Oakland ordered to fire 5 officers in fatal shooting

The Oakland Police Department must fire five officers involved in the fatal shooting of a homeless man last year, a disciplinary oversight panel ruled, in a case that has pitted the department against its court-appointed monitor.

The Oakland Police Commission’s disciplinary committee made its decision July 9 in the 2018 shooting death of Joshua Pawlik, and the department released the panel’s seven-page report on Thursday.

The Police Department offered no comment, but the city administrator said the officers will be given due process, including the opportunity to attend a disciplinary hearing.

The case stems from the March 11, 2018, shooting of 32-year-old Pawlik, who was killed just after waking up between two homes in West Oakland. Pawlik failed to respond to officers’ repeated commands that he take his hand off a gun. Police said he raised the gun and pointed it at them when they opened fire.

Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick has supported the officers. An Oakland police investigative panel, the Community Police Review Agency, exonerated the officers in April, and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges.

But the Police Commission’s disciplinary panel said in its ruling that body camera footage of the incident “speaks for itself.”

“The Committee does not find persuasive Officer testimony that Mr. Pawlik lifted or pointed the handgun in a threatening manner towards Officers,” the report stated.

The commission’s threeperson disciplinary panel acts as the final word on behalf of city management, but officers have the opportunity to challenge the discipline before it’s imposed. The commission’s findings agreed with those of the department’s federal courtappointed monitor, Robert Warshaw, who found that the officers violated use-of-force policy and recommended their termination.

Warshaw’s report overrode the internal findings and stood as the department’s official decision.

The panel, made up of Commission Chair Regina Jackson and Commissioners Jose Dorado and Edwin Prather, recommended terminating Officers Brandon Hraiz, Craig Tanaka, William Berger and Sgt. Francisco Negrete, who all fired rifles, as well as Officer Josef Phillips, who discharged a beanbag gun.

The committee also recommended the demotion of Lt. Alan Yu, for failing “to properly perform his duties as the Incident Commander.”

“The findings of the Police Commission’s Discipline Committee are the next step in the discipline process,” Karen Boyd, spokesperson for the city administrator, said in a statement. “Under State law, the officers will be afforded their due process rights, including the opportunity to attend a Skelly hearing prior to final imposition of discipline. The City of Oakland supports the due process rights of all employees.”

A Skelly hearing is provided to employees in disciplinary cases that could involve termination or suspension.

Barry Donelan, president of the Oakland Police Officers Association, fired Thursday back at the decision in a press statement, calling the discipline a political hit.

“The Commission’s decision is obviously born from a desperate politically-driven need to prosecute police officers regardless of the facts,” he said. “Oakland Police Officers work hard for justice and equity in our community, but clearly receive neither from the City’s own Police Commission.”

He declined to comment on what steps the union will take. It is possible that the union could argue that the statute of limitations is up on any disciplinary action against the officers.

Last January, the police union won a suit to block the Community Police Review Agency, the commission’s investigative arm, from disciplining three officers accused of misconduct.

The Oakland Police Commission was created following a 2016 ballot initiative, an effort to boost the community’s trust in police. Within some restrictions, the commissioners have the authority to discipline officers, fire the police chief and help shape policies within the department.

The commission works alongside the Community Police Review Agency, which reviews complaints of police misconduct and recommends discipline.

Donelan stressed that five separate investigations exonerated the officers prior to the commission’s vote. The chief of police, the department’s Internal Affairs Division and Executive Force Review Board, as well as the commission’s own Community Police Review Agency, cleared the officers of internal misconduct. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office found no criminal wrongdoing.

When the department’s recommended discipline is at odds with the CPRA, the city’s municipal code instructs the commission to form a threemember panel to resolve the dispute. The Pawlik shooting is the first time in the commission’s two-year history that it has recommended the firing of officers.

Donelan said it was too soon to consider legal action, and that the city has not yet informed the officers of the basis for their terminations.

Megan Cassidy and Sarah Ravani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com, sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy @sarravani