LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Torrance police officer who was placed on administrative leave in connection with an on-duty shooting that left a man wounded nearly five years ago was ordered Monday to stand trial on a felony count of assault by an officer.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kevin Stennis -- who reviewed body-worn camera footage from Officer David Chandler Jr. and another officer who is not charged -- called it a "difficult decision for the court" that will become a "difficult decision for the jury."
The judge also rejected a request by defense attorney Tom Yu to reduce the felony charge to a misdemeanor count.
Chandler, now 35, is accused of firing multiple rounds at Jarvis Goode, who emerged from his grandmother's home in Torrance while allegedly holding a knife and then walked away from police on Aug. 27, 2018.
Goode suffered a gunshot wound to his shoulder, according to Torrance Police Department Field Training Officer Jesus Garcia, who was a detective at the time and went to the hospital to interview the man after the shooting.
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Deputy District Attorney Guy Shirley conceded that the initial shots could "reasonably be seen" as being in defense of Goode's grandmother, who was also outside of the house.
But the prosecutor argued that Chandler "continued shooting without lawful necessity" as the man fled from police.
Chandler's attorney countered that his client had "about a second and a half to decide what he was going to do," arguing that Goode had held the knife in an assaultive and threatening manner.
The defense lawyer argued that the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office should be precluded from prosecuting Chandler, arguing that Goode's subsequent no contest plea to obstructing or delaying an officer required Chandler to be in the lawful performance of his duties.
After the hearing, Yu said he will ask another judge to dismiss the case based on the evidence presented during the hearing.
Goode's grandmother, Margo Goode, testified that she had initially called police earlier that day after her grandson, whom she described as having a "history of mental health problems," allegedly broke a sliding glass window and another window while she allowed him at her house to do his laundry despite a restraining order against him. She said she was mad but not scared and that he left on his skateboard before police arrived.
She said she called police again when he returned to the home that afternoon, and that "bullets started flying" shortly after she stepped out of the house.
"It scared me to death," she said. "It was so traumatizing ... I almost got hit."
Chandler's current status with the Torrance Police Department was not immediately available.
He was "placed on administrative leave pending this investigation," a Torrance police spokesman said shortly after the criminal case was filed against Chandler.
Chandler was the third current or former member of that city's police force to face criminal charges within just over a week in October 2021.
Former Torrance police officers Christopher Tomsic and Cody Weldin were charged with one felony count each of vandalism with over $400 in damage and conspiracy to commit vandalism stemming from a swastika that was found spray-painted inside an impounded vehicle in January 2021.
Superior Court Judge Craig Richman found sufficient evidence to require the two to stand trial following a hearing that wrapped up in June. Tomsic and Weldin are due back Thursday at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse for a pretrial hearing.
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