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Law enforcement kill Nipomo shooting suspect

August 21, 2020

Photo by Richard Bastian

By RICHARD BASTIAN

A gunman was killed during a shootout with San Luis Obispo County Sheriff deputies and CHP officers in the Vons parking lot in Nipomo on Friday afternoon, Sheriff Ian Parkinson said.

Photo by Richard Bastian

Shortly before noon, the gunman, who was accompanied by a blond woman, appeared to fire random shots in the parking lot on West Tefft Street. During an altercation at the gas station, the shooter shot about seven rounds while employees sheltered in an office.

Photo by Richard Bastian

During a shootout with deputies and officers, the gunman was killed. Authorities are instructing the public to stay away from the area.


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Richard Bastian’s photos tell so much. Great to have CalCoastNews informing residents accurately with such detail.


40

Unfortunately it doesn’t say what happened to the gun…hopefully they didn’t let it get away! That’s the last thing SLO county needs, another “dangerous” gun running loose in the streets.


-21

Hopefully he was white


-61

Here we have a prime example of just what our LEOs should be doing. Exactly what they are equipped and trained to do. And do well, usually. It is a hard and demanding job. The idea that they should be distracted from actual law enforcement and public protection to respond to every other thing that happens in the county, such as mental health emergencies, homeless crisis management, non-violent domestic disputes, etc., etc. makes no sense. Especially when their talents are needed to do their actual jobs, the ones they were trained and equipped to do.


What I do not understand is all the clamoring about how defunding the part of their current duties which are better addressed by health care workers, mental health specialists, homeless advocacy groups and the like gets people so hysterical, as if that would mean that no one would be protecting them from the big, bad criminals. When actually, the LEOs would be liberated from the above mentioned distractions, to focus on real criminals for a change and the funds extracted would go to the appropriate agencies to do those other tasks more efficiently and with improved outcomes.


Does every little thing require someone who shows up with a gun? No. But the incident in this story certainly does. As for the actual officers, where would you prefer their attention be directed? On rounding up homeless people and trying to talk down a schizophrenic or refereeing a quarreling couple or helping truant kids redirect their priorities or any other thing, or going after the plethora of crime we have in this county? My vote is they concentrate on gang violence, hard drugs, robbery, identity theft, fraud, and an impressive amount of white collar felony schemes.


Seriously, this means reallocation of some funds, but much more effective results. For those unwilling to assist in the transition, ask yourselves why? What is hardest to understand is why some of you, who understand exactly what is proposed, chose to misrepresent the process. What is to be gained, exactly?


-66

This individual was more than likely someone with mental health issues. To believe that there is a clear divide between issues is naive and unrealistic. Also, it is not often clear as to what incidents require a gun and which don’t. I don’t think you will find many mental health professionals lining up to respond to these mental health crisis without a gun…often times these individuals are armed with weapons of all types. There aren’t that many police shootings and the vast majority are justified, despite what the mainstream media claims.


93

Well, “WeThePeople”, now you’re just being silly or more likely trying to have an argument for no real reason. The guy was shooting a gun. That requires a response from someone else with a gun, does it not? I even made the point that some things do not require someone with a gun to show up, but OBVIOUSLY, SOME DO. DUH.


But, since you bring it up, sometimes a mental health professional on the response team (here let me spell this one out for you) which includes armed officers, could be very helpful and possibly talk the person down and help prevent injuries or fatalities to any party. As for how many of the current fatalities are justified, since I doubt you were present for many of them, it is unlikely you would be an authority on that issue.


Given your chosen nom de anonymity, you yourself may be suffering from a multiple personality disorder.


Why try to turn my statement into something it is not?


-68

This particular incident was clear indeed. The initial reports were of a man shooting a gun. Most incidents do not present themselves as such…without a crystal ball, how does one know which incident involves a potentially dangerous, armed subject. I know it’s illegal to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, but many people don’t follow these laws, especially those that are willing to commit violent, atrocious crimes. Most agencies do utilize mental health professionals for situations that you described…only after the situation is safe to do so. If you truly believe that most police shootings are not justified, then you clearly are not an authority on the subject.


