Widow of man killed by SLO deputies during traffic stop loses lawsuit against county
A federal judge ruled in favor of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office in an excessive force lawsuit brought by the widow of a county resident shot to death during a traffic stop in Atascadero.
A San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office investigation found the deputy-involved shooting of Josue Gallardo on Jan. 24, 2017, was justified as Gallardo allegedly pulled a replica-style BB gun after making suicidal statements.
The wrongful death lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by Gallardo’s widow alleged that the two sheriff’s deputies involved were aggressive and violated Gallardo’s civil rights.
Though the lawsuit alleged Gallardo was “complying with every command,” patrol car dash cam footage of the incident released in compliance with a recent state law shortly after the claim’s filing shows that deputies attempted to deescalate the tense interaction before ultimately firing 35 rounds into Gallardo’s rented Cadillac sedan.
The District Attorney’s Office report revealed Gallardo had a potentially toxic level of cocaine in his blood at the time of death and that a suicide note was found in the trunk of his car.
In a ruling filed Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Dean Pregerson✓ wrote that, while the two deputies’ actions were imperfect and the lawsuit’s claims were compelling, the law enforcement response was reasonable given the circumstances.
“In all but the most compelling cases, decisions of liability in civil rights cases involving deadly force should rightly be left to juries. To do otherwise erodes the confidence of the public in the integrity of the courts and in the continued viability of the Civil Rights Act,” Pregerson wrote. “This case, however, is one of those few compelling cases that cannot go forward. That does not make it any less a tragedy.”
“A man lost his life, and the officers involved will forever have to live with the knowledge that they took a life,” Pregerson continued. “The officers were confronted with an impossible situation. In hindsight, did they act perfectly? No. A man died. In such situations there will always be room for after-the-fact criticisms.”
The judge concluded that there was no dispute the deputies, Gregory Roach and Jonathon Calvert, “acted reasonably under the circumstances, within the bounds of the law.”
Atascadero traffic stop ends in shooting
According to a report released by the District Attorney’s Office and video footage of the incident, Gallardo, 34, was pulled over on Highway 101 in Atascadero near the Santa Barbara Road exit at about 12:05 a.m. Jan. 24, 2017.
The report states that Roach was familiar with Gallardo from an incident two weeks earlier in which Gallardo, driving a Cadillac, was chased away from a residence in Shandon associated with his estranged wife.
Roach later found a Cadillac matching that description unattended in Shandon, and a license plate check came back to a car rental company, the report states.
Roach also knew of Gallardo from a domestic violence incident in 2016 for which Gallardo had a $25,000 warrant for his arrest, the report states.
The document says the deputies later saw and recognized Gallardo driving a Cadillac on Highway 101 and approached the vehicle with their guns drawn “due to a sense that Gallardo might be dangerous.”
Gallardo had an “agitated or angry look on his face,” the report states, and after telling deputies that he wanted them to kill him, Gallardo at times complied with Calvert’s demands. Then Calvert asked Gallardo if he had a gun, according to the report.
Video shows Gallardo say, “Maybe I have a gun.”
“I don’t want to shoot you — I don’t know you,” Calvert says. “Let’s start over: Do you have a gun, yes or no?”
After more words, inaudible on the video, are exchanged, Gallardo opens the driver’s side door and Roach, then Calvert, fire into the vehicle, with Calvert pivoting around the back of the vehicle, firing through the rear window.
The officers fired a total of 35 rounds in the incident, the report states, noting that Roach fired 15 rounds, while Calvert discharged his weapon 20 times.
Responding emergency personnel pronounced Gallardo dead at the scene. An autopsy revealed he had been shot seven times, including a fatal shot to the head.
The report states that additional deputies discovered what was then described as a black semi-automatic pistol — a replica of a Walther PPK — in Gallardo’s lap.
Gallardo had purchased the gun six days earlier at a local Walmart, and had spent several days at an Atascadero hotel using cocaine, evidence showed.
A apologetic suicide note was reportedly found in the trunk of the Cadillac.
Justin Sterling, one of the attorneys representing Frances Gallardo in her wrongful death lawsuit against the county, questioned physical evidence documented at the scene and argued that the deputies did not follow procedure.
“This tragedy is undeniable and the DA’s report raises serious questions about the SLO County Sheriff’s procedures for dealing with troubled individuals,” Sterling wrote to The Tribune in February 2019.
‘We share in their pain’
Calvert, one of the deputies who shot Gallardo, told The Tribune on Friday that the shooting was indeed a tragedy, and it’s affected his life every day since.
“I still grieve for Mr. Gallardo and his entire family. Specifically for his children,” Calvert said. “I’ve seen some pretty horrific things in my years as a peace officer, and compassionately helped literally thousands of despairing men and women in their time of need.”
“But the man I encountered that night was beyond anything you can train a first responder for and expect a positive outcome,” he added.
While circumstances were not immediately clear to Calvert — who, unlike his partner that night had no previous experience with Gallardo — he said that learning the circumstances of Gallardo’s final days through later investigation made the whole situation even more tragic.
“It absolutely broke my heart to learn the following day that he had simply chosen that place, that time, and us to end his life,” Calvert said. “And I hope some day that his family can understand that we share in their pain, and that the weight of his decision still wears heavy upon us both.”
