RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — A 57-year-old Riverside County man accused of fatally shooting his wife over the weekend pleaded not guilty Wednesday to murder and another charge.

William Thomas Dunlap of Good Hope entered his pleas during an arraignment before Superior Court Judge Walter Kubelun, who scheduled a felony settlement conference for June 24 at the Riverside Hall of Justice. Along with the murder count, Dunlap also faces a sentence-enhancing charge of using a gun to cause great bodily injury.

He’s being held at Murrieta’s Cois Byrd Detention Center in lieu of $2 million bail.

Dunlap is accused in the shooting death of Kimberly Dunlap, 56. She was found by deputies at approximately 10:04 p.m. Saturday in the 25000 block of Highway 74 in the Good Hope community, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

Despite efforts to save her, Dunlap was pronounced dead at the scene. The sheriff’s department reported that she suffered from a single gunshot wound.

The sheriff’s Central Homicide Unit assumed the investigation, and on Sunday morning William Dunlap was arrested in the case. A possible motive in the slaying was not released.

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact Investigator Manjarrez with the Central Homicide Unit at 951-955-2777 or Investigator Barbee with the Perris Station at 951-210-1000.

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The shooting took place just after 8 a.m. at a residence in the 3300 block of Albillo Loop as deputies were conducting a probation compliance check.

Several people were in the home’s backyard. One of the men provided false identifying information to deputies and tried to walk away, refusing commands to stop, according to the sheriff’s office.

Deputies used a taser on the man, but it was “ineffective,” the sheriff’s office reported.

The man continued to walk away and pulled out a handgun, prompting a deputy to fire on him, the sheriff’s office reported.

It’s not clear how many rounds hit the man.

Deputies rendered medical aid until paramedics arrived, according to the sheriff’s office. The man was transported to a local hospital where he died. His identity was not released and it’s not clear whether he was on probation.

According to sheriff’s office policy, the unnamed deputy involved in the shooting will be placed on paid administrative leave. A member of the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office will lead an investigation into the fatal shooting.

No deputies were injured during the incident.

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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A grand jury indicted Alec Baldwin on Friday on an involuntary manslaughter charge in a 2021 fatal shooting during a rehearsal on a movie set in New Mexico, reviving a dormant case against the actor.

Special prosecutors brought the case before a grand jury in Santa Fe this week, months after receiving a new analysis of the gun that was used. They declined to answer questions after spending about a day and a half presenting their case to the grand jury.

Defense attorneys for Baldwin indicated they’ll fight the charge.

“We look forward to our day in court,” said Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, defense attorneys for Baldwin, in an email.

While the proceeding is shrouded in secrecy, two of the witnesses seen at the courthouse included crew members — one who was present when the fatal shot was fired and another who had walked off the set the day before due to safety concerns.

Baldwin, the lead actor and a co-producer on the Western movie “Rust,” was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the gun went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.

Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer, but not the trigger, and the gun fired.

The charge has again put Baldwin in legal trouble and created the possibility of prison time for an actor who has been a TV and movie mainstay for nearly 40 years, with roles in the early blockbuster “The Hunt for Red October,” Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” and the sitcom “30 Rock.”

The indictment provides prosecutors with two alternative standards for pursuing an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin in the death of Hutchins. One would be based on negligent use of a firearm, and the other alleges felony misconduct “with the total disregard or indifference for the safety of others.”

Judges recently agreed to put on hold several civil lawsuits seeking compensation from Baldwin and producers of “Rust” after prosecutors said they would present their case to a grand jury. Plaintiffs in those suits include members of the film crew.

Los Angeles-based attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing the slain cinematographer’s parents and younger sister in a civil case, said Friday that her clients have been seeking the truth about what happened the day Hutchins was killed and will be looking forward to Baldwin’s trial.

Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of the West Coast Trial Lawyers firm in Los Angeles, pointed to previous missteps by prosecutors, saying they will need to do more than present ballistics evidence to make a case that Baldwin had a broader responsibility and legal duty when it came to handling the gun on the set.

Special prosecutors dismissed an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin in April, saying they were informed the gun might have been modified before the shooting and malfunctioned. They later pivoted and began weighing whether to refile a charge against Baldwin after receiving a new analysis of the gun.

The analysis from experts in ballistics and forensic testing relied on replacement parts to reassemble the gun fired by Baldwin, after parts of the pistol were broken during testing by the FBI. The report examined the gun and markings it left on a spent cartridge to conclude that the trigger had to have been pulled or depressed.