44

Wow. Just can’t help yourself. Cannot possibly just have an intelligent discourse on a subject without resorting to obviously twisting and distorting my comment to try to somehow “win”. You pulled that whole last line out of your……….. well, you know quite well those were not my words and have nothing to do with my point. That tactic is much more of a reflection on the weakness of your argument than a valid attack on mine. One thing I will point out, “Most agencies” may utilize professional mental health personnel, but I do not hear of that practice happening here. Many situations present themselves as quite safe, by the way.


-51

I’m glad we do agree on one thing, many (if not most) situations present themselves as quite safe. My entire point was that it is impossible to know ahead of time as to which situations will result in a safe outcome. It’s far better to have a gun and not need it, then not have it and need it. Safety issues are so intertwined & convoluted, it is difficult to separate them out and know who to send to any given situation…and these situations are often dynamic. I don’t think any LEO shows up to work wanting to take someone’s life….they are just trying to protect & serve to the best of their ability, and make it back home to their family.


23

Francesca,


You just said something that is dead on and I think it was lost in the heated rhetoric judging from the negative votes.


“sometimes a mental health professional on the response team (here let me spell this one out for you) which includes armed officers, could be very helpful and possibly talk the person down and help prevent injuries or fatalities to any party.”


On this point you are 100% right and I am sure LE would welcome this kind of approach.


When you call 911 and tell them your loved one is having a heart attack, do they send the police? No, of course not. They send an ambulance and firemen because it is a medical emergency.


Most people having a mental health crisis are having a medical emergency and yet we send the police because our mental health system is a shambles.


The issue remains how do we fund a robust mental health partnership without cutting other essential services and what would that partnership look like.


4

I agree that the police shouldn’t be handling mental heath and homeless issues, except that Mason Lira was a homeless man with a gun and witnesses said this man was babbling incoherently while shooting his gun at traffic (mental illness?)

The idea of reallocating funding sounds great in theory, but here is the problem:


The police departments and sheriff’s office don’t have certain officers that handle dangerous people and others that handle non criminal mentally ill or homeless people.

The money in their budgets goes to salaries for officers who handle whatever events occur during their shift.

If you reallocate funding you are cutting the number of officers available for events like the Mason Lira shooting spree or the active shooter in Nipomo today.

I agree the police shouldn’t handle certain non criminal issues like homelessness or mental health issues, but we should not rob Peter to pay Paul. If there had only been one deputy in Nipomo today instead of two this story may have had a different ending.


59

Mr. Gordo,


Thank you for an actually intelligent reply. I think you make a very good point. We do not want our officers shorthanded when something real for them to do comes down. I agree. And we have no shortage of bad actors in this county, for how otherwise bucolic it may seem. One of the things I would like to highlight though, is how some of our tax dollars are allocated in this LE budget. I will offer a couple of examples:.


For instance, the fancy boat that Sheriff Parkinson bought for himself to ostensibly pursue the offshore drug traffickers. Bet that cost a pretty penny and I seriously doubt that it is actually needed for the stated purpose, given that said off shore enforcement is the purview of our Coast Guard, not the Sheriff’s Department. Just what is the actual deployment of that vessel, I wonder?


Then there is a lot of fancy riot gear overkill that so many departments are getting into these days. I mean the Robocop look is cool if you are shooting a film for an adolescent male audience, but a few hundred guys in excessive gear is part of what escalates the violence at protests, sometimes even completely engendering it, as the “bad apples” so equipped feel invincible against kids in tee shirts So, just how many of those getups does one department need?


As for how many officers are available to respond, I assume at least a few would be freed up by not having to do all those other duties that do not entail interface with armed suspects, active shooters or obvious criminals. As for the two incidents to which you refer, I was not present, so cannot offer an informed opinion as to how well they were handled. I can say, with some authority, that at times less is more. Officers, in this very county have been wounded by “friendly fire”, when too many officers are firing weapons at once in the heat of the moment. A better organized approach, which may have required fewer officers, and better attention when being told to hold their fire, would have prevented needless injury. This speaks to training and discipline. And that reflects on management.


