DA: No charges filed against deputies who fatally shot man in Palo Colorado

The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office has determined that two sheriff’s deputies acted in self-defense and defense of others when they fatally shot a man in March.

“The District Attorney’s Office will not file any criminal charge against either deputy,” prosecutors said in a release Friday. “The scope of this review is narrow. It is not to advise concerning best practices for law enforcement in the field, but rather to determine if any officer committed a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Deputies shot and killed Hector Chairez on March 20 in the Palo Colorado Canyon area after responding to a report from a homeowner who said two people appeared to be casing his property.

When deputies arrived at the Garrapatos Road home, the homeowner told them that a man and a woman had attempted to break into his home and rummaged through his vehicle.

The homeowner said he chased Chairez and Amber Barnett off the property and they left in a white U-haul truck that had been reported as stolen.

Chairez was described by the man who reported the truck as stolen as “a felon on the run for beating and kidnapping his wife.”

Just before 4 p.m. that day, a deputy found the pair driving on Garrapatos Road and conducted a traffic stop. Chairez was ordered to get out of the truck but he refused, and then backed the truck up and took off.

Deputies chased the suspect through back roads until they finally caught up with him at Palo Colorado Road. The suspect then crashed into a deputy patrol car and attempted to run, but at least one deputy shot him. Deputies believed Chairez could be armed at the time, prosecutors determined.

According to the prosecutor’s findings, Barnett was located soon after the shooting and told deputies that Chairez “wanted you (deputies) to think he had weapons so you would kill him.”

She also told investigators that Chairez had told her he didn’t want to go back to prison, and that he threatened to use her as a hostage. She said she feared for her life.

She also said that he had repeatedly told her that if were ever stopped by the police, he would “not be taken alive.”

Chairez had a lengthy criminal record. In addition to a conviction for assault on a peace officer and several convictions for sales of controlled substances and marijuana, Chairez had felony convictions for domestic violence, dissuading a witness using force or threats, home invasion robbery, and felon in possession of a firearm.

He’d served multiple commitments in prison. In February 2014, he was charged by the Union City Police Department with kidnapping, spousal abuse, making criminal threats against his girlfriend and law enforcement officers, and felon in possession of a firearm. A no bail warrant for his arrest was issued by this agency for these charges on Feb. 20; a second no bail arrest warrant was issued by the Santa Clara County Probation Department on March 3 after Mr. Chairez failed twice to meet with his probation officer.