HAYWARD, CA – Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price decided not to pursue the charges against two Hayward police officers in the 2018 fatal shooting of Augie Gonsalez.
The incident, as stated by East Bay Express, occurred when “[t]hree officers found Gonsalez there holding a razor blade. Police said he approached them and told officers they would have to kill him. Officers Phillip Wooley, a 28-year veteran, and Michael Clark, an 11-year veteran, fired 13 rounds. Gonsalez was taken to Eden Medical Center, but died there about two hours later.”
Gonzalez’s family last week released a statement demanding “that the police department and the District Attorney’s Office not only take responsibility for what has happened but also implement real accountability measures and systems to prevent more lives from being lost.”
The family added, “We also demand that the Hayward Police Department send a request to POST to have the officers reviewed to be decertified,” noting “at least one of the officers involved had a history of misconduct on file, indicating that intervention or review before this may have changed the course of this incident.”
The statement released by the family also states, “Officers Michael Clark and Phillip Wooley were responding to reports of a man, described as “being in a mental health crisis, holding a knife.”
But the family claims that while Gonsalez was carrying a 1.5-inch safety blade at the scene, and he used it as a tool at work. The family says officers shot and killed him “within seconds of arrival.”
Gonsalez’s cousin Cynthia wrote in her statement “Statistics show that people in mental health crises are more likely to experience lethal outcomes at the hands of law enforcement.”
In a public statement, the DA’s office acknowledged procedural issues in the officers’ response and expressed concerns over their handling of the incident. Yet, despite such “serious mistakes” being acknowledged, no charges were filed.
That decision is under public scrutiny now, and concern is being expressed by Gonsalez’s family that the outcome reflects a gap in accountability.
