Youngblood defends two recent deputy-involved shootings
Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood held a press conference Friday morning where he explained and defended two recent instances in which his deputies used deadly force during what he called “ambush” situations.
The first incident occurred on Sept. 3 off of Redrock Randsburg Road near Highway 14 when Fernando Napoles, 37, brandished a shotgun at a deputy, according to KCSO. The deputy shot and killed Napoles.
The second incident occurred early Tuesday morning, when Ricardo Usher, 31, ran at a deputy who was investigating a stolen vehicle in the 100 block of Moneta Avenue with what the deputy believed to be a weapon in his hand, Youngblood said.
Usher was shot and suffered non-life threatening injuries. He’s recovering in a hospital, according to Youngblood.
The object in Usher’s hand ended up being a cell phone.
“Right now, I can’t say that I would have done anything differently (if in both deputies’ situations),” Youngblood said.
KCSO played body camera and dash camera footage from both incidents at the press conference. In the tape involving Usher, he’s seen running directly at the deputy and then incoherently yelling at the
deputy for several minutes while on the ground after being shot.
Usher wasn’t involved with the suspects in the stolen car but was arrested and faces charges for interfering with a peace officer, Youngblood said. The sheriff said it’s unknown if drugs or alcohol played a role in Usher’s situation and that it would take more time for the toxicology report to be completed.
“At that moment, it doesn’t really matter if drugs played a role in this,” Youngblood said.
Youngblood also pointed out that if mental health factored into the incident, that wouldn’t make a difference to an officer when Usher approached him. Youngblood explained that KCSO personnel have specific protocols they follow when they’re approached by someone with known mental health issues.
The sheriff suggested that nobody should run at an officer unannounced, especially at 1:30 a.m.
“I certainly believe that you can use your voice to contact someone,” Youngblood said. “The officers are not going to shoot someone that walks up to them to ask them a question. We’re very reasonable.”
Youngblood pointed out that there has been a high rate of KCSO officer-involved shootings in 2020 compared to previous years. So far, there have been 10 total officer-involved shootings in the department, with eight of them being on-duty incidents and two involving off-duty deputies, according to Lt. Joel Swanson.
“Both are considered officer-involved shootings, but (the two offduty shootings) are not reported to the (Department of Justice) because they weren’t in uniform when they happened,” Swanson.
Youngblood pointed out that both he and his deputies have felt much more apprehensive when on patrol due to recent incidents of officers being ambushed. He specifically referenced the ambush-style shooting of two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies in Compton on Sept. 12.
“We do know that a lot of things are occurring in our world and the assault of our police officers has made us probably more aware of our surroundings,” Youngblood said.
Both officers in the recent KCSO incidents were placed on routine administrative leave, according to Youngblood.
The officer involved in the incident on Redrock Randsburg Road was Deputy Christopher Saldana, a 22-year veteran of KCSO. Youngblood said that Saldana will likely return to work in the coming days.
The officer involved in the incident on Moneta Avenue was Deputy Ubaldo Weiss, a seven-year veteran of the department.
Additionally, KCSO announced on Friday that their Critical Incident Review Board convened on Thursday and determined that Deputy Mario Garza’s Aug. 20 use of deadly force was within department policy. Garza shot and killed Cesar Ruiz, 36, after Ruiz pulled a gun on customers in the parking lot of Tony’s Firehouse Grill and Pizza, located at 10701 Highway 178.