Body-cam footage released from Santa Rosa officer who fired at man wielding umbrella

Body-cam video released Friday by Santa Rosa police shows an officer chasing down a suspect moments after he fired three shots at the man in December, believing the umbrella he was carrying was a gun.

The footage, included in a video narrated by Santa Rosa Police Chief Ray Navarro, captured only the aftermath of the ?Dec. 7 shooting on Guerneville Road and Sunny View Way shortly after 12:30 p.m. The video included portions of 911 calls from two separate people who reported a man walking west on the street and pointing what resembled a gun at passing cars.

Officer Stephen Darden, the first officer to find the suspect, fired three rounds from his department-issued AR-15 rifle after he also mistook the object the man carried as a rifle, Darden told investigators two days after the shooting. All three rounds missed.

The suspect, Santa Rosa resident Joshua Oceguera, 24, pointed the object in his hand at Darden moments before the officer fired, Darden said.

“After he pointed (the object) at me, he opened it up,” Darden relayed to dispatchers after the shooting, according to a separate, newly released police recording not captured on the body-cam footage. “It’s an umbrella. Shots fired on my end. No injuries.”

While the department’s policy requires officers to turn on their body-cams when they respond to calls for help, or if they initiate a stop on their own, Darden did not activate his body-worn camera until after the shooting, during a foot pursuit of Oceguera.

It was unclear if any other witnesses saw the moments leading up to the gunfire, and the Santa Rosa Police Department was not available for an interview about the video briefing it released Friday afternoon.

Navarro, describing the shooting in his video briefing, said Darden feared for his life. Darden ordered Oceguera to show his hands over his patrol car’s PA system, but Oceguera did not comply.

“Oceguera turned and faced the officer with a bladed (combat) stance and pointed the object at the officer,” Navarro said. “Fearing for his life, the officer lifted his service rifle and fired three shots.”

Friday’s video briefing comes just over a year after the debut of a new state law requiring law enforcement agencies to disclose all records in cases when officers fire their weapons at other people, among other circumstances. The law was preceded by repeated calls from activists for greater public oversight of critical police incidents, such as police shootings, to bolster accountability and transparency among law enforcement agencies.

Police records, transcripts of 911 calls to dispatchers before and after the shooting and transcripts of interviews with both Darden and Oceguera were also released by the department Friday in compliance with the new law.

Oceguera was arrested after the shooting but later released from jail. He faces several misdemeanor charges as a result of the Dec. 7 incident, among them brandishing an imitation firearm and exhibiting a deadly weapon, court records show.

Izaak Schwaiger, Oceguera’s lawyer, said prosecutors disclosed documents showing that Darden was arrested in Texas for lying about being a police officer while he was applying for a job at the Santa Rosa Police Department. Schwaiger previously said Oceguera had no prior criminal history and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

“The officer failed to follow policy and a critical incident was not captured in a video,” Schwaiger said. “But we’re going to give him the benefit of the doubt anyways?”

Darden told investigators two days after the shooting that he first spotted Oceguera, who was walking west on Guerneville Road, holding what looked like a rifle. Oceguera was pointing the item in his hands at passing cars and moving it repeatedly as though it was a gun recoiling, a similar account given to dispatchers by witnesses who dialed 911.

“There was a guy walking down the street with a gun in his hand and earmuffs on,” one caller told dispatchers in an audio included in the video briefing. “I don’t know if he was hunting or what, but he just aimed his gun, like as I was driving by.”

Worried about oncoming traffic, Darden said he used his patrol car to block westbound traffic on Guerneville Road. With his department-issued rifle in hand, he used the vehicle’s PA system to communicate with Oceguera, who was about 100 yards away.

Darden then told Oceguera to show him his hands, but Oceguera turned toward Darden and raised the object in his hands, cupping it under his shoulder.

“For him to point it at me, I felt like ... it was like he was gonna shoot at me and he’s probably gonna kill me if he’s carrying this kind of rifle around,” Darden said. “He’s been probably waiting for me to get out here. He has the jump on me.”

Darden sought cover behind his car door, but soon realized the object in Oceguera’s hand was an umbrella, he said. Darden’s camera begins recording as he’s driving after Oceguera moments later. After a brief pursuit, Darden parks his patrol vehicle and runs after Oceguera, tackling him to the ground on the side of the road, the video shows. Darden orders Oceguera to roll over onto his stomach, handcuffs him and searches him, confiscating two knives and a cellphone, video showed.

When asked by officers why he was pointing his umbrella at passing motorists, Oceguera told police he was entertaining himself as he walked to a new job. He also told officers that everyone knows the difference between an umbrella and a gun.

“Someone misunderstood me? That’s on them,” Oceguera said. “It ain’t my job to make everything clear to everybody.”

A person who described himself as a retired sergeant at the Sonoma County Jail told dispatchers he saw a similar incident on Dec. 6, the day before the shooting, near Guerneville Road, transcripts from the call released Friday show. It was unclear when the man made the call.

“We were all over (Guerneville) Road, but we never found him,” he told the dispatcher, adding “Same thing in almost the same area.”

When asked if Darden had responded to a call about Oceguera in the days leading up to the shooting, Darden told interviewers he had not.

Darden, who was hired as a Santa Rosa officer about a year ago, has returned to patrol, Navarro announced in the video. The department’s professional standards and training teams are still reviewing the shooting, and will look into why Darden did not activate his camera prior to the gunfire, the department said.

You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com.