CHP officers cleared in case of San Jose man

Three California Highway Patrol officers will not face criminal charges in connection with the fatal shooting of a 25-year-old San Jose man in April, prosecutors said.

An investigation by the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office concluded that officers Stephanie Combs, Eric Lovejoy and Andrew Schillaci used appropriate force against Luis Fernando PachecoOrozco on Highway 101, just south of Highway 92 in San Mateo.

The trio fired five rounds at Pacheco-Orozco when he pointed a loaded .357-caliber revolver directly at them, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe wrote in a letter to CHP Capt. James Allen.

“The officers exercised their police powers in a lawful manner against a person who produced a firearm and raised it toward officers,” he said. “Confronted by a subject who was armed, public safety required responding officers to use deadly force to protect themselves and others in the immediate vicinity, including the many motorists on the crowded freeway.”

The April 28 confrontation was preceded by a collision and carjacking, according to the letter. Pacheco-Orozco was speeding southbound in a Toyota Tacoma just before 5:30 p.m. when he crashed into the rear of Mary Ybarra’s Ford F150. As they stood on the shoulder of the freeway, Pacheco-Orozco pulled out a gun and demanded Ybarra’s truck.

Ybarra, who had already called 911 to report the collision, told PachecoOrozco to take her truck, which he did. After driving a short distance, however, he pulled back onto the shoulder and reversed toward Ybarra. He then got out of the truck and told her to “come here.”

Ybarra walked away and called 911 a second time. She was still on the phone with a dispatcher when Combs arrived at the scene. Ybarra warned her Pacheco-Orozco was armed.

Combs took cover behind her driver-side door and was soon joined by Lovejoy and Schillaci. A five-minute standoff ensued with the officers issuing 60 commands — both in English and in Spanish — for Pacheco-Orozco to drop a gun he was holding in his right hand.

“These commands were so loud and persistent that residents of homes on the other side of the sound wall were able to hear the officers’ commands,” Wagstaff wrote in the letter.

The three officers ultimately opened fire — Combs with her .40-caliber service pistol and the others with their CHP-issued rifles — when Pacheco-Orozco pointed the gun at them.

A video recording of the confrontation corroborated the officers’ accounts of the confrontation, according to the letter.

An autopsy revealed Pacheco-Orozco was hit once in the right shoulder, once in the right thigh and twice — fatally — in the chest. His blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.20 percent and tests showed he had .13 milligrams of methamphetamine in his system.

Pacheco-Orozco had an extensive record of driving under the influence and was on probation for being an accessory to a felony, all of which might have explained why he “seemed flustered” to Ybarra and why he asked her at one point if she had called police.

“The legal consequences that he would have faced had he been apprehended would explain his conduct,” Wagstaffe said, “and the observations of Ms. Ybarra that he appeared to be ‘desperate.’” Contact Jason Green at 408-920-5006.