DA: No charges against officers who shot at burglary suspect

Four South San Francisco police officers who shot at a driver as he made a chaotic escape from a burglary scene in April won’t face criminal charges, San Mateo County District Attorney Steven Wagstaffe said Wednesday, because they reasonably feared for the life of a fellow officer pinned between the man’s pickup truck and a patrol car.

No one was killed or seriously injured in the officer-involved shooting at a construction site, where authorities said three men had been stealing tools early on the morning of April 21. One suspect suffered a cut that may have come from being grazed by gunfire, but Wagstaffe said in a report on the incident released Wednesday that doctors could not definitively say what caused the cut.

The four officers — John Paulo, Steven Miller, David Vazquez and Robert Roman — fired a total of 32 times at the pickup truck as its 23-year-old driver, Rhyon Griffin, repeatedly rammed patrol cars that had been positioned to block his escape, Wagstaffe said.

Wagstaffe wrote in a letter to South San Francisco police Chief Jeff Azzopardi that the officers “were forced to react to a rapidly evolving and volatile situation as Griffin refused to comply with their lawful commands, and instead attempted to escape, using the full-size pickup truck in an aggressive and dangerous manner.”

South San Francisco police said Azzopardi was not available to respond to Wagstaffe’s findings Wednesday afternoon.

Officers fired during two different moments in the encounter, Wagstaffe said. The first was as Paulo stood between the truck and a squad car as Griffin drove toward the car; Paulo had been standing on top of the car, but was forced to the ground moments earlier when Griffin rammed it, Wagstaffe said. Seconds later, after Griffin rammed the car again, Paulo was pinned between the truck’s door and the squad car, as Griffin continued to push the car out of his way, authorities said.

Paulo and the officers told investigators they believed he was in danger of being hit by Griffin’s truck, and later of being crushed between the vehicles.

Two of the burglary suspects — Kevin Lewis, 25, and Paul Mack, 28, both of Oakland — fled the truck during Griffin’s escape and were arrested at the scene, according to police. Wagstaffe said Griffin led authorities on a 2-mile chase before he was arrested.

Prosecutors have charged Griffin with assaulting an officer, burglary of a motor vehicle, grand theft, fleeing a pursuing officer, resisting arrest and vandalism. He has pleaded not guilty to the felony charges.

Lewis and Mack have been charged with felony counts of burglary, grand theft and vandalism; both men have pleaded not guilty.