Santa Clara County: Sheriff officer faces no charges for killing 86-year-old Saratoga man

A South Bay sheriff ’s sergeant was legally justified in the shooting death of an armed 86year-old man at his Saratoga home, according to the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office.

The agency released a report Tuesday finding that Santa Clara County Sheriff ’s Sgt. Doug Ulrich acted within the law when he fired four shots at Eugene Craig during a welfare check on Sept. 12, 2016.

Craig’s granddaughter called police the night of the shooting because she hadn’t heard from her grandparents in a week, according to prosecutors. Neighbors told police that Craig had threatened to kill himself and his wife if they received “bad news,” which investigators believe was related to medical concerns.

Deputies reportedly knocked on the door shortly before 8 p.m. but got no answer. They waited outside the home for close to an hour before entering through the back garage door. Once inside the home, the report noted, they encountered Craig with a .38-caliber revolver in his hand.

The uniformed officers, who identified themselves with the sheriff ’s office, repeatedly told him to drop the gun by saying, “Hey, Eugene. Drop the gun. Drop the gun right away.” The report notes that body cameras also captured the officers identifying themselves by saying, “Sheriff ’s Office. Drop the gun.”

After several seconds, Craig pointed his weapon at a deputy, which prompted Sgt. Ulrich, a 15-year veteran of the force, to fire four times, prosecutors said.

“The law allows Deputy (Douglas) Ulrich to fire his weapon in defense of others (and himself ) until Craig no longer posed an imminent threat,” wrote Stacey Capps, a supervisor in the district attorney’s homicide unit. “In short, Deputy Ulrich genuinely believed that Craig presented an imminent threat of death or great bodily injury to others or himself when he discharged his duty weapon.”

One witness recalled an incident in which Craig and another neighbor argued because Craig fired a gun at birds in the direction of the neighbor’s house, according to the report. Craig allegedly threatened to kill the neighbor during the dispute.

Craig’s wife, who was home at the time sheriff ’s deputies arrived, said her husband heard people knocking but thought they were intruders. When sheriff’s deputies entered the home, she said, she heard them identify themselves as law enforcement.

Deputy Donald Weyhrauch, the first to arrive on the scene, told detectives in an interview that Craig appeared to purposely refuse commands, the report stated.

“At first, I thought maybe he’s just confused, confronting an intruder breaking into his home ... then, as he is staring at me and he is walking towards me with this gun, I realized that he knows who we are,” Weyhrauch said. “I didn’t know what his intentions are, but he was not complying for some reason.”