Two very similar killings at the hands of the police result in two very different findings on responsibility of police to de-escalate before using deadly force;

Collier County Sheriff’s Office Professional Responsibility Bureau (PRB) Investigation into killing of Nicolas Morales, released last week, recommends “finding of exoneration.” Report turns blind eye to deputies’ failure to de-escalate or recognize mental health crisis, deems brutal shooting and mauling “successful,” concludes use of deadly force “lawful, reasonable and within policy”;

Meanwhile, California District Attorney charges police officer in similar shooting death with felony manslaughter, calls shooting “unreasonable use of deadly force”; DA finds officer’s “failure to attempt other de-escalation options… rendered his use of deadly force unreasonable and a violation” of state law.

Last week, local CBS affiliate WINK-TV received a copy of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) internal investigation into the brutal killing of Nicolas Morales last September in the Farmworker Village neighborhood of Immokalee. The summary report was issued by the CCSO’s Professional Responsibility Bureau (PRB), the department within the CCSO that “works to ensure members abide by Agency values and makes certain each member maintains high standards of conduct and professionalism.” Dedicated to the principle that, “The public has the right to efficient, fair and impartial treatment,” the PRB reviews allegations of police misconduct and takes “corrective measures… when members are found to be non-compliant with Agency policy and procedures.”

The report’s conclusions were sadly predictable. After interviewing the deputies involved in the killing, as well as a small handful of witnesses, the PRB investigation concluded that Corporal Pierre Jean’s decision to use deadly force and fire three bullets at close range into Nicolas, a farmworker and single father of a 13-yr old son, was “lawful, reasonable, and within policy.” Specifically, the report concluded that Cpl. Jean’s decision to kill Nicolas — who was holding only pruning shears in his hand at the moment he was shot (shears so small that one of the two officers standing closest to Nicolas failed to notice them) — met both the elements of the “two-fold test” necessary to authorize the use of deadly force.

The two elements are as follows:

“The suspect poses an imminent threat of death or serious physical injury to the Deputy or to others; and the failure of the Deputy to use deadly force poses an imminent threat of death or serious physical injury to the Deputy or others.”

The PRB recommended that Cpl. Jean, as well as the two other sheriff’s deputies present at the time of Nicolas’s killing, be fully exonerated of any legal wrongdoing...

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