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DA: Officer Cleared In 2007 Christmas Shooting
March 17, 2009SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego county district attorney cleared a San Diego police officer of criminal wrongdoing in the Christmas Day 2007 wounding of a man who led authorities on a chase in a Los Angeles County sheriff's stolen car and was shot when officers thought he was reaching for a shotgun.
Regino Hector Aguilar suffered a graze wound to the head.
Officer Tony Naputi reasonably feared for his life when he opened fire, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis wrote in a ruling sent to Police Chief William Lansdowne.
Naputi was one of two law enforcement officials to fire upon Aguilar at the end of the chase, which started in Leucadia and ended in the South Bay.
The sheriff's patrol car was taken in Los Angeles about 2 1/2 hours earlier when Aguilar found it running and unoccupied.
California Highway Patrol Officer Eliazar Colunga fired twice at Aguilar but missed. Dumanis said the officers believed they saw Aguilar reaching for a shotgun in the sheriff's vehicle. Sheriff's patrol cars have .12-gauge shotguns locked into a rifle holder in the driver's compartment.
Aguilar was charged with one count each of auto theft, felony evading and resisting an executive officer. The auto theft and evading charges were dropped after Aguilar pleaded guilty in May to one count of resisting an executive officer, Dumanis said.
Aguilar was sentenced to 110 days in county jail with credit for 110 days served, placed on three years formal probation and ordered to pay a fine of $1,054 and restitution to Los Angeles County in the amount of $1,117.80.
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