The San Diego County district attorney’s office has cleared of criminal liability the San Diego police officer who shot and killed Dejon Heard a year ago in Bird Rock, according to a review released July 3.
The DA’s office concluded that Heard, 25, had “showed no sign of compliance” when Officer Tarik Andrew and others repeatedly ordered him to drop a knife he was carrying as he approached the officers July 6, 2024.
Police had responded around 7 a.m. to reports of a man blocking traffic with his car in the 5400 block of La Jolla Boulevard, throwing items and yelling at people while holding a knife.
When officers arrived, Heard was holding the knife and told the officers to “Pull ’em out,” the DA’s review states. When officers drew their firearms, Heard said “All right, let’s do it,” then ran toward Andrew, according to the review.
Andrew and other officers retreated and commanded Heard to drop the knife, but he continued advancing and Andrew fired three rounds, striking Heard in the chest and right side, the review states. Heard later died at a hospital.
No officers were injured in the confrontation, authorities said.
The DA’s office said Andrew personally commanded Heard six times to drop the knife.
“When Officer Andrew ultimately discharged his firearm at Heard, he did so to instantly confront and address what he reasonably perceived to be an imminent threat of harm,” according to the review.
Earlier this year, Heard’s grandmother Susan Klat filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court accusing the San Diego Police Department of altering body camera footage of the shooting and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office of improperly investigating the case.
The lawsuit alleged “intentional police targeting of an unarmed vulnerable citizen,” general negligence leading to wrongful death, negligence by a public entity, excessive use of force and more.
The suit sought compensatory and general damages and special and/or punitive damages, costs associated with filing the lawsuit and other damages deemed appropriate by the court.
The current status of the case was not immediately available.
Representatives of the SDPD and the Sheriff’s Office, which investigated the case as is protocol with police shootings involving San Diego officers, said they cannot comment about pending litigation.
Klat told the La Jolla Light last year that Heard had a history of mental health struggles.
“There were times he would have anxiety attacks … and he would get in his own head and would have his moments,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Klat told the Light that Heard had been in foster care since his teens and she had been his primary source of financial support. She said he was living in his car at the time of his death.
Andrew, who had been with the Police Department for three years before the shooting, was assigned to the Northern Division, which includes La Jolla. He was named in the lawsuit, along with Officer Jason Aguilar, SDPD property division representative Angela Laurita, Capt. Charles Lara, Detective Gregory Arnold, Chief Scott Wahl, county Sheriff Kelly Martinez and sheriff’s investigators Lon Nguyen and Michael Krugh.
The suit alleged that Heard was approached by Andrew and Aguilar and “fatally shot, ambush-style.”
It further alleged that “the defendants … working together, knowingly altered and/or modified portions of the SDPD officer body camera footage related to the shooting” that was released five days later.
“Both Officers Andrew and Aguilar were recorded on camera discussing their intent to use deadly force while driving to the location to assess reports of a distressed man circling a car and talking to himself, who was not hurting anyone,” according to the suit.
Heard had been arrested in 2019 on allegations of stabbing another man and spent seven months in jail.
Klat told the Light last year that that incident “put him over the edge” and exacerbated his mental health struggles.
She said Heard developed a fear of police officers, which made it difficult for her to believe the reports that he approached officers with a knife.
Her lawsuit also questioned the autopsy process after Heard’s death and the handling of witness statements and Heard’s belongings and alleged that city and county law enforcement “intentionally failed to perform countywide obligatory investigations into the … shooting incident.” ♦
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