The analysis led by Lucien Haag of Forensic Science Services in Arizona stated that although Baldwin repeatedly denied pulling the trigger, “given the tests, findings and observations reported here, the trigger had to be pulled or depressed sufficiently to release the fully cocked or retracted hammer of the evidence revolver.”

The weapons supervisor on the movie set, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering in the case. Her trial is scheduled to begin in February.

“Rust” assistant director and safety coordinator David Halls pleaded no contest to unsafe handling of a firearm last March and received a suspended sentence of six months of probation. He agreed to cooperate in the investigation of the shooting.

An earlier FBI report on the agency’s analysis of the gun found that, as is common with firearms of that design, it could go off without pulling the trigger if force was applied to an uncocked hammer, such as by dropping the weapon.

The only way the testers could get it to fire was by striking the gun with a mallet while the hammer was down and resting on the cartridge, or by pulling the trigger while it was fully cocked. The gun eventually broke during testing.

The 2021 shooting resulted in a series of civil lawsuits, including wrongful death claims filed by members of Hutchins’ family, centered on accusations that the defendants were lax with safety standards. Baldwin and other defendants have disputed those allegations.

The Rust Movie Productions company has paid a $100,000 fine to state workplace safety regulators after a scathing narrative of failures in violation of standard industry protocols, including testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address two misfires on set before the fatal shooting.

The filming of “Rust” resumed last year in Montana, under an agreement with the cinematographer’s widower, Matthew Hutchins, that made him an executive producer.

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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A judge has agreed to seal from public view the terms of a proposed settlement agreement that benefits the son of slain cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, in a wrongful death lawsuit against actor Alec Baldwin and an array of producers and crew involved linked to Hutchins’ death in a fatal filmset shooting.

The New Mexico judge cited privacy concerns about Halyna’s 10-year-old son, Andros Hutchins.

Baldwin, an actor and film coproducer, was pointing a pistol at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when the gun went off, killing her and wounding the director, Joel Souza, on the set of the Western movie “Rust” during a movie rehearsal on the outskirts of Santa Fe in 2021.

Widower Matthew Hutchins filed the wrongful death suit last year against “Rust” producers, including Baldwin, as well as members of the film crew with safety responsibilities and an ammunition supplier. Son Andros Hutchins, who was 9 at the time of the shooting, is also named as a plaintiff.

Attorneys for they boy said Monday that secrecy provisions are paramount to protect the boy’s privacy and finalize a settlement with “Rust” producers.

At least five other civil lawsuits related to Halyna Hutchins’ death are pending in courts. Plaintiffs in those cases asked for the hearings to remain open. They worried about unforeseen consequences if the agreement were to collapse, and implications for insurance payments in other lawsuits.

But the judge agreed that the privacy rights of the boy outweighed court obligations for public disclosure, and ordered that the settlement documents and approval hearings be sealed.

“What is driving my decision is really the interests of the minor child. And that is one of the very most powerful reasons to seal a matter,” said District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid, in a videoconference hearing of the Santa Fe-based court.

The civil lawsuit argues that Baldwin and other film crewmembers ignored industry gun safety rules on the set of “Rust.” Baldwin and other defendants have disputed those accusations.

Knowledge of the settlement terms also will be off limits to people beyond “Rust” producers who were named as defendants in the lawsuit, including weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. Several of those defendants objected to being left in the dark on details of the settlement, though approval of the agreement should end their involvement in the wrongful death suit.

Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin are also confronting criminal charges of involuntary manslaughter in separate court proceedings and have pleaded not guilty, with two weeks of evidentiary hearings scheduled in May.

Widower Matthew Hutchins outlined a proposed settlement agreement in October that opened the way for filming to resume in Montana. He’ll serve as a producer.

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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A Santa Fe district attorney will announce Thursday whether charges will be brought in the fatal 2021 film-set shooting of a cinematographer by actor Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal of the Western “Rust.”

Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said a decision will be announced Thursday morning in a statement and on social media, without public appearances by prosecutors.

“The announcement will be a solemn occasion, made in a manner keeping with the office’s commitment to upholding the integrity of the judicial process and respecting the victim’s family,” said Heather Brewer, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died shortly after being wounded by a gunshot during setup for a scene at the ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe on Oct. 21, 2021. Baldwin was pointing a pistol at Hutchins when the gun went off, killing her and wounding the director, Joel Souza.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza, who led the initial investigation into Hutchins’ death, described “a degree of neglect” on the film set. But he left decisions about potential criminal charges to prosecutors after delivering the results of a yearlong investigation in October. That report did not specify how live ammunition wound up on the film set.

