White LA County DA Asks Court to Dismiss Charges Against the 2 White Torrance Cops who Murdered Christopher Mitchell. Shot Black Man Sitting in His Car, he was Not Under Arrest. Cops Sent Racist Texts

From [HERE] Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman moved to drop manslaughter charges Friday against two Torrance police officers who shot and killed a Black man in 2018, attempting to end a seven-year saga that saw the case rejected and then reexamined by three different elected prosecutors. Hochman is white and both officers are white.

Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez were indicted in 2023 for the shooting death of Christopher Deandre Mitchell, a 23-year-old car theft suspect who was in possession of an air rifle at the time he was killed. While Mitchell never pointed the weapon at either officer, Concannon told authorities he saw Mitchell reaching for what he believed was a real firearm when he opened fire.

Michael Gennaco, a special prosecutor hired earlier this year by Hochman to review the case, filed a motion to dismiss charges late Thursday, saying he did not believe prosecutors could prove voluntary manslaughter at trial.

But Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta declined to rule on the motion Friday, citing a pending review of the case by the California Supreme Court. Concannon's attorneys had previously filed a writ of habeas corpus after Ohta rejected a motion to dismiss the charges.

“I am not going to rule on this because it would be inappropriate for me to do that at this point. The Supreme Court has to tell us its decision," Ohta said.

Ohta signaled he wouldn't decide the motion until the case was withdrawn from the Supreme Court, and even then, he would need time to review the filings.

Chavez and Concannon were among those investigated in 2021 when the district attorney's office uncovered a thread of racist text messages sent by members of the Torrance Police Department. At least 15 officers with the Torrance Police Department sent approximately 390 racist, sexist and homophobic messages from 2018 to 2020. This is something that appears to be somewhat common among cops in California and elsewhere. The text messages talked about hurting and killing Black people. The messages included jokes about setting up Black men to be killed, with one officer suggesting he wanted to shoot and hang several Black suspects, and a picture of a teddy bear being lynched inside the police department’s headquarters, according to documents previously reviewed by The Times.

While The Times never found evidence that Concannon or Chavez sent any of the messages, they were both under investigation as part of the scandal, according to documents previously reviewed by the newspaper and sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Messages sent by unidentified officers used the N-word to describe Mitchell’s loved ones and celebrated other officers’ decision to use force against protesters who supported Mitchell’s family during a demonstration in front of the Torrance City Council. Several of the officers who used racist language in the messages were also later accused of using excessive force against protesters in civil lawsuits.

The shooting incident occurred when officers approached Mitchell while he was seated in a purported stolen car in a Ralphs parking lot. They claimed they spotted what was later revealed to be a "break barrel air rifle" between his legs.

Gennaco said the stock of the air rifle, which was all Concannon could see, looked "strikingly similar" to a shotgun. He fired one round, and Chavez fired twice immediately after. The two officers then retreated and waited for backup.

Nearly 30 minutes elapsed before anyone checked on Mitchell, who was then pronounced dead of a single gunshot wound, according to court records.

Christopher Deandre Mitchell’s family have maintained that Mitchell did follow commands and was never a threat to the officers, who they say never gave him a chance to surrender. They claim he was asleep in the car when the cops approached him. Black Lives Matter Los Angeles organizer Sheila Bates said Monday that the officers unnecessarily escalated the situation despite Mitchell not threatening them in any way, and they opened fire within seconds of approaching him.

The video speaks for itself - the white cops pretend to be threatened as the Black man appears calm and is trying to comply with their confusing, excited commands. Mitchell speaks in a calm, non-threatening voice and appears to be apologizing to them for not understanding their disfluent commands or not complying fast enough. Police are not facing any imminent threat of deadly harm when they fatally shoot him - at least from a reasonable, non-racist point of view.