San Bernardino County Sheriff’s delegates involved in a shooting in 2022 next to a California highway that killed a teenage girl, and her fleeing father would face no criminal charges, state attorney Rob Bonta announced on Friday.
Bonta released a report compiled by the Justice Department in California following an investigation that includes interviews with officers, witnesses who drive on the road that day and family members who remember the man and his daughter had a close relationship. The Attorney General calls the incident a tragic situation with a tragic result.
“This report was very difficult to publish, and I sincerely hope that it gives the community the answers they were waiting for,” Bonta said in a statement. “The Justice Department in California is aimed at working with law enforcement to build a fair and equitable legal environment, to ensure that the rule of law is upheld, and justice is accessible to all.”
Video and audio released by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department showed that Savannah Graziano, 15, was shot and killed when his delegates approached amid a hail with a firearm on September 27, 2022.
According to the Justice Review Department, 45-year-old Anthony Graziano drove away with his daughter after he shot and killed Tracy Martinez, his 45-year-old estranged wife, when she tried to flee his bakkie. Authorities said the teen was in the truck when her mother was shot, and an Amber Alert was issued.
San Bernardino County delegates saw the truck the next day, and a 41 -kilometer pursuit (66 kilometers) arose on Interstate 15. While Anthony was driving Graziano, the authorities said that many rounds from behind and passenger windows were fired from the vehicle. Sound of the delegates’ belters included the sounds of rounds that hit their patrol vehicles. One deputy sustained gunshot wounds to his arm and fingers on both his hands.
Authorities said shots were fired from Graziano truck after driving off the highway and chasing up on an embankment. About 65 covers and four firearms were found in the truck. The investigation also determined that 21 delegates caught fire.
The report said that the vehicle came to a standstill and that the teen – with a tactical helmet and vest – came out of the front passenger door and initially hung on the ground. She then got up and moved to a deputy as he cried her out. She raised her right hand, and that was when other delegates caught fire, according to the report.
Anthony Graziano was found dead on the driver’s seat. The autopsy results showed that he had died of a gunshot wound to the head and also sustained gunshot wounds to his shoulder, lower back and leg. In a toxicological report, it was shown that he had methamphetamine and amphetamine, as well as morphine and hydrocodon in his blood and urine.
No drugs or alcohol were found in Savannah Graziano’s blood or urine. Her cause of death was listed as gunshot wounds.
There was a gun shot in samples taken from the teenager as well as her father. The report noted that rifle charges can be deposited by firing a firearm, in the vicinity of a firearm discharged, or by dealing with a firearm or ammunition.
The report said that ‘no conclusion’ can be made from the residue testing or the teen or her father fired a firearm. But in the attempt to recreate several shooting positions from inside the truck, given the location of powder burn wounds left by the snout of a gun in the vehicle, the investigators found that the driver would not be able to shoot the gun and still maintain control of the gas and brake pedals.
Prosecutors noted in the report that evidence indicates that delegates believed that both Graziano and his daughter – who were experienced in dealing with firearms and the training drills of firearms with her father – pose a threatening threat and that the need to use deadly power was reasonable.
Family members told the authorities that Graziano lived in his truck and that his daughter would stay with him regularly and slept in the truck next to a park. They said the teenager was upset about the divorce of her parents.
The report also contains recommendations related to training and camera-mounted and body-defecting camera policy. The Attorney General’s office said the sheriff’s department implemented the training recommendations after the incident.