Taking control of the investigation, Carmack-Altwies was granted an emergency $300,000 request for the state to pay for a special prosecutor, special investigator and other experts and personnel.

Baldwin — known for his roles in “30 Rock” and “The Hunt for Red October” and his impression of former President Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live” — has described the killing of Hutchins as a “tragic accident.”

He has sought to clear his name by suing people involved in handling and supplying the loaded gun that was handed to him on set. Baldwin, also a co-producer on “Rust,” said he was told the gun was safe.

In his lawsuit, Baldwin said that while working on camera angles with Hutchins during rehearsal for a scene, he pointed the gun in her direction and pulled back and released the hammer of the gun, which discharged.

New Mexico’s Office of the Medical Investigator determined the shooting was an accident following the completion of an autopsy and a review of law enforcement reports.

New Mexico’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau has levied the maximum fine against Rust Movie Productions, based on a scathing narrative of safety failures, including testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address two misfires of blank ammunition on set prior to the fatal shooting.

Rust Movie Productions continues to challenge the basis of a $137,000 fine by regulators who say production managers on the set failed to follow standard industry protocols for firearms safety.

The armorer who oversaw firearms on the set, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, has been the subject of much of the scrutiny in the case, along with an independent ammunition supplier. An attorney for Gutierrez Reed has said the armorer did not put a live round in the gun that killed Hutchins, and believes she was the victim of sabotage. Authorities said they’ve found no evidence of that.

Investigators initially found 500 rounds of ammunition at the movie set on the outskirts of Santa Fe — a mix of blanks, dummy rounds and what appeared to be live rounds. Industry experts have said live rounds should never be on set.

In April 2022, the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department released a trove of files including lapel camera video of the mortally wounded Hutchins slipping in and out of consciousness as an evacuation helicopter arrived. Witness interrogations, email threads, text conversations, inventories of ammunition and hundreds of photographs rounded out that collection of evidence.

State workplace safety regulators said that immediate gun-safety concerns were addressed when “Rust” ceased filming, and that a return to filming in New Mexico would be accompanied by new safety inspections.

The family of Hutchins — widower Matthew Hutchins and son Andros — settled a lawsuit against producers under an agreement that aims to restart filming with Matthew’s involvement as executive producer.

“Rust” was beset by disputes from the start in early October 2021. Seven crew members walked off the set just hours before the fatal shooting amid discord over working conditions.

Hutchins’ death has influenced negotiations over safety provisions in film crew union contracts with Hollywood producers and spurred other filmmakers to choose computer-generated imagery of gunfire rather than real weapons with blank ammunition to minimize risks.

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A University of Virginia student and former member of the school’s football team fatally shot three current players as they returned from a field trip, authorities said, setting off panic and a 12-hour lockdown of the campus until the suspect was captured Monday.

Students who were told to shelter in place beginning late Sunday described terrifying hours in hiding. While police searched for the gunman through the night, students sought safety in closets, dorm rooms, libraries and apartments. They listened to police scanners and tried to remember everything they were taught as children during active-shooter drills.

“I think all of us were just really unsettled and trying to keep, you know, our cool and level heads during the situation,” student Shannon Lake said.

Officials got word during a morning news briefing that the suspect, 22-year-old Christopher Darnell Jones Jr., had been arrested.

“Just give me a moment to thank God, breathe a sigh of relief,” university Police Chief Timothy Longo Sr. said after learning Jones was in custody.

The violence erupted near a parking garage just after 10:15 p.m. Sunday as a charter bus full of students returned to Charlottesville from seeing a play in Washington.

University President Jim Ryan said authorities did not have a “full understanding” of the motive or circumstances of the shooting.

“The entire university community is grieving this morning,” a visibly strained Ryan said.

The killings happened at a time when the nation is on edge from a string of mass shootings during the last six months, including an attack that killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas; a shooting at a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb that killed seven people and wounded more than 30; and a shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that killed 10 people and wounded three.

Lake, a third-year student from Crozet, Virginia, ended up spending the night with friends in a lab room, much of the time in a storage closet.

Elizabeth Paul, a student from northern Virginia, was working at a computer in the library when she got a call from her mom, who had received word about the shooting.

