Torrance police officers face manslaughter charges in killing

Two Torrance police officers will face voluntary manslaughter charges in a 2018 shooting after Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón decided to reopen a case his predecessor declined to prosecute, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.

A grand jury indicted Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez on one count each of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Christopher Deandre Mitchell, who was sitting in a suspected stolen car with an air rifle between his knees when the officer opened fire, court records show.

The indictment was returned March 24, and the officers’ attorneys were notified of the decision to indict last week.

The officers pleaded not guilty during a brief arraignment in downtown L.A. Monday morning. The courtroom was lined with many of Mitchell’s loved ones, including his mother, and several organizers with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, which has vociferously protested the shooting for years.

Former Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey decided not to prosecute Concannon and Chavez, but the case was one of four Gascón hired a special prosecutor to reopen when he swept into office in 2020 on a promise of holding police accountable for on-duty killings and excessive force incidents. The case against the officers is the first of those four to be brought by Lawrence Middleton, the special prosecutor hired to lead the reviews.

“It’s been four and a half years, still counting, that this family has been fighting,” said Terrell Traylor, Mitchell’s uncle, outside the courthouse.

Gascón is expected to speak about the case at an afternoon news conference.

In December 2018, Concannon and Chavez were responding to reports of a man driving a stolen vehicle and came upon Mitchell in a Ralph’s parking lot in Torrance, according to an earlier district attorney’s office memo clearing the officers of wrongdoing.

The officers parked behind Mitchell, exited their vehicle and yelled, “Police!” Mitchell initially placed his hands on the steering wheel, according to the memo.

The officers repeatedly ordered Mitchell to get out of the car, but he did not comply, according to the report. When they approached him, the officers noticed Mitchell’s hands move toward his lap, where Concannon saw what he believed to be a firearm. Both officers then shot Mitchell at close range, killing him.

The officers described the weapon, later determined to be a “break barrel air rifle,” as “pinched” between Mitchell’s legs, though neither alleged he grabbed it or pointed it at them before they shot him.

Concannon and Chavez have both been linked to a racist texting scandal inside the Torrance Police Department, after an investigation revealed roughly 15 officers sent approximately 390 racist, sexist and homophobic messages from 2018 to 2020. The messages included jokes about setting up Black men to be killed, one officer suggesting he wanted to shoot and hang several Black suspects and a picture of a teddy bear being lynched inside the police departments 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, according to multiple civil lawsuits filed in recent years.

“This case is clearly a murder case, and the text messaging scandal which included messages about Christopher and his family speak volumes about the racist nature of the Torrance Police Department,” said Sheila Bates, a Black Lives Matter organizer who was arrested and injured during the City Council protest.

Chavez is no longer a Torrance police officer, according to a roster released in response to a public records request from The Times last year. Concannon was placed on administrative leave after news of the indictment broke last week, according to his attorney, Lisa Houle.

Gascón’s decision to pursue a case that his predecessor declined to file is certainly a legal rarity, but experts said it’s unclear how much Lacey’s past decision-making would weigh on a new criminal case.

“I’m not sure how easily the defense will get that in front of a jury … I don’t know that it would be admissible. I don’t know that it’s relevant,” said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and professor at Loyola Law School. “I’m not sure how that goes in front of a jury, and it might come down to in cross examining individual witnesses that there were problems before in evaluating some of the cases … but I don’t think the defense will be able to say, ‘Didn’t your office reject this before?’ ”