Nevada County DA clears cops who killed Grass Valley man who made ‘deliberate choice’

The Nevada County District Attorney’s Office released a report Friday on a deadly New Year’s Day law enforcement shooting in Grass Valley that killed one man, exonerating the two deputies and police officer who fired the fatal shots.

Gabriel Strickland, 25, had been walking around a neighborhood in Grass Valley near Squirrel Creek Road and Oak Street, armed with what law enforcement would learn was an airsoft rifle modified to appear more realistic. The orange tip had been removed from the black air rifle, leading law enforcement to believe a 911 caller who initially told them he was armed with a shotgun.

Nevada County Sheriff’s deputies Brandon Tripp and Taylor King and Grass Valley police detective Brian Hooper collectively fired 13 bullets at Strickland after he refused to drop the air rifle, which he had said was fake, and two attempts to incapacitate him with a stun gun. Two other officers at the scene did not fire their weapons.

“Gabriel Strickland made the decision to lower his weapon and point it at them. This action was a deliberate choice by Gabriel Strickland to end his life,” District Attorney Clifford Newell wrote in his report. “The danger to others was objectively apparent, imminent and appeared necessary. The actions of the law enforcement officers were clearly reasonable and legally justifiable under the circumstances; no criminal charges will be filed against any of the peace officers as a result.”

In the wake of the shooting, the Sheriff’s Office said that Strickland had made statements alluding to “suicide by cop” in the past.

During the six-minute standoff, wherein law enforcement personnel attempted to defuse the situation and repeatedly told Strickland to drop the gun, he responded by saying, “You guys don’t give a s--- about me. Just f---ing kill me,” according to Newell’s report.

Bodycam footage released in January shows one officer respond to his assertion that his gun wasn’t real by saying, “We don’t know that’s a fake gun ... you could have painted that.”

Moments before the shooting, Strickland had slumped onto his knees and continued to hold the air rifle with the barrel pointed upward. After a failed Taser deployment, law enforcement moved toward Strickland, who then lowered the air rifle to aim it at Officer Conrad Ball and Hooper, according to the District Attorney.

The District Attorney’s report notes that Ball realized it was a modified air rifle, observing broken orange plastic near the tip of its barrel. Switching out his service rifle for his baton, he attempted to swipe at the air rifle and knock it away, but at the same time, Strickland lowered the gun and Tripp, King and Hooper opened fire. Deputy Tripp fired eight rounds from his .223-caliber service-issue AR-15, while Deputy King fired three .40-caliber handgun rounds and Hooper fired his 9mm pistol twice.

“Deputy Tripp, Deputy King and Detective Hooper were further away than Officer Ball at the time Gabriel Strickland lowered the barrel of the gun and pointed it at them. They did not see the broken-off piece of plastic inside the barrel of the gun,” Newell wrote. He added that although Strickland’s cause of death was attributed to the multiple gunshot wounds he suffered, a “significant contributing condition” was the methamphetamine in his system.

At the time of Strickland’s killing, it was reported that he had been in custody a few days prior after a confrontation at a laundromat, where Strickland had been suspected of harassing customers while armed with a concealed weapon. The .22-caliber revolver was confiscated and he was charged with felony firearm possession.

The District Attorney’s report elaborates, saying that “in the weeks leading up to his death he had been involved in an unsolved shooting where he shot and wounded a man with a .22 caliber weapon” and that during his arrest on Dec. 26, he told officers that he was “going to make you kill me.”

After his death, Strickland was connected to a shooting that took place on Dec. 18 in the Rex Reservoir area. Newell cites witness statements alleging that Strickland had told acquaintances that he had shot a man with his .22-caliber revolver.

“Deputies Tripp, King, and Detective Hooper did not know if the gun Gabriel Strickland was holding was real or fake. It looked real and just days earlier Gabriel Strickland had been contacted by police with a real gun. What Deputies Tripp, King, and Detective Hooper did know is that Gabriel Strickland was refusing to put down the gun he was holding even though guns were pointed at him,” District Attorney Newell’s report concludes. “It is regrettable that Gabriel Strickland died; especially by the hands of law enforcement.”

This story was originally published October 31, 2020 at 1:48 PM.