As he sprinted down an alleyway in April 2020, former Whittier Det. Salvador Murillo was convinced he and his fellow officers were under fire.
Murillo, an undercover detective at the time, was chasing a man who had seconds earlier jumped out of a car linked to a robbery. Three gunshots rang out. Murillo said that when he saw the fleeing man, Nicholas Carrillo, reach toward his waist, he feared he would be shot.
“I didn’t want a bullet in my chest,” Murillo told jurors in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Thursday.
Murillo fired four rounds at the fleeing Carrillo in two separate bursts. One shot from the second volley severed Carrillo’s spine, leaving him instantly paralyzed.
After the chase ended, Murillo could not find a gun at the scene. The shots Murillo heard were actually fired by his partner, Cynthia Lopez.
Police later determined that Carrillo was not involved in the robbery that triggered the vehicle stop.
Testifying in his own defense as he stands trial for assault, Murillo spent two days trying to convince a jury that despite his incorrect understanding of the situation, he was still justified when he fired the rounds that robbed Carrillo of his ability to walk.
“I can see the back of his elbows, the back of his arms and there’s a lot of movement going on and as he’s starting to turn his body, at that time, at that point, I believe he is going to shoot me,” Murillo said of the seconds before he opened fire.
The trial, which began Monday, has marked a pair of legal rarities in L.A. County. Local prosecutors have long been reticent to prosecute law enforcement officers in on-duty shootings. An officer has not been convicted in such a case since 2000.
Criminal defendants — especially police officers — also rarely take the stand in their own defense because of the risk of subjecting themselves to cross-examination, which Murillo endured Thursday.
Murillo and Lopez were searching for the whiteMitsubishi that Carrillo was driving on that day in April 2020 because it had been linked to an incident where a woman — Carrillo’s then-girlfriend — stole a television from a Walmart, prosecutors have said.
When police attempted to stop the car, Carrillo backed up and made contact with the unmarked vehicle that Murillo and Lopez were driving. When then-Dist. Atty. George Gascón announced assault charges against Lopez and Murillo in 2023, he described the collision as a “tap of bumpers.”
Murillo, however, contended in court this week that Carrillo “rammed” their vehicle and considered the collision an assault. Lopez fired a round into the back of the car. She didn’t hit anyone, but Carrillo took off, starting the foot chase that ended with Murillo shooting him. Assault charges against Lopez were dismissed after a preliminary hearing last year.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryan Tracy argued that Murillo could not have possibly believed he faced a threat to his life when he shot a fleeing suspect in the back.
“During the moment that Carrillo was running, his hands were visible, and they were empty,” Tracy said in his opening statement to the jury.
Murillo’s attorney, Vicki Podberesky, called the shooting an “awful and tragic situation” but urged jurors to think about the totality of the circumstances that Murillo faced that day. Although Carrillo was unarmed on the day of the shooting, she said Murillo was aware that the suspect he was chasing had prior arrests and convictions for methamphetamine possession and fighting with police.
In that moment, Podberesky said, Murillo was convinced that it was Carrillo, not his partner, who had opened fire. “It was either Mr. Murillo’s life, or Mr. Carrillo’s life,” she said. “That’s what this case is about.”
Whittier police officers were not outfitted with body cameras at the time of the shooting, so prosecutors had to stitch together footage of the chase and gunfire — all of which lasted less than 30 seconds — from surveillance cameras in the alleyway. The actual moment where Carrillo was hit is not captured by the recordings.
Audio picked up by nearby cameras does detail the moment when Carrillo was struck. He can be heard yelling “I didn’t do s—” as Murillo pursues him. Seconds later, panic floods his voice as he realizes the damage done by Murillo’s bullets.
“I can’t feel my legs … What did I do … Oh my God, you f— up my life dog,” Carrillo can be heard shouting. “I’m paralyzed, dude.”
Carrillo died earlier this year of a drug overdose, according to coroner’s records. Podberesky said in court that Murillo was fired by the Whittier Police Department, but did not explain why. She declined an interview request because the trial is ongoing. Calls to the department were not immediately returned.
During his testimony, Murillo repeatedly tried to paint Carrillo as a potential danger to himself, other police and the public. He referred to him as a “fleeing felon” and referenced the fact that people on methamphetamine tend to be violent. A toxicology screen showed Carrillo later tested positive for methamphetamine, but it is unclear if Murillo actually knew the man he was chasing had used drugs that day.
Murillo also described himself as a “small guy” and noted Carrillo was “huge,” estimating him to stand 6 feet 2 and weigh about 205 pounds. On cross-examination, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jason Quirino told Murillo that the man he shot was about 4 inches shorter and 20 pounds lighter than what the detective perceived.
At one point, Quirino asked Murillo if he understood that “the more dangerous, the worse, Mr. Carrillo appears, the more reasonable you look and the better you look.” Murillo refused to answer the question directly.
“Sir, I’m here to tell the facts that were known to me at the time. I chose to take the stand to tell the truth and to fairly and thoroughly tell what I saw and what I believed,” the detective said.
Michael Schwartz, a veteran attorney who has successfully defended a number of police officers in high-profile use-of-force cases, said it could be necessary to have an officer testify in their own defense in a case where video footage provides an incomplete portrait of a shooting. Schwartz also said letting the officer speak could serve to “humanize” him to the jury.
But allowing anyone to testify in their own defense has inherent risks.
“Once the defendant testifies, all bets are off,” he said. “If they do well, they could win the case. But if they do poorly, they can lose the case. No matter how well you’re doing until that point.”
Times staff writer Christopher Buchanan contributed to this report.
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