Police in the San Francisco Bay Area arrested nine people after they interrupted a Fairfield City Council meeting to protest the hiring of a police officer involved in a 2012 fatal shooting in the nearby city of Vallejo.
Eight adults and a 17-year-old were charged with disturbing the peace after an outburst during the Fairfield City Council meeting Tuesday, the Fairfield Police Department said Wednesday in a statement.
Fairfield Police Chief Deanna Cantrell in an open letter defended the department’s hiring in 2018 of Officer Dustin Joseph as “robust” and in line with state standards for law enforcement departments.
Joseph was one of two officers involved in the fatal Sept. 2, 2012 shooting of Vallejo resident Mario Romero. Romero, 23, was shot and killed when he got out of his car and the two officers believed he was reaching for a gun, which turned out to be a non-lethal pellet gun, KPIX-TV reported.
An investigation by the Solano County District Attorney’s Office concluded that Joseph and the other officer acted in self-defense.
Cantrell also noted that she did not know Joseph’s potential involvement in the alleged practice by Vallejo police officers of bending their badges to signify fatal shootings when she hired him in 2018.
An independent, third-party investigation into the badge bending practice is ongoing in Vallejo.
Joseph is not currently working the streets as an officer, Cantrell said.