An alleged fight between two brothers on Feb. 6 evolved into a 17-year-old being shot as he allegedly charged a Lompoc police officer with what turned out to be a very long metal fork, according to the Lompoc Police Department.
The reported fight started that morning near the teenager’s home on the 800 block of North L Street. One of the brothers ended up at Lompoc Valley Medical Center, where he was treated for a minor injury, the police department said in a press release. Later that day, the teen allegedly escaped from the hospital, breaking through one of its sliding glass doors to return home, where police said he hit his brother in the head with a dumbbell. The brother was treated and later released from the local hospital, according to the release.
The teenager’s father called 911 around midnight, and a nearby Lompoc Police Department officer, Timothy Xiong, responded to the scene to find the two brothers yelling at each other in the street. Xiong saw one of the brothers advance toward him with what he thought was a knife, police said. The press release said the teen didn’t comply with Xiong’s demands to stop, and Xiong shot the teenager once in the upper body area.
The teenager was immediately transported to the hospital. The extent of his injury is unknown, but he’s expected to recover, police said. Investigators from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office found a fork measuring approximately 9 inches at the scene, police said.
Police later arrested the 17-year-old on suspicion of two counts of attempted homicide for the alleged attack on his brother and the officer.
Lompoc Police Chief Pat Walsh said that the department’s use of force policy has changed over the years. Before, according to Walsh, officers relied on a logical progression of steps dictating the appropriate level of force, starting with the use of “command presence,” then verbal commands, hand controls, and so on, Walsh said. Currently, as Walsh describes it, officers are trained to use the amount of force necessary to overcome the situation based on the “totality of circumstances.”
“Sometimes encounters go from zero to 100 immediately, and sometimes deadly force is necessary,” Walsh said. “We teach them how to use the tools, and we expect them to use the amount of force that is appropriate.”
According to the sheriff’s office, the incident is still being investigated, and a report hasn’t been publicly released. Officer Xiong has been placed on paid administrative leave while the matter is investigated, but is expected to return to full duty before the end of February, Walsh said.
This article appears in Feb 19-26, 2015.