More money, more equipment or more personnel are sometimes, but not always, the answer.


-52

The riot gear is also cool if you are being pelted with rocks & frozen water bottles thrown by “peaceful” protesters.


25

The boat you referred to was purchased through a federal grant, not with county funds. The same grant pays for the operating costs of the boat and the personnel aboard it. In addition to drug interdiction the boat has been used for search and recovery missions off shore. The boat was requested for the conception dive boat disaster where it carried rescue divers, supplies and recovered remains from the disaster site to the shore. The coast guard and the county sheriff both have overlapping jurisdiction in the waters of California. The intention of this overlapping jurisdiction is that the resources of both agencies complement one another in joint operations, such as the conception disaster.


As for the riot gear, we pay to equip officers to do their job and riot gear, along with riot control training, are necessary because officers must sometimes handle civil unrest and restore order.


Some people are upset about officers having the riot gear and training in light of the BLM movement. Ask yourself if instead of BLM protestors/marchers blocking city streets and the highway, it were a thousand skinheads who descended on SLO to teach the tolerant community members the importance of protecting white people’s rights. How would you want your officers equipped? How would you want them to deal with a bunch of white supremist thugs?


As for “less is more” I don’t agree. Less is just less, that’s all it is. I don’t advocate for turning the county into a police state, but I would not argue for having fewer officers on duty in the cities and the county than we currently do.


In the Mason Lira manhunt, county and city resources were sent to Paso Robles and they were not enough, when you factor in shift relief and the scope of the LE mission. Ultimately the sheriff called in additional officers from neighboring counties and from the FBI.

The request shorted those counties of the officers who would normally be handling calls for service in their communities. Reallocating funding gets back to my rob Peter to pay Paul analogy. If everybody cuts their resources to reallocate funds then no one will be in a position to send their neighboring communities help when they need it, whether it be a Mason Lira type situation, a Conception boat disaster, or civil unrest such as we saw in Los Angeles.


I do appreciate your point of view and I agree law enforcement should not be handling non criminal “social ills” problems. They didn’t ask for the job, it got dumped on them because they and the fire service are the only two reliable 24/7 government operations. You make the call for help and they show up and try to help.


Instead of focusing only on police funding we should demand an accounting from city, county and state government of where our tax dollars go. Yes, much goes into government employees salaries, but how much is spent on sweetheart contracts to outside vendors?

A friend of mine is a valley farmer and when the state wanted to buy a piece of his land for the high speed rail project he was contacted by a land appraiser. Not a local land appraiser who specialized in AG property, but an appraiser from San Diego, who my friend learned got the appraisal contract because his mother worked on the state project management team for the high speed rail. The appraiser didn’t have any idea what the actual value of the land was and he offered over market value, which my friend accepted.

We pay an awful lot in taxes and fees to live in California and I don’t think we are getting our money’s worth. Certainly not when it comes to mental health services funding. How much better could all the money dumped into the high speed rail project have been spent if we had used it to fund expanded mental health services?


18

I agree that we are not getting as much bang for our buck as one would expect under the circumstances. The amount of money that ends up in the pockets of “donors” to campaigns, for instance is quite a return on investment, usually. On the federal level, this is astonishing. Subsidies, “tax breaks”, fees waived, inappropriate permits granted, on and on. This sort of enforcement of Rule of Law needs to start at home. Our cities and counties. There are situations right here that bear closer scrutiny. Couldn’t agree more. I can think of at least one glaring example in the town where I live.


Thank you for the details on how the boat is being utilized. We do seem to have our share of off shore incidents here. Glad to know that is an actual utilitarian asset.


In the matter of riot equipment, you bring up the white supremist thugs. Glad you did, because no one seems interested in interfering with their marches. The thugs screaming and pounding on doors of government in several cities, even marching into meetings in session while bearing lethal weapons, some semi automatic, screaming in the faces of first responders, doctors and nurses in front of hospitals and sometimes blocking traffic so that people needing access to the hospitals could not get in, all because they didn’t like the lock down, were in no way hampered by LE. I really didn’t see a lot of guys in riot gear for any of that. I didn’t see any of the regular commenters here objecting to it either.


