Santa Rosa Police Department forwards investigation of fatal shooting by sheriff’s deputy to DA

More than five months after a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a barefoot farm laborer during an exhausting 45-minute chase over rugged terrain, the investigation has been handed over to prosecutors for a decision on whether to charge the officers involved.

The Santa Rosa Police Department, which conducted the investigation, passed its report on the death of David Pelaez-Chavez to the District Attorney’s office on Jan. 4, according to spokesperson Sgt. Chris Mahurin. Neither SRPD or the DA’s office made a public announcement about the handoff.

Sonoma County prosecutors seek to complete their review of the investigation and determine whether to file charges within 90 days, Assistant District Attorney Brian Staebell told The Press Democrat. However, he said, “that is just a general guideline,” and the process could take longer depending on whether investigators need to request additional information.

The 90-day window would mean more than eight months will have passed before the public knows whether authorities believe Deputy Michael Dietrick violated any laws when he fatally shot Pelaez-Chavez three times.

SRPD detectives had completed most of their investigating by mid-September, Mahurin told The Press Democrat. But passing the file over to the DA’s office was delayed by the coroner’s investigation, which wasn’t completed until late last year.

The coroner’s office did not immediately reply to a Press Democrat request for comment.

Jose Pelaez, the dead man’s brother, declined to comment. Izaak Schwaiger, an attorney representing the family in a lawsuit against the county in federal court, said the family is anxiously awaiting a charging decision.

“Criminal accountability really matters,” Schwaiger said. “In the civil realm, the only real remedies people can get are money, and sometimes that rings really hollow. In the criminal realm, we have a better shot of justice.”

Dietrick killed Pelaez-Chavez, a 36-year-old undocumented immigrant, following a 45-minute footchase through rough terrain in the rural Knights Valley. Authorities said a barefoot Pelaez-Chavez fled into the woods after he tried to break into a home and tried to steal two vehicles.

Body-worn camera footage released by the sheriff’s office showed Pelaez-Chavez acting erratically and expressing his fear that the pursuing deputies would kill him.

In the video, Pelaez-Chavez appears to be exhausted and bending at the waist as Dietrick moves toward him with his gun drawn. Deputies said Pelaez-Chavez appeared to be picking up a large rock when Dietrick shot him.

Authorities have not made public a medical examiner’s report or autopsy information indicating the presence of any drugs, while Pelaez-Chavez’s family in the lawsuit said their relative was clearly in a moment of mental health crisis, whether substance-induced or not.

Dietrick remains with the sheriff’s department, officials there confirmed this week. That agency is waiting on prosecutor’s charging decision before beginning an internal administrative review to see if he or another deputy violated any policies during the pursuit and shooting, spokesperson Misti Wood said this week.

Sonoma County Sheriff Eddie Engram, who took office this month after winning election last year, is withholding any comments on the incident until the criminal investigation concludes, Wood said.

The shooting sparked public outcry in Sonoma County, most notably from police reform advocates who said it once again raised questions about weaknesses in local law enforcement oversight. Most notably, the shooting raised pointed questions about whether county leaders had weakened a ballot measure to increase civilian oversight of police that voters passed with broad voter support in November 2020.

“We’ve been paying really close attention to this,” Karym Sanchez, lead organizer at North Bay Organizing Project, said Friday. He and other organizers remained in close contact with the Pelaez family, who hoped his death could drive broader change, Sanchez said.

“We want justice for David and his family. They want to see something happen to this police officer,” Sanchez said, noting it was Dietrick’s second fatal shooting while serving as law enforcement. In 2016, he shot and killed a Lake County man following a struggle during an attempted arrest. Prosecutors found Dietrick, at the time a Clearlake Police Department officer, justified in the shooting.

Authorities have not released any records from the Pelaez-Chavez autopsy conducted by the Marin County Coroner’s Office. Both agencies said the autopsy would not be available until a charging decision was made, despite state statute designed to spur increased transparency during investigations of law enforcement use of force.

The investigation marks an early high profile decision for new Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez, who was sworn into office Jan. 9.

“We’re curious to hear from the new DA … and we’re anxious,” Sanchez said, describing himself as “skeptically hopeful” that Rodriguez would bring charges against Dietrick.

The decision on whether to bring criminal charges against Dietrick or Deputy Anthony Powers, who also participated in the pursuit and deployed a taser at the same time that Dietrick fired his pistol, fell to the DA after California Attorney General Rob Bonta declined to take the case.

Sheriff deputies alerted state investigators to the incident, suggesting in a crime-scene conversation captured on body camera that Pelaez-Chavez was “unarmed,” a designation that would make the investigation the AG’s responsibility under state law enacted in July 2021. But Bonta ruled Pelaez Chavez was holding a rock which could be considered a deadly weapon under their definition of the statute.

Family members and police reform advocates in Sonoma County have questioned whether Pelaez-Chavez in fact held a rock. In deputies’ body camera footage of the chase, Pelaez-Chavez drops a rock after deputies corner him. He bends over in apparent exhaustion and may be reaching for a second rock when Dietrick fired.

Rodriguez’s predecessor, Jill Ravitch, criticized Bonta for that decision, questioning whether a rock should be considered a deadly weapon.

“It would seem that any object in the physical possession of a decedent might qualify as a deadly weapon given the analysis in this matter,” Ravitch wrote, “regardless of whether being used to assault the officer.”

You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or andrew.graham@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @AndrewGraham88