Prosecution of Security Officers Involved in Shootings Declining
Charlotte NC March 14 2019
After a YouTube personality known as “Furry Potato,” was shot by a security officer while filming outside the Etz Jacob Congregation/Ohel Chana High School building on February 14, the security officer was arrested.
Edduin Zelayagrunfeld, 44, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after shooting 45-year-old Zhoie Perez who was gathering content for her YouTube channel.
Perez can be seen in several of her video’s walking around the exterior of the property filming while the security officer demands that she stop and leave the sidewalk where she was standing.
But Los Angeles prosecutors Wednesday declined to file criminal charges against the security officer. In a declination memorandum, Deputy Dist. Atty. John Harlan wrote that prosecutors ultimately would not be able to disprove Zelayagrunfeld was acting in self-defense.
The District Attorney’s office also declined to prosecute a security officer in an incident that occurred at a Van Nuys California 99 cent store where the security officer pepper sprayed and punched a suspected female shoplifter.
Video from surveillance cameras showed that the female and assaulted the security officer first and the security officer was defending himself the DA’s office noted.
Alabama prosecutors also refused to issue charges against a security officer caught on video punching a man in front of a Birmingham nightclub. In that incident, the security officer had ejected the man from the club when he threatened the security officer and then reached into his waistband. Even though police found no weapon, the threat of an imminent assault warranted the security officer defending himself.
The Dane County District Attorney’s Office also decided not to prosecute a bank security officer who shot an unarmed man trying to rob the bank.
Luis Narvaez, 35, died from a single gunshot wound to his back.
The plainclothes security agent saw what was happening and without warning, fatally shot Narvaez from behind him.
In cases of self-defense or using lethal force to stop violent or serious crimes in progress, some prosecutors are beginning to consider the totality of the situation as part of their decision whether or not to file criminal charges against private security officers.
While sworn police officers are protected by qualified immunity from prosecution in use of force incidents where the officer followed protocol and training, security officers are left to face immediate arrest or grand jury indictments.
Still, other shootings involving security officers have been vigorously prosecuted and even
scrutinized in some areas of the country.
Annually, more than two hundred security officers are arrested in shooting incidents facing a wide range of charges from assault to murder.
