose to de-escalate situations involving distraught individuals,” Hamparyan said.

In the trial, Hamparyan said, the fundamental question is this: “Just because people ask police to kill them, do you grant the wish? If that’s the case, we are living in a strange time.”

This story was originally published June 7, 2015 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Marine veteran had death wish, but were Sanger police justified in shooting him?."