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A California sheriff's deputy was charged with felony manslaughter for the fatal shooting in the city of Ripon back in 2017.
The San Joaquin County District Attorney filed the charged against Justin Wall on Monday. Wall was a deputy with the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department at the time of the incident on Feb. 26, 2017.
During that incident, officers were called to a Hampton Inn near Modesto for an alleged battery with a female suspect. When officers arrived they found the suspect, Evin Olsen Yadegar, driving away from the scene. Officers tried to pull Yadegar over, but she refused to stop and led deputies on a slow-speed chase that wound its way to a neighborhood in Ripon.
Dashcam video of the incident showed how the chase and subsequent shooting unfolded. Wall was the only officer to fire his weapon during the incident.
After an investigation by both the Ripon Police Department and the San Joaquin County DA’s office, District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar decided to file a charge for felony voluntary manslaughter.
“When individuals we entrust to uphold the law engage in acts that result in the death of others it is our duty to investigate those cases thoroughly, fairly and with due regard for the rule of law our office, and our partners in law enforcement, are sworn to uphold," Salazar said in a press release.
In the press release regarding the filing of the charge, the DA cited the legal definition of voluntary manslaughter as the specific intent to kill a person under an honest, but unreasonable belief in self-defense.
Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson released the following statement about this incident:
"Today we were notified of the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s decision to charge Deputy Justin Wall with voluntary manslaughter related to an officer involved shooting.
This is a tragic event for the Yadegar family, Deputy Wall, the Sheriff’s Office and our community.
At this point, it is inappropriate for us to comment further. We are confident that our system of justice will determine the appropriate outcome."
Christianson told ABC10 that Wall will be placed on administrative leave effectively immediately.