Los Angeles County prosecutors said they do not have enough evidence to charge five former Inglewood police officers who opened fire on a couple they found sleeping inside a car in 2016.
The district attorney’s office concluded the officers had “an honest belief” that they needed to use deadly force against Marquintan Sandlin and Kisha Michael as the pair appeared unconscious in a car in Inglewood in February 2016. Police argued that their lives were in danger because Sandlin had a gun in his lap.
“[The officers] were in imminent danger of death or great bodily injury when they fired their weapons,” Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon said in a new report. “This honest reasonable belief precludes criminal liability.”
According to the report published on April 7, the windows were up and the doors were locked while the couple slept in the front seats of a Chevy Malibu in two traffic lanes near two intersections in Inglewood.
Police blocked the car with vehicles.
The officers nudged the car, and used illuminated light bars, sirens, an air horn and a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter to try to wake the couple before deploying a public address (PA) vehicle on an armored vehicle.
“Driver, do not move. Roll the windows of the vehicle down,” the officers reportedly said.
According to the report, Sandlin woke up, lowered the car’s back windows, and drove forward, hitting a police car before reversing and hitting another police car. The officers said it looked like Sandlin then reached for his gun, so they fired multiple rounds into the man before unloading on Michael as she tried to get out of the passenger side of the Malibu. Sandlin was shot five times, and Michael was shot 13 times. They both died on the scene.
The couple’s blood alcohol levels were reportedly over the legal limit to drive, and Michael had trace amounts of methamphetamine in her system.
The investigation has been ongoing for years. Gascón vowed to review the case “at the highest levels” when he was elected in 2021.
“We know this is excruciating and that the families are understandably devastated. We also understand that the public has questions, but out of respect for the families, we wanted to meet with them first and give them time to process this difficult information,” Gascon told NBC4 in a statement.
“We do want to be clear: the burden of proof for prosecution is high. Our decision does not mean that what happened is right.”
According to reports, Michael was a mother of three, and Sandlin had four daughters. Inglewood paid an $8.6 million legal settlement to their families in 2018.
Milton Grimes, the attorney who represented the families in the civil case, said the police had no reason to shoot the couple.
“They set up. They took cover. There was no officer in danger,” he said. “They were all behind a vehicle or a bus bench — wherever they thought they could be secure.”
The Inglewood officers involved were fired but have fought back with a wrongful termination lawsuit, alleging retaliation and racial discrimination because they are white. The case is still pending.