But have a protest about Black rights in the wake of an endless string of wrongful deaths at the hands of law enforcement and wow! Who knew our little county owned all that crap!. I think a guy with that much armor on looks like an invincible enemy, not there to protect and serve, but to enforce the status quo or whatever status their masters want. May not be what is in the heart of the person lost in all that armor and weaponry, but it certainly seems to have that effect on a lot of them.


During these protests across the country, I have seen way too many clips to even count of so called “law enforcement” descending on protestors who are being entirely peaceful, some even seated or kneeling, being suddenly and viciously attacked. by these guys in bizarre armoring. They repeatedly bash kids in tee shirts with clubs with intense force and malice. They actually aim rubber bullets into the faces of peaceful protestors, women who are merely observing, This caused several people to lose an eye and suffer brain damage. Spraying mace and pepper spray into the faces of seated kids. Doing all of the above to journalists who are more than adequately identifying themselves and I have seen pictures like the one of a black man, standing peacefully, holding his little daughter in his arms and a LEO stepping forward towards him pointing his gun at the child.


SO I think it would be great if they ever wore the damn riot gear to remove the skin heads. The FBI has identified those lethally armed wack jobs as more dangerous to our national security than Al Qaeda, But no, they do not. That getup is reserved for unarmed kids, or in the case of Portland, unarmed mothers and grandmothers. So I am totally not a fan.


How does anyone expect protests against brutality to end when they are being met with Robocop and even more brutality? Especially when they only seem to care if white people are being inconvenienced, while people of color are actually dying. Here locally, white kids were caught breaking windows. The BLM protestors, no where near, are being blamed. Everything they do is being highly scrutinized and amplified. I agree they could have handled some things better at times, but why is it OK for LE, who are paid to protect us, to have “bad apples” (which is an extremely inadequate term for an officer here locally who is sexually molesting women in crisis and allowed to continue on the department even after complaints to that effect), some who even kill people needlessly but the protestors make one or two wrong moves and they are all hardened “criminals”?


That is not what I want to be paying for with my tax money.


If I am ever participating in a march to exercise my 1st Amendment rights, the last thing I want to see is some Robocop dude trying to make me uncomfortable about it. That presence in itself is a threat to me and my rights, I can understand those who react to it badly. Give me the good guys in blue any day, smiling back at me and protecting my right to march. That is who and what I like to think I am paying for.


-2

You seem to comment on law enforcement issues quite a bit. But your comments don’t give me the impression that you have actually had any law enforcement experience.


As every street cop knows, from the academy on, the most dangerous situation, other than an active shooter, is domestic disturbances. An officer goes to a home where there is any number of weapons hidden from him or her; where you have two or more parties who are so infuriated that police are called, and he or she has to make decisions to keep everyone safe armed with no knowledge of what is going on.


Often, the call is simply a 415 (disturbing the peace) that is the dispatch, but very often upon arrival, it has escalated to violence.


As for schizophrenics, is the dispatcher the one who makes the decision whether it is mental illness or PCP? Is an onlooker who called it in educated to know the difference? How about the suicide, where the “victim” calls it in hoping to have a cop shoot him, so is holding a gun to his head. Is the social worker going to deal with a distraught person with a loaded firearm?


Thinking they way you do, is Polly Anna nonsense when facts on the street are more indicative that a highly trained, armed law enforcement officer is who you send to these calls. The badge and gun are typically enough to deescalate situations. A business card and name tag offers no command presence assistance. And command presences is what cops use as their first line of defence.


19

You make some good points. Actually, I have had EMT training, so have some grasp of first responder situations. In just about every situation you enumerate above, a gun is present. That is likely going to be part of the call info, such as “we have someone with a gun to his head”. That is a mental health pro and an armed response. And you yourself predicate a violent response with “so infuriated that police are called”. This is straight up admitting that the LEO presence itself sometimes triggers or escalates violence. Command presence does not always work. It can make things worse. In many situations, a possible fall back, but not the best lead in.


