A former Torrance police officer who faced criminal charges for shooting a Black man fleeing a crime scene will avoid jail time and eventually see his case dismissed under a plea deal reached with Los Angeles County prosecutors.
David Chandler, 37, agreed to the deal in a downtown L.A. courtroom on Wednesday morning. Walking with the assistance of a cane, he took a seat in Judge Alison Matsumoto Estrada’s courtroom as Deputy Dist. Atty. Brandy Chase read out the terms of the agreement.
Chandler must complete 100 hours of community service, stay out of trouble for a year and relinquish the Peace Officer certification that allows him to work in state law enforcement, Chase said.
Chandler agreed to each of the stipulations with the words, “Yes, ma’am.” If he adheres to the requirements, the case will be dismissed in November 2026, according to the agreement. Chandler declined to address the court, asserting his 5th Amendment rights.
“I think the dismissal is a justified decision by the D.A.’s office,” Tom Yu, an attorney for Chandler, told The Times after the hearing. Yu declined to make Chandler available for an interview.
“He’s not returning to law enforcement,” Yu said.
Chandler was previously linked to an infamous racist text-messaging scandal. He was one of more than a dozen Torrance officers whose number was on a text thread in which they routinely used racial slurs, joked about killing Black suspects, bragged about using excessive force and made homophobic and antisemitic comments.
Law enforcement sources not authorized to speak publicly about the case said Chandler was investigated as part of the scandal. The Times never saw evidence that Chandler sent any racist messages.
Yu declined on Wednesday to answer questions about the text-messaging scandal or the shooting that led to the charges against his client.
The shooting occurred in 2018 when Chandler was one of several officers who responded to a report of a disturbance at an elderly woman’s home. Her grandson allegedly smashed a sliding glass door then left the area, before returning with a knife, records show.
It was not clear if the man brandished the weapon or threatened anyone before Chandler fired “several rounds” as the man walked away, prosecutors alleged. The man was injured but survived.
L.A. prosecutors charged Chandler with assault by a public officer in 2021. A judge ruled there was enough evidence to proceed to trial in 2023.
In the text-messaging scandal, law enforcement sources said Chandler was among officers who faced scrutiny because their phone number was linked to a group chat dubbed “The Boys” that was replete with racist comments. Almost every member of the chat was a Torrance police officer.
The texts were sent between May 2018 and February 2022, according to investigative reports made public by the the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.
Chandler was fired by the Torrance Police Department in 2023 due to use of excessive force, according to an online database maintained by the state commission. It was not clear if the 2018 shooting was the excessive force allegation that led to Chandler’s firing. A Torrance police spokesman declined to comment.
Chandler remains “a part-time Soldier in the California Army National Guard,” according to an agency spokesman. He first joined the Guard in 2020. The pending criminal case against Chandler has caused him to be “flagged,” meaning he cannot be promoted, transferred or deployed, according to a law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter.
Chandler was not deployed to Los Angeles as part of President Trump’s use of the military to support immigration raids earlier this year, according to a military spokesman.
At least seven members of the Torrance Police Department who were linked to the scandal are no longer with the agency, according to court records and the state commission database.
Four others have been charged with crimes.
In April, former officers Cody Weldin and Christopher Tomsic each pleaded guilty to felony vandalism for spray painting a swastika inside of a vehicle that had been towed from a crime scene. The officers’ arrest sparked the police investigation that revealed the texts. Each had to give up their right to be police officers in California and will spend two years on probation, but both avoided jail time.
Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez are awaiting trial on manslaughter charges in the 2018 killing of Christopher Deandre Mitchell, who was sitting in a car with an air rifle between his knees when the officers fired the fatal rounds. Mitchell, a car-theft suspect, was parked in a Ralphs parking lot when he was killed. Neither officer alleged that Mitchell grabbed the weapon or pointed it at them before they began shooting, records show.
In the text thread, officers discussed the shooting used the N-word to describe Mitchell’s relatives, according to records previously obtained by The Times. The name of the officer who sent that text message was redacted in the records. Concannon was investigated as part of the scandal, but his attorney says he did not send any racist texts.
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