Paul said she initially brushed off any concern, thinking it was probably something minor. She realized she needed to take it seriously when her computer lit up with a warning about an active shooter.

“I think it said, ‘Run. Hide. Fight,’” she said.

Paul said she stayed huddled with several others in the library. She spent most of the night on the phone with her mom.

“Not even talking to her the whole time necessarily, but she wanted the line to be on so that if I needed something she was there,” she said.

Ryan identified the three slain students as Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry.

Two students were wounded and hospitalized, Ryan said.

Mike Hollins, a running back on the football team, was in stable condition Monday, his mother, Brenda Hollins, told The Associated Press.

“Mike is a fighter — and he’s showing it,” she said after flying to Virginia from Louisiana. “We have great doctors who have been working with him. And most importantly, we have God’s grace and God’s hands on him.”

The shooting touched off an intense manhunt that included a building-by-building search of the campus. The lockdown order was lifted late Monday morning.

Jones was taken into custody without incident in suburban Richmond, police said.

The arrest warrants for Jones charged him with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of using a handgun in the commission of a felony, Longo said.

It was not immediately clear whether Jones had an attorney or when he would make his first court appearance.

His father, Chris Jones Sr., told Richmond TV station WTVR he was in disbelief after getting a call from police on Monday.

“My heart goes out to their families. I don’t know what to say, except I’m sorry, on his behalf, and I apologize,” he said.

Jones had once been on the football team, but he had not been part of the team for at least a year, Longo said. The UVA football website listed him as a team member during the 2018 season and said he did not play in any games.

Hours after Jones was arrested, first-year head football coach Tony Elliott sat alone outside the athletic building used by the team, at times with his head in his hands. He said the victims “were all good kids.”

“These precious young men were called away too soon. We are all fortunate to have them be a part of our lives. They touched us, inspired us and worked incredibly hard as representatives of our program, university and community,” he said in a statement.

Jones came to the attention of the university’s threat-assessment team this fall after a person unaffiliated with the school reported a remark Jones apparently made about possessing a gun, Longo said.

No threat was reported in conjunction with the concern about the weapon, but officials looked into it, following up with Jones’ roommate.

Longo also said Jones had been involved in a “hazing investigation of some sort.” He said he did not have all the facts and circumstances of that case, though he said the probe was closed after witnesses failed to cooperate.

In addition, officials learned about a prior incident outside Charlottesville involving a weapons violation, Longo said. That incident was not reported to the university as it should have been, he said.

Em Gunter, a second-year anthropology student, heard three gunshots and then three more while she was studying genetics in her dorm room.

She knew right away there was an active shooter outside and told others to go in their rooms, shut their blinds and turn off the lights. For the next 12 hours, she stayed in her room with a friend, listening to a police scanner and messaging her family and friends who were stuck in other areas of the campus.

Students know from active shooter drills how to respond, she said.

“But how do we deal with it afterwards?” she asked. “What’s it going to be like in a week, in a month?”

Eva Surovell, the editor in chief of the student newspaper, The Cavalier Daily, noted that her generation grew up with “generalized gun violence.”

“But that doesn’t make it any easier when it’s your own community,” she said.

Classes and other academic activities were canceled for Tuesday. An impromptu vigil drew a large crowd Monday night, and a university-wide vigil was being planned for a later date. Gov. Glenn Youngkin ordered flags lowered to half-staff on Tuesday in respect and memory of the victims, their families and the Charlottesville community.

Scores of worshippers gathered Monday evening on campus at St. Paul’s Memorial Church for a prayer service.

“Have pity on us and all who mourn for Devin, Lavel and D’Sean, innocent people slaughtered by the violence of our fallen world,” an officiant said in prayer.

Elsewhere, police in Moscow, Idaho, were investigating the deaths of four University of Idaho students found Sunday in a home near the campus. Authorities released few details, except to say that the deaths were labeled homicides.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Ben Finley in Norfolk, Va.; Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Va.; Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Md.; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Hank Kurz in Charlottesville, Va.; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; and news researcher Rhonda Shafner; as well as videojournalist Nathan Ellegren and photographer Steve Helber in Charlottesville.

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LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A former school safety officer has been charged with murder in the shooting death of an 18-year-old woman near a Southern California high school last month, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Eddie Gonzalez, 51, was scheduled to be arraigned Friday on one count of murder, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement. Gonzalez could not be reached for comment and it wasn’t immediately known if he has an attorney.

