No Charges For Officer Who Shot Disabled Man In Corona Costco

LOS ANGELES, CA — An off-duty Los Angeles Police Department officer who killed a developmentally disabled man and shot the man's parents during a confrontation at a Corona Costco store will not face criminal charges.

Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin announced the decision not to charge Officer Salvador Sanchez Wednesday after presenting the case to a grand jury, which declined to indict. Sanchez claimed it was self-defense when he shot and killed 32-year-old Kenneth French, who attacked him during a dispute at a food sample station.

Sanchez, a Southwest Division patrol officer, was placed on on administrative leave following the shooting. Sanchez has been with the department since May 2012.

Immediately after the June 14th shooting, conflicting stories emerged over the circumstances that led to the fatal shooting. French's relatives called for the lawman's arrest, and the officer's attorney insisted his client acted in self-defense.

The shooting occurred at 7:46 p.m. inside the store at 480 N. McKinley St. Witnesses said they heard an argument in the freezer section of the store, followed by gunfire.

French was killed and his parents, Russell and Paola French, were wounded. Kenneth French was described by his family as non-verbal and intellectually disabled.

Corona police said after the shooting the off-duty officer was shopping at Costco with his family, holding his child in his arms, when, "without provocation, a male unknown to the officer's family assaulted the officer."

According to the officer's attorney, David Winslow, the officer briefly lost consciousness, and when he awoke, he was on the ground and his 18- month-old son was next to him screaming. Winslow said the officer "had no choice but to use deadly force."

The French family's attorney, Dale K. Galipo, told reporters in various interviews that French — having recently been taken off his medications due to health reasons — pushed or shoved the officer in the back in a food-sample line, but he denied that there was any deadly threat to the officer. He also said French's father tried to explain to the officer that his son was intellectually disabled.

The resulting shooting "was a complete overreaction on behalf of this police officer," Galipo told NBC4.

Galipo said in a statement that the family believes the shooting "was excessive and completely unjustified because Mr. French was unarmed and posed no immediate threat of death or serious bodily injury to anyone."

In June, the attorney said it was also disturbing that "if anyone other than an off-duty police officer had shot three unarmed civilians in a Costco, that person would be in jail and facing criminal charges for murder."

"There seems to be unequal treatment of police officers compared to other citizens when deadly force is used, causing death or serious bodily injury, which is a great concern to many members of the community," Galipo said.

Winslow, however, disputed the description of French's actions as a push or shove.
"This was not an accidental bump," Winslow told NBC4. "This was a violent attack that knocked him (the officer) to the floor."

Winslow declined to go into detail about the threat perceived by the officer when he came to, other than to say the "assailant and the actions of the assailant led him to believe he was still in deadly harm."

The officer's son was not injured and Sanchez suffered minor injuries. A GoFundMe page has been established to help with the French family's expenses.

City News Service contributed to this report.

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