Civil rights suit over Sonoma County police slaying will move forward

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — “You guys want to kill me!”

Those words, uttered in Spanish, were the last spoken by David Pelaez-Chavez before the then-36-year-old was shot to death by Deputy Sheriff Michael Dietrick in the hills of Sonoma County in 2022.

High on methamphetamine at the time, Pelaez-Chavez was facing away from the officer, bending down to pick up a softball-sized rock. Dietrick claimed the slain man intended to throw it at him.

Now, more than two years later, a judge in the U.S. District Court of Northern California has denied Dietrick’s motion for summary judgment in a civil rights lawsuit stemming from the killing, ruling that a jury could reasonably find him liable for use of excessive force and negligence.

“While Dietrick avers that he felt threatened before he shot Pelaez-Chavez, such a statement is not enough; there must be objective factors to justify such a concern,” Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu wrote in her order.

Attorneys for Peleaz-Chavez’s widow, who filed the suit, called the decision a win.

“You can’t use deadly force against a person who’s not an immediate threat, and that’s what this case represents,” said Izaak Schwaiger of Sebastopol-based Schwaiger Law Firm.

On the morning of July 29, 2022, Dietrick responded to multiple calls of a barefoot Hispanic man, later identified as Pelaez-Chavez. He was holding rocks in his hand and yelling at residents outside their homes.

When Dietrick arrived on the scene, a resident told him that Pelaez-Chavez threw a rock through his window. When the resident confronted him with a firearm, shooting three warning shots at Pelaez-Chavez’s feet, Pelaez stole the resident’s car and drove off.

Minutes later, Dietrick received another call about a similar incident. Another resident had been approached by Pelaez-Chavez, who got down on his knees and begged in Spanish for the resident to kill him.

He had three large rocks in his hands at the time. That resident also pointed a firearm at him, and Pelaez-Chavez fled down a nearby hill.

Deputy Sherriff Anthony Powers arrived as backup. Together with Dietrick, the two tracked Pelaez-Chavez to a third location, where he had stolen another vehicle. They then engaged in a lengthy foot chase through the Sonoma hills.

When the officers caught up to Pelaez-Chavez, he was doubled over in exhaustion, holding a garden hoe in one hand and a hammer in the other. “Please! You are trying to kill me!” he screamed before running off.

The deputies gave chase through a creek, yelling phrases like “put it fucking down, put it down,” “manos arriba” (hands up) and “alto” (stop). Neither spoke Spanish well enough to understand what Pelaez-Chavez was saying.

During the chase, Dietrick fell behind his fellow officer and climbed out of the creek to try and take a shortcut.

He later encountered Pelaez-Chavez and drew his gun. “Drop it! Drop it now! Drop it!” he yelled.

A police helicopter arrived to aid the officers. Pelaez-Chavez raised a hand to wave at the helicopter, shifting the rock between his hands and eventually dropping it. Powers approached from Pelaez-Chavez’s left side with a taser.

When Pelaez-Chavez bent over to pick up the rock, Dietrick opened fire.

At least two bullets hit Pelaez-Chavez as Powers fired his taser. The officers administered first aid for 20 minutes until paramedics arrived.

The autopsy report found Pelaez-Chavez was experiencing acute methamphetamine intoxication. The events were partially captured by the officers’ bodycams.

In 2023, Pelaez-Chavez’s widow, Estella Chavez Cruz, filed a civil suit against Dietrick on behalf of herself, her husband’s estate and their two children, claiming excessive force by Dietrick and negligence by both him and Sonoma County.

In July, Dietrick filed a motion for summary judgment. He argued he feared for his safety when he shot Pelaez-Chavez.

But in a 28-page order issued on Friday, Ryu denied the officer’s motion for summary judgment. She said a reasonable juror could find his use of force unreasonable, citing available nonlethal alternatives and the defendant’s questionable call that Palaez-Chavez would throw his rock at him.

“A juror may find that a reasonable officer would not believe Pelaez-Chavez was going to use the rock as a weapon against Dietrick,” the judge said.

Pelaez-Chavez didn’t display any violent tendencies before the shooting, even when confronted with firearms, Ryu also noted.

When asked about the plaintiffs’ next steps, Schwaiger responded that he was simply looking to get the best outcome for Pelaez-Chavez’s family.

“So, we’re prepping the case for trial and if the county does not intend to bring a reasonable settlement offer then that’s where we’re headed,” he said.

Courthouse News reached out to the attorney for Dietrick and the Sonoma County for comment but did not receive a response in time for this article.