Manuela “Mona” Rodriguez, who had been declared brain dead after the Sept. 27 shooting, died Oct. 5 after she was removed from life support.

Rodriguez, the mother of a 5-month-old son, was shot in the back of the head in a parking lot near Millikan High School in Long Beach. She was sitting in the passenger seat of a car that was driving away after Rodriguez had gotten into a fight with a 15-year-old girl, police have said.

Video posted online appeared to show the safety officer firing at least two shots as the car moved off next to him. At least one bullet pierced a window of the car.

Gonzalez has been fired by the Long Beach Unified School District.

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Fabian Hector Herrera, 36 years-old, was arrested on April 23 for the shooting death of 33-year-old David Spann. The shooting occurred on the same day at about 2:30 a.m. in the 100 block of East Via Escuela. Authorities say he fired the fatal shots after Spann, wielding a knife, lunged toward him and several police officers inside his home.

Herrera has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and for being a convicted felon in possession of a gun, body armor and ammunition, along with multiple sentence-enhancing allegations. Herrera’s attorney alleges that his client fired the shots only after being ordered to do so by Palm Springs police officers.

Herrera’s preliminary hearing is scheduled to resume on Sept.20 at the Larson Justice Center in Indio and he is being held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside on $2 million bail.

His mother, Lisa Roberta Vargas, 53, was arrested May 20 in connection with the shooting death of Spann.

Vargas is scheduled for a felony settlement conference Oct. 12. Along with murder, Vargas is charged one felony count each of delivering a firearm to a person prohibited from possessing one, and committing perjury by false affidavit. Herrera and Vargas face potential life sentences if convicted as charged.

The sheriff’s department reported that while Spann was wanted by a bail agency, there was no warrant for his arrest issued by a law enforcement agency. Herrera, was “not properly licensed” as a bail agent, and was also prohibited from possessing firearms due to his criminal history, according to sheriff’s officials.

Herrera has two felony convictions, both for assault with a deadly weapon, one in Los Angeles County and the other in Riverside County, court records show.

Herrera’s preliminary hearing was scheduled for a second day so that the owner of the bail agency that allegedly hired Herrera and Vargas can testify.

Jail records show Spann posted a $100,000 bond April 1 in a misdemeanor restraining order violation case, although it remains unclear why he was being pursued by the defendants.

Deputies were initially sent to the Via Escuela location on a report that a bail agent needed assistance in apprehending a fugitive, according to Palm Springs police. Prior to officers being dispatched, police said they spoke to Herrera multiple times, once with him reporting he had planned to arrest the fugitive, and another to say the suspect was holding a knife and that he needed help.

Officers also received a call from Spann himself, who said someone was trying to break into his home, along with a call from Spann’s alarm company to report the same incident.

During the preliminary hearing today, Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Jarred Bishop provided a timeline of the calls, testifying that Herrera called the Palm Springs Police Department to report that he intended to arrest Spann. The next call to be received was from Spann and his alarm company, reporting the break-in. Bishop testified that Palm Springs police were able to recognize the connection and attempted to reach out to Herrera. When Herrera picked up the phone, Bishop alleges that he reported having Spann at gunpoint and was requesting backup from Palm Springs police.

Once on scene, officers contacted the knife-wielding suspect, who refused orders to comply, prompting an officer to use a stun gun on the man, but he continued to defy officers’ orders, police said.

During the preliminary hearing, body camera footage from the officer showed the attempt to use a stun gun on Spann, but prior to doing so, audio from the video plays in which the officer tells Herrera “you got lethal.” Bishop testified that this statement was a request for lethal backup, in which, prior to attempting to use non-lethal force, an officer requests a second officer to be prepared to use lethal force in the event that non-lethal force does not work in containing the suspect.

According to Bishop, the officer believed Herrera to be a fellow officer despite Herrera calling the initial incident in as a “fugitive recovery agent.”

Bishop testified that the only one of the two prongs from the officer’s stun gun lands on Spann, and that Spann then gets up and continues to move towards the officer with the knife.

Audio from the footage can then be heard in which the officer says “shoot” and it is then when Herrera shots Spann, according to Bishop’s testimony and the clip played in court. It was disputed by the prosecution attorney as to whether the word “shoot” was meant to be an order to Herrera or simply an exclamation of the stun gun not working on Spann.

