Officer mentions shooting on video

Then-officer Sanchez tells Corona police he saw a gun before he shot and killed an intellectually disabled man

A then-Los Angeles police officer told responding Corona officers he saw a gun before fatally shooting an intellectually disabled man and severely wounding his parents after the man hit him in the head inside a Corona Costco in 2019, newly released bodycam footage shows.

The first responding Corona police officer encountered Salvador Sanchez, off-duty at the time, already on the ground inside the Costco, according to video obtained by NBC Los Angeles.

Kenneth French, 32, was shot four times, including three times in the back after he hit Sanchez in the head, Corona police have said in regard to what they called an unprovoked attack about 7:45 p.m. on June 14, 2019.

Sanchez told a Corona officer he thought he got shot and that he still felt pain on the right side of his head, according to the body-camera video.

“I see a blast and I feel my head get knocked out,” Sanchez tells the officer, whose body camera recorded the conversation. “I fall to the ground and I dropped my son.

“The guy like, hunkers down,” Sanchez continued. “I believe he was still armed, so I shot.”

Sanchez said at the scene he didn’t know how

many times he fired and at least twice told officers he wanted his lawyer present if they were going to ask further questions.

He told Corona officers he saw a pistol, but no weapon was ever found. Corona police used drones to see whether a gun had been tossed on top of display cases, NBC reported.

Sanchez said he was in line trying samples and was holding his son when French struck him.

French didn’t talk and lived with his parents in the Lake Hills area near Corona. His parents have said they tried to intervene and explain their son’s condition.

Sanchez fired 10 shots from a 9-mm pistol, according to a report to the civilian oversight panel by LAPD Chief Michel Moore.

In that report, previously reported on by the Southern California News Group, Sanchez says he lost consciousness and fell to the ground after he was hit, but investigators then asked how he was able to take out his pistol if he was numb and paralyzed. Sanchez said he did not know.

Sanchez made no attempt to de-escalate the situation by communicating with French, the report says, adding that French was being pushed away and was not armed.

“(Sanchez) did not take time to correctly assess the incident and to analyze the threat,” the report says.

Sanchez was no longer employed by LAPD as of July 2020, a month after the Los Angeles Police Commission concluded he was “out of policy” when he shot French.

In the past, a lawyer for Sanchez said the off-duty officer “had to make decisions based on life-threatening situations (and) acted honorably and reasonably.”

Russell and Paola French filed a federal lawsuit against Los Angeles and Sanchez in December 2019. The case has not yet been set for trial.

In September 2019, a Riverside County grand jury opted to not bring criminal charges against Sanchez.