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Review Finds Vista Deputies Were Justified in Use of Deadly Force

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter,  KPBS Public Broadcasting
Published May 7, 2007 at 12:29 PM PDT
This story was published more than 17 years ago.

The California attorney general's office has concluded Vista Sheriff's deputies use of force was justified when officers shot and killed four Latino men. The attorney general's review supports Distric

Review Finds Vista Deputies Were Justified in Use of Deadly Force

The California attorney general's office has concluded Vista Sheriff's deputies use of force was justified when officers shot and killed four Latino men. The attorney general's review supports District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis' decision. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has the story.

A coalition of Latino and civil rights groups asked the attorney general's office to review the shootings. The groups question whether Latinos in Vista are disproportionately the victims of lethal force. In the space of five months in 2005, Vista Sheriff's deputies shot and killed five Latino men. The groups also wonder if officers needed to used deadly force in those cases.

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Last July, the district attorney's office concluded deputies' actions were justified.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Gary Schons agrees. He says he doesn't see any pattern of discrimination.

Schons : That's not to say that there aren't issues within the Sheriff's Department that need to be addressed, and we understand there is a study underway by the Sheriff's Department.

The state attorney general's civil rights division will also review the shootings.

Amy Isackson, KPBS News.

Amy Isackson
Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.
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