The sister of a man shot and killed last month in a confrontation with El Cajon Police officers claimed Thursday the agency was negligent in training and supervising an officer who handled the call with a “cowboy attitude."
Alfred Olango, a 38-year-old Ugandan refugee who came to the U.S. over 20 years ago, was shot by police on September 27.
His sister, Lucy Olango, filed a claim for damages with the City of El Cajon alleging the officer who fired the fatal shots handled her 911 call for help with “a cowboy attitude and demeanor.”
Lucy Olango called police that day because her brother was “not acting like himself,” police said. ECPD officials said Olango was reported to be “acting erratically,” walking in and out of traffic.
Video of the shooting shows Officer Richard Gonsalves approaching Olango in the parking lot of a strip mall and then firing several rounds just moments later.
The claim alleges that Gonsalves “provoked Alfred into taking foreseeable defensive measures which Officer Gonsalves then used as false justification to kill him.”
El Cajon police said Olango refused multiple instructions to remove his hand from in his pocket before he pulled out an object and held it in front of him “like he would be firing a gun.” The object was later determined to be a vaping smoking device with an all-silver cylinder measuring approximately 1 inch in diameter and 3 inches long.
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Lucy Olango’s claim alleges that the officer did not wait for the city’s Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) to arrive and did not use nonlethal ways of controlling the situation.
"Officer Gonsalves acted negligently in both his pre-shooting tactical conduct and decisions, e.g., to escalate to deadly force very quickly and without warning, not to wait for P.E.R.T., not to use non-lethal alternatives, and to instead confront and provoke Alfred, as well as his decision to shoot an unarmed man," the claim states.
ECPD’s PERT was working another police call at the time.
“Officer Gonsalves drew his firearm and aggressively confronted, chased, and cornered Alfred,” the claim alleges adding that the department did not adequately train or supervise the officer.
The family also alleges the officer had demonstrated unfitness prior to the day of the shooting including issues with substance abuse, acts of violence and emotional problems.
As NBC 7 has reported, Gonsalves was accused of sexually harassing another ECPD officer by sending inappropriate texts and photos in 2013.
The officer is a 21-year veteran of the department. He was on administrative leave which is routine after an officer-involved shooting.
