A long-running South Bay police shooting case came to a halt Thursday when a Los Angeles County judge dismissed voluntary manslaughter charges against two former Torrance officers in the 2018 killing of 23-year-old Christopher DeAndre Mitchell. The ruling effectively shuts the door on a criminal prosecution that has fueled protests, lawsuits, and public debate for years.
Superior Court Judge Sam Ohta signed the order ending the case against officers Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez, who were indicted in 2023 for the on-duty shooting. Mitchell was shot in December 2018 while sitting in his car after officers said they saw what appeared to be a rifle between his legs, a weapon later determined to be an altered air rifle. The shooting and the officers' conduct ultimately led to a $7.8 million wrongful-death settlement for Mitchell’s family, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman had already moved to dismiss the criminal case late last year after a review by special prosecutor Michael Gennaco concluded prosecutors could not prove voluntary manslaughter beyond a reasonable doubt. In a memo attached to the dismissal motion, Gennaco wrote that the admissible evidence was unlikely to meet the standard required at trial. The DA's office also said the prosecutor who previously took the matter to a grand jury failed to present certain material evidence and relied on theories a judge later found improper, and it pointed to the lapse of the statute of limitations on alternate charges, according to a release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Mitchell’s mother, Sherilyn Haines, addressed the court and said she was pleading for accountability, warning that shielding officers when they do wrong erodes community trust. Supporters of the officers were also in the gallery, and after Ohta read his 34-page decision, several protesters responded by chanting Mitchell’s name and calling the officers “murderers.” Concannon’s attorney, Tom Yu, said he was “profoundly pleased that this nightmare is finally over for my client” and maintained the shooting was justified, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
What the Dismissal Means Legally
Ohta’s ruling leaned heavily on how the law has shifted since 2018. He found that a 2020 change in California law that raised the legal standard for police use of force from “reasonable” to “necessary” could not be applied retroactively to Mitchell’s December 2018 shooting, which undercut the prosecution’s focus on the officers’ tactics.
With evidence related to so-called “officer-created jeopardy” kept out and Gennaco concluding there was not enough admissible evidence to meet the burden at trial, prosecutors said they had no realistic path forward. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office lays out that analysis and its reasons for dropping the case in its memo and public news release.
A Long-Running Controversy
The case has moved through three different district attorney administrations. It was initially cleared in 2019, then reopened after George Gascón’s 2020 election, and ultimately led to grand jury indictments in 2023. Public anger intensified in 2021, when disclosures revealed that dozens of Torrance officers had exchanged racist and violent text messages, a revelation that helped fuel protests and deepen scrutiny of the department, as previously reported by NBC Los Angeles. Those developments shaped the reaction to Thursday’s dismissal.
Hoodline covered the DA’s earlier move to seek dismissal last November and will keep following how the city responds, including any disciplinary decisions or policy changes in Torrance. With the criminal case now closed, advocates and city officials alike say questions about accountability and police reform are not going away.
