No Criminal Charges For Deputies In SMC Death: DA

SAN MATEO COUNTY, CA — The San Mateo County Sheriff's deputies who were involved in the fatal encounter with Chinedu Okobi in October in Millbrae will not face criminal charges, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Friday.

Okobi died after deputies said he was running in and out of traffic in the 1400 block of El Camino Real on Oct. 3. According to the sheriff's office, he punched a deputy, and then deputies deployed a Taser.

After months of investigation, Wagstaffe released his findings in the case on Friday.

"While the loss of life following contact with law enforcement is a tragic and traumatic event for all those involved, we have determined based upon a review of all the evidence that the use of force by the deputies under the circumstances encountered by them on that date was lawful pursuant to the provisions of California Penal Code Section 196," he said in a statement on his website.

Wagstaffe also posted video of the encounter on his website on Friday, including a letter to Sheriff Carlos Bolanos stating he found the sheriff's use of force during the incident to be lawful. You can find that video embedded in this story, above, and a link to the letter and other reports, below.

Okobi's sister, Ebele Okobi, Facebook's public policy director for Africa, publicly accused the sheriff's office of lying, saying that her brother had been calmly walking down the street when he was accosted and then attacked by the deputies.

The family's attorney, John Burris, has planned a news conference in Oakland for Friday afternoon. Burris has said previously he will likely file a lawsuit in the case.

SEE ALSO:

• PDF Findings And Conclusions Of The District Attorney 143.5 KB
• PDF Use of Force Report of Jeffry A. Martin, J.D. 17.5 MB
• PDF Pathologist’s Report

— Bay City News Service contributed to this report.