Newly unsealed court records are pulling back the curtain on a chaotic 2022 El Cajon shooting, revealing that two San Diego County sheriff’s deputies say they saw a National City detective behind their target before they pulled their triggers. The Feb. 16, 2022, confrontation left suspect Erik Talavera severely wounded and National City Detective Rowdy Pauu shot in the leg. The disclosures are surfacing as separate federal lawsuits by both men move forward in U.S. District Court.
Court filings posted on Justia show Deputies David Lovejoy and Jonathon Young testified that they saw a National City detective and another officer “downrange” behind Talavera before they opened fire. The filings say the deputies unleashed a total of 17 rounds at Talavera and that one of those bullets hit Detective Pauu. The newly unsealed testimony is part of consolidated complaints that lay out sharply different versions of what happened that night.
The San Diego County district attorney’s review concluded that both deputies believed the object Talavera pulled from his waistband could be a small gun and cleared them of criminal charges, according to NBC 7 San Diego. Talavera was hit 16 times and survived, and both he and Pauu say they are still dealing with long‑term physical and emotional fallout. Pauu’s complaint says doctors have been unable to remove the bullet that remains lodged in his leg and that the injury has kept him from returning to full duties.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys argue the deputies opened fire while Talavera was following commands and moving toward the ground, and that some of the shots were “sympathetic gunfire” triggered by the initial volley, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. Oversight reviews have also questioned whether Talavera was in the process of complying when the deputies started shooting. In deposition excerpts and complaints, plaintiffs spotlight a passage in which Deputy Lovejoy allegedly told colleagues he had seen Pauu and “thought he could make the shot.”
Legal questions
The county and the deputies have asked U.S. District Judge Todd W. Robinson to toss Pauu’s lawsuit, arguing that the deputies are protected by qualified immunity and that Pauu cannot show the level of intent or conscience‑shocking conduct required under the Fourteenth Amendment, Courthouse News Service reported. In a June 2024 order, Judge Robinson allowed some of Pauu’s claims to move forward while dismissing others, narrowing the constitutional issues that remain for later stages of the case.
What’s next
The county argued a motion for summary judgment at a hearing yesterday, and the judge did not issue an immediate ruling, according to The San Diego Union‑Tribune. If Judge Robinson ultimately denies immunity, the cases could head toward trials that would scrutinize how multi‑agency task forces coordinate and how deputies use force in high‑risk operations.
Reporting and court records have also highlighted task‑force communications and training. Plaintiffs and coverage point out that deputies at the scene did not have direct radio links to the detectives, a gap that critics say makes crossfire and friendly‑fire incidents more likely, as the Times of San Diego reported. Attorneys for Talavera and Pauu say a jury verdict or settlement could prompt the county to revisit how it staffs, trains, and supervises multi‑agency operations.
