Crime & Safety
2 Officers Involved In Fatal Taser Shooting At Rohnert Park Motel Identified
Breaking: The officers are on leave while the Sonoma County sheriff's and district attorney's offices investigate the death of Branch Wroth.
SONOMA COUNTY, CA -- The Rohnert Park City Clerk's Office has identified the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety officers who were involved in a fatal Taser stun gun shooting earlier this month as David Sittig-Wattson and Sean Huot.
Sittig-Wattson has been a public safety officer for three and a half years and Huot has been in the department for nine months, City Clerk Joanne Buergler said. Their ages were not released.
The officers were placed on paid administrative leave while the Sonoma County sheriff's and district attorney's offices investigate the fatal Taser shooting of Branch Wroth, 41, of Forestville, at the Budget Inn in
Rohnert Park on May 12.
Find out what's happening in Rohnert Park-Cotatifor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The Rohnert Park officers went to the Budget Inn at 6298 Redwood Drive around 3:15 p.m. in response to a report of a man who was acting strangely.
The officers found Wroth incoherent and in an altered state in his room, according to the Department of Public Safety.
Find out what's happening in Rohnert Park-Cotatifor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The officers learned there was a warrant for Wroth's arrest. He resisted being taken into custody and became combative, and during a physical altercation an officer shot Wroth with a Taser, public safety officials said.
Wroth became unresponsive when the officers took him to the ground and emergency responders were unable to revive him. He died at the scene, according to the department of public safety.
Wroth's brother Esa Wroth, who was arrested on suspicion of DUI, was shot with Tasers more than 20 times by corrections deputies in Sonoma County Jail on Jan. 3, 2013. He settled a civil suit against Sonoma County in 2016 for $1.25 million. The county did not admit liability.
The Wroth family asked a Sonoma County Superior Court judge to allow an independent pathologist of their choosing to be present at Branch Wroth's autopsy to assure a fair and thorough investigation of his death.
Judge Elliot Daum denied the family's request but he ordered the autopsy videotaped from start to finish and a copy provided to the Wroth family's attorney.
By Bay City News Service
Photo by Renee Schiavone/Patch
