A Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputy lawfully shot and killed a suspect during an attempted arrest in 2018, according to the results of an investigation released Monday by the District Attorney’s Office.
The investigation concludes that Deputy Matthew Gauthier did not break the law when he shot and killed Paul Ridgeway while trying to arrest him on an outstanding warrant on Dec. 5, 2018.
Gauthier shot Ridgeway eight times after Ridgeway allegedly fired a single shot from a 9 mm handgun, narrowly missing the deputy’s head.
Ridgeway, an alleged member of the Family Affiliated Irish Mafia gang, was wanted on a no-bail warrant from another county for evading and resisting arrest, sheriff’s officials said at the time of the shooting.
Gauthier tried to arrest Ridgeway at about 9:30 a.m. near Adelaide Drive and Pacheco Boulevard in an unincorporated part of the county near Martinez but Ridgeway allegedly ran when he saw the deputy coming, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Gauthier chased Ridgeway down, tackled him and pulled his “duty firearm” because Ridgeway was violently resisting arrest, prosecutors said in a news release Monday.
That’s when Ridgeway allegedly drew his own gun and fired the shot at Deputy Gauthier’s head.
Ridgeway died at the scene after being struck by Gauthier’s return fire.
“The evidence shows that Contra Costa County Sheriff Deputy Matthew Gauthier acted in what he actually and reasonably believed to be self-defense and defense of others,” according to the District Attorney’s report.
“The examined evidence does not support the contention that the shooting of Ridgeway was criminal,” according to the report.
13 comments
That Becton and her team took this long to complete a very simple investigation shows her desperation to jail law enforcement officers.
Time for a recall.
108RS
Agreed. Recall that piece of excrement. Take out the trash.
3 years? It took 3 years to finally come to the conclusion that it was justified?
I’ve been involved in the use of the Contra Costa County officer involved Fatal Incident Protocol as a Supervisor, Detective assigned to the investigation and as an involved officer under investigation.
In none of those incidents did it take longer than 3 months for the DA’s Office to come to a finding. Some were so obvious it was within hours.
The DA must have resurrected this case in an attempt to prosecute the deputy. I guess the current DA must believe all the previous DAs and all the Deputy DAs in the office were incompetent and/or criminally corrupt.
Amazing.
Good news from the DA’s office, for a change. Back the Blue
“Me thinks he doth protest too much” comes to mind, although modified to indicate the past tense.
I really don’t care what a person’s skin tone is, if you aim a gun at a police officer, you should already have all of your affairs in order.
Three YEARS?? It took THREE YEARS to clear this officer? Why would ANYONE ever want to be a cop? This poor guy not only had to live with killing another human, he had to do it with the cloud of potential murder charges hanging over his head. This world has lost it’s ever-loving mind.
This goes against the woke demorats narrative. Three years??? They were trying someway to charge the deputy with a crime.
I’m thinking somebody wanted to charge him they would have charged them Democrat Republican whatever. Yeah three years maybe a little long I admit that. But you do need to check into these things. As far as I am concerned you try to shoot the guy in the head I don’t think nine new holes in you is enough.
Janus has it exactly right. DA didn’t used to be enemy of the cops. That’s all changed.
Sounds like our DA wants to run for AG or for congress.
She shouldn’t even run for dog catcher.
Time to clean house. Three years is insane. Mary Knox for DA.
@ Jimmy G- Mary Knox would be an excellent choice for DA.
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