Spann was pronounced dead at the scene despite life-saving measures performed by first responders, according to police. No Palm Springs police officer fired a lethal weapon, officials said.

Because Palm Springs police were present during the shooting, investigators from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Force Investigations Detail were called in to spearhead the investigation, and later arrested Herrera and Vargas.

KESQ | Contributed

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — California’s attorney general has filed manslaughter charges against a former Los Angeles police officer who was off duty when he fatally shot a mentally ill man who was shopping with his parents in 2019.

Officer Salvador Sanchez, who was a seven-year veteran of the LAPD at the time of the shooting, was arrested Monday in Riverside County. He faces one count of voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm. The LAPD says he was terminated from the agency in July 2020, but it declined further comment on Sanchez’s arrest.

Sanchez was with his young son in a Costco in Corona when he was attacked from behind by 32-year-old Kenneth French. Sanchez was knocked to the ground and quickly opened fire, fatally wounding French and critically injuring French’s parents, Russell and Paola French.

Sanchez had told investigators he believed French had a gun and that his life and his son’s life were in immediate danger. Authorities said French was not armed and was moving away from Sanchez when the officer opened fire.

Kenneth French was nonverbal and had recently been taken off his medication for mental illness due to other health issues, the family’s lawyer previously said, adding that the change may have affected his behavior that night. French’s parents have filed a federal lawsuit against Sanchez and the city.

The charges filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta came after the Riverside County district attorney declined to charge Sanchez criminally when a grand jury did not bring an indictment in September 2019.

Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin previously said Sanchez believed he had been shot in the head and that a gunman was on the loose in the store after he and his 1½-year-old son were knocked to the ground in French’s unprovoked assault.

David Winslow, Sanchez’s attorney, called his client’s arrest a “political stunt that does absolutely nothing to protect the public.”

“The arrest of Sal Sanchez is a product of the politically motivated program by the California Attorney General to prosecute police officers,” Winslow said in a statement Monday. “Sal was not acting as a police officer when he was attacked. He was off duty acting as a father in self-defense and protecting his child.”

Bonta’s office in July announced that state investigators would respond to police fatal shootings of unarmed civilians after lawmakers passed legislation last year amid civil unrest over the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis officer.

“Where there’s reason to believe a crime has been committed, we will seek justice,” Bonta said Monday in a news release. “That’s exactly what these charges are about: pursuing justice after an independent and thorough review of the evidence and the law. Ultimately, any loss of life is a tragedy, and being licensed to carry a gun doesn’t mean you’re not accountable for how you use it. No matter who you are, nobody is above the law.”

The Riverside district attorney’s office said Monday it would assist Bonta’s office in the prosecution, but noted that its own investigation ended when the grand jury did not find enough probable cause to move forward with the case.

The Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners ruled last year that Sanchez had violated departmental policy in the shooting.

The French family’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Officers responded to a home in the 3300 block of Eucalyptus Avenue at about 4:16 p.m. on July 22 in the Eastside neighborhood of Riverside, police said in a news release.

Gladys Elizabeth Orosco, 20, was found suffering from a gunshot wound inside the home.

Orosco, who was known to her family and friends as “Lizzy,” was pronounced deceased at the scene by paramedics with the Riverside Fire Department, police said.

Fredi Lucero, 19, was identified as Orosco’s boyfriend and suspect in her death.

“The preliminary investigation revealed Lizzy and Fredi lived together and were in a dating relationship. An argument ensued that afternoon when Fredi produced a firearm and shot Lizzy, killing her,” Officer Ryan J. Railsback, a public spokesperson for the Riverside Police Department, said in the release.

Lucero fled the house before officers arrived. Bloodhounds and patrol officers located Lucero a couple of hours later in the area of Spruce Street and the 91 Freeway, police said.

The handgun believed to have been used in Orosco’s shooting was also found near the scene with help from officers canvassing the area looking for witnesses and additional surveillance video.

Lucero was booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center on suspicion of murder and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

He is currently being held on $2 million bail.

This investigation is still ongoing and there are no further details to release at this time.

Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to contact Det. Dan Mercadefe at 951-353-7103 or DMercadefe@RiversideCA.gov, or Det. Brett Stennett at 951-353-7213 or BStennett@RiversideCA.gov.

Anonymous tipsters can email RPDTips@RiversideCA.gov or utilize the Riverside Police Department’s mobile app “Submit a Tip” feature while referencing report number 210020145.

Ktla | Contributed

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