In the dark, early-morning hours outside a McDonald’s in Orange County, a police officer fired a shotgun loaded with so-called less-lethal munitions at a man swinging a belt, cursing at officers and believed to be under the influence of drugs, authorities said.
One, two, three, then four shots of beanbag rounds were fired from a distance of around 30 feet, but the man did not comply with orders to get on the ground, according to a report released Thursday by the Orange County district attorney’s office.
So, the officer fired a fifth shot. It pierced the man’s chest, and he fell to the ground bleeding profusely. Less than an hour later, he was pronounced dead.
Investigators at the district attorney’s office recently determined that Fullerton Police Cpl. Nicholas Jarvis was justified in his use of force that killed Alejandro Campos Rios, 50, on March 6, 2024.
“Corporal Jarvis’ deployment of the less-lethal bean bag shotgun at that distance was in accordance with his training and reasonable under the circumstances,” the report states.
Less-lethal munitions such as beanbag rounds are designed to spread the force of impact over a larger area, without penetrating the skin, offering officers an alternative to bullets when defending against threats. And as police departments’ use of force across the nation has come under greater scrutiny in recent years, the use of less-lethal munitions has grown considerably.
“I can appreciate that there seems to be more less-lethal methods being used as opposed to just straight out shooting people,” said civil rights attorney Kellen Davis, who has prosecuted many use-of-force cases against police departments. “But I think that force, period, should be a last resort. I would appreciate seeing more deescalation tactics as opposed to use of any sort of force.”
Less-lethal munitions have been attributed to a decrease in fatal officer-involved shootings. However, they remain a controversial tool because of the injuries they can cause — and, in rare cases such as this, death.
The 18-page report released by the district attorney’s office paints a detailed picture of the circumstances leading up to Campos Rios’ death, but it does not provide a clear answer as to how a tool intended to stun and disable became a fatal instrument.
The incident began at 2:55 a.m. on March 6, 2024, when the Fullerton Police Department received a call from a woman who worked at a McDonald’s at 1341 S. Brookhurst Road, reporting “two homeless men” who appeared to be “actively on drugs” near the entrance of the building. She said she feared for the safety of her coworkers arriving to work.
An officer arrived at 3:06 a.m. and approached Campos Rios, who was singing and yelling and began thrashing his body and a nylon belt with a metal buckle in a “wild manner,” according to the report.
The officer called for backup, and Jarvis soon arrived at the scene, where he also saw Campos Rios acting erratically and assumed he was under the influence of narcotics, according to the report. The officer told Campos Rios to drop the belt and sit on the curb, but he refused.
The officers repeatedly asked Campos Rios to comply with their orders. He ignored them and continued throwing the belt around, cursing at officers, singing, yelling and hitting a pillar with his hands. Aside from the belt, the report does not detail any weapon he possessed.
At 3:13 a.m., Jarvis loaded six 12-gauge drag-stabilized beanbag rounds into a Remington Model 870 Police Magnum shotgun and positioned himself around 30 feet away from Campos Rios, the report states. Officers are trained that that device can be deployed 20 to 100 feet from a target, the report states.
The initial responding officer activated his taser, so that it created a warning noise. Campos Rios then approached him, cursing, and slammed the belt on the ground in his direction. The officer announced that he would fire his taser, and then he fired the taser, which appeared to strike Campos Rios and only agitate him further.
Jarvis then yelled, “Bean bag! Bean bag!” and fired one round at Campos Rios, striking him in the arm. Campos Rios walked away from the first officer and toward the McDonald’s entrance, and Jarvis discharged his weapon four more times, with the final round striking Campos Rios in the chest.
Paramedics began performing lifesaving measures at 3:22 a.m.; Campos Rios was pronounced dead at UC Irvine Medical Center at 3:55 a.m. His cause of death was ruled a penetrating chest injury to the heart and the accumulation of blood between the chest and lungs.
The report states that Jarvis’ use of force was justified because “substantial reliable evidence supports the conclusion that at the time of the shooting, Corporal Jarvis reasonably feared for his life and the lives of others.”
It is rare, but not unheard of, for less-lethal munitions to cause death.
An analysis of nearly 2,000 people wounded by rubber bullets, beanbag rounds and other projectiles used by law enforcement from 1990 to 2017 found that 15% of people were permanently disabled and 3% died. Of the 53 people who died, 26 suffered head and neck trauma, and 15 suffered chest and abdominal trauma.
The study explains that the muzzle velocity of less-lethal munitions is similar to that of lethal ammunition and that severe injuries are typically caused by rounds that strike vital organs from a close range. To prevent severe injury, officers are trained to fire from what have been deemed safe distances.
“Safe shooting distances are not well validated, however, and are highly variable among weapons, countries and manufacturers,” the study states, adding that, in practice, less-lethal munitions may be deployed “from distances much closer than deemed safe.”
In 2021, Gov. Newsom signed Assembly Bill 48 into law, which placed restrictions around the use of less-lethal weapons, including that they cannot be aimed at the head, neck or any other vital organs.
Recent pro-immigration protests in Los Angeles have revived the debate around the use of less-lethals as demonstrators and members of the media have been injured by beanbag rounds and 40 mm projectiles, resulting in dozens of lawsuits.
Davis, the civil rights attorney, said that in his experience prosecuting use-of-force cases it is extremely rare for less-lethal munitions to cause death.
“It sounds to me like there was something defective with the weapon,” he said.
When asked about possible defects, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said their job was to “determine whether any of the officers violated any criminal laws and did not include a review of any issues of civil liability or whether or not department policy was followed.” The Fullerton Police Department did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
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