In most of the developed, 1st world countries, LEOs get a great deal more training than in the US. Sometimes by years and amounting to a college degree.


-2

And sometimes police presence in itself de-escalates the situation, sooo?…….


1

US DOJ report shows that 40% of officer deaths are related to domestic violence calls. (Aka refereeing a quarreling couple)


40

Which is a horrible statistic. I wonder how much more effective it might be if the first person that approaches the scene is not heavily armed and is trained to diffuse and deescalate such situations? Not saying this would work in an already violent circumstance. Clearly, proper precautions and appropriate level of force is necessary. I would guess LEOs are not likely that intensely trained as referees, making it more dangerous for everyone. I would like to hear experienced mental health people weighing in on this .


-46

First, officers do receive training in de-escalation techniques in the academy and during in service training. They also learn a lot on the job, dealing with people at their worst.

Second, if you send a non armed non LE “counselor” type into that situation they are going to ask for law enforcement to stand by just outside the door in case things get out of hand. That is unless you fire the cop in order to hire the counselor in which case the counselor is on their own.


4

Gordo,

I so very much appreciate your thoughtful replies. Most of those on this comments section are no where near as well informed, literate or capable of critical thinking. I agree with much of this reply, although I would point out that in many other developed countries, LE training is much more extensive, often by years. It hardly seems fair to send officers to situations that they arguably should not need to attend and expect them to handle it with minimal resources other than lethal force. It is also too often the case that LE reacts differently to persons of color.


A case that comes to mind was a “welfare” check to a black woman’s house. The officer arrived and decided to walk around the house, saw the woman in her bedroom and shot her. Too often the LEOs are perceived one way by white and another way by POC, because their real life experiences are so starkly different.


Otherwise, I agree.


2

Francesca,


The training for law enforcement varies from state to state, although there is a movement within the profession to adopt a national standard.

In California an officer/cadet attends a 26 week academy where the course of study is set by the California Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training. After successful completion new officers must then pass a 26 week field training program where they are taught how to apply what they learn, before being turned loose on the streets.

Many candidates who go into police work have undergraduate degrees when they apply. Those who do not are able to earn an associates degree with the college credits earned from their 26 week academy.

I realize this is not the same as attending a “police university” as they do in Germany, however the current standards are far better than they were 30-40 years ago.

As far as perception, one that should be dispelled, at least locally, is that the police departments are made up of a bunch of Irish guys. While that was true in the past, our police departments in SLO County are very diverse. The sheriff’s department is actually more racially diverse, per capita, than the county as a whole is.

That said, I understand your point about perception based on race and can only hope that when a person of color calls for help and is met by an officer who looks like them or who speaks their native language it might help to put them at ease.

Your earlier point about white supremist marches not drawing the same response form law enforcement as BLM marches I can only say I have not seen any reports of white supremist marches in SLO County and I can’t comment on other parts of the country except to say that I don’t think there should be a difference in the response.


0

Fund the police…..


101

It is great to know we have an awesome Sheriff’s Department with caring and committed staff to protect our communities.


Pray that they all go home safe after every shift.


106

Reads like what needed to happen was properly and successfully executed. Thanks for protecting the general public.


165

Great job LEO’s! Thank you for your courage and for putting your lives on the lines every day when you put on the uniform. And, to your beloved families!


“Defund”. What an absolute crock of sh*t!


150

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! to all the LEOs involved. I really appreciate the job you do and I am sure most people do also. Don’t listen to the crazy people!


128

Like George Floyd huh? Because the US loosing several billion a year to fund murderous cops- “NPR” who get paid leave like the Rapist cop in paso is ok? Everyone who disagrees is crazy until it happens to you, sadly, that’s how most ignorant people feel about tragedy, as long as it wasn’t me huh? Totally unable to empathize.


-53

So what is your solution Kevin?

I don’t mean some pithy jingo.

Give us a real alternative that preserves people’s freedoms while protecting them from other people.

It’s easy to throw rocks at a house, it’s not so easy to build and maintain a house.


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