Details pending in last year’s officerinvolved shooting
Lodi Police Dept. is finalizing report for District Attorney
It’s been more than eight months since a Lodi Police Department officer was involved in a shooting with an armed man on the city’s east side, and still no report has been released.
On Thursday, Lodi Police Chief Sierra Brucia said the department was finalizing the report, and should be forwarding it to the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office “very soon” for review.
How long the District Attorney’s review of the report will take remains to be seen.
Angela Hayes, spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office, said in situations where charges have been filed in an officer-involved shooting, an investigation is not reduced to a formalized memorandum.
“The length of time an investigation takes to review would of course depend on a myriad of factors such as number of witnesses, their willingness to be interviewed, body camera or other video available of the incident, to name a few,” she said. “Sometimes a case is obvious and does not require a lengthy review — (for example), a suspect has a deadly weapon and has the apparent ability and willingness to use it upon the officer or others. Because this case involves a concurrent prosecution of the suspect, the length of time is dependent upon the defendant and whether he waives time or not in his or her criminal court case.”
The suspect in last year’s incident, 38-year-old Marco Kimo Aquino of Scotts Valley, is currently being held without bail at the San Joaquin County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder of a police officer, illegal possession of a firearm, using a firearm in the commission of a felony, and unlawful discharge of a firearm.
According to the San Joaquin County Superior Court case database, a hearing to discuss Aquino’s mental competency is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Aug. 4.
The District Attorney’s Office is aware of the public’s need to know, Hayes said, and works as quickly as possible to provide information.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hindered investigations since it is harder to conduct face-to-face interviews, she added. As a result, setting up Zoom or phone conferences to do investigative work has delayed the process.
The Lodi News-Sentinel submitted a Public Records Act request for the report on Nov. 22, 2019. Three days later, City Attorney Janice Magdich responded, stating that “disclosable records will be made available as soon as possible, following the completion of the investigation, with the most readily available records provided first.”
Magdich’s response went on to say that the review and redaction process is time consuming in addressing similar requests.
In addition, the audio and video files associated with incidents tend to be quite large and take a significant amount of time to download, review and redact.
The response also said it was anticipated that records would be provided within four months of the investigation’s completion.
Magdich was unavailable for comment Thursday.
The Public Records Act requires an agency to respond to a Public Records Act request within 10 days, acknowledging receipt of the request and providing a timeline for a full response. An agency can ask for a 14-day extension to respond.
A response does not need to include the actual records, but must indicate whether an agency has records to produce, whether there are exemptions, and should provide an estimated time of production, according to California Government Code 6254.
Senate Bill 1421 provides additional timelines for disclosure of records in various circumstances, such as whether the investigation is criminal or administrative. The additional time could be as much as 18 months.
If criminal charges are filed, material can be withheld until the criminal case has ended, according to California Government Codes 832.7 and 6253.
On Nov. 5, 2019, Lodi police officers responded to the report of multiple gunshots being fired in the 900 block of Industrial Way just before 5 a.m.
The arriving officer attempted to contact a man on scene, later identified as Aquino, and gunfire was immediately exchanged, police said at the time.
The officer was not harmed in the exchange, but his patrol car was struck multiple times. Aquino was also struck multiple times and was taken to an area hospital for treatment.
According to prosecutors during Aquino’s arraignment last November, when the gunfire began, he was firing above, below and around the officer in “an area of concealment.”
During the initial investigation, it was determined that Aquino had been in possession of an assault rifle.
Officer-involved shootings trigger a county-wide protocol investigation that involves the law enforcement agency involved — in this case, Lodi Police Department — as well as the District Attorney’s Office and the California Department of Justice.