OCDA clears Santa Ana officers of wrongdoing in 2022 death of 73-year-old man bitten by K-9 dog – Orange County Register

Santa Ana police officers are not criminally culpable in the September 2022 death of a 73-year-old man arrested two days earlier after being injured by less-lethal projectiles and bitten repeatedly by a K-9 police dog , Orange County said. That’s what the district attorney’s office said in a report released Thursday.

The OCDA death in custody report clears the officers of any wrongdoing during their encounter with Miguel Chavez, who died in a hospital bed on September 15, 2022 after the officers, in their efforts to arrest him at the following a chase through the streets of Santa Ana, fired fewer shots. fatally shot him and deployed a K-9 police dog, which bit the suspect multiple times.

According to the report, police had received information that Chávez was armed, but when he was taken into custody, no weapon was found.

Before the violent confrontation, police briefly chased Chavez who they said drove away from the scene of the car crash. Chavez then refused to get out of the white van he was driving, leading officers to shoot him with less-lethal rounds and release the police dog.

Striking body camera footage of the encounter, released with the report in a 16-minute video, shows the moment a dog was unleashed on Chavez.

When the officers took him out of the van, he was moaning in pain.

“The dog hurt me, what do you want me to do?” Chavez asked the officers in Spanish. “The dog hurt me and my hands are already on my back.”

Chavez, who suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure, had multiple bruises and lacerations from the dog bite, as well as two bruises and a round wound to his abdomen. He was taken to hospital, where he underwent surgery for the dog bites – including a skin graft on his right arm – and told doctors he “felt confused” when police tried to contact him.

Around 12:30 a.m. on September 15, nearly two days after he was admitted to the hospital, a nurse entered Chavez’s room and changed his position in the bed.

About two hours later, the same nurse returned to her room and noticed that Chávez was no longer breathing.

For 16 minutes, doctors tried to resuscitate him, but Chavez was pronounced dead at 2:34 a.m.

Chavez’s cause of death was ruled to be cardiovascular disease complicated by dog ​​bites, according to an Orange County coroner’s report.

The death was ruled a homicide by the coroner, but all officers involved in Chavez’s death were exonerated, according to the district attorney’s office, and their actions were found to be consistent with department policy.

The report concluded that Chavez’s death was the result of “serious pre-existing cardiovascular disease complicated by canine bites” and that there was no evidence that the officers did not use reasonable force on Chavez.

Chavez had no criminal history except for two traffic tickets in the early 2000s, according to public records. He came from El Salvador. It is unknown if he has any family in the United States.