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When San Diego police officers opened the front door to Rosa Calvas apartment studio in East Village, the 26-year-old was holed up in her bathroom.

Calva, in the throes of a mental health crisis, had thrown items a bucket, mop and more out of a window and onto the street below. A bystander reported being struck by flying glass.

Newly released body-worn camera video shows that in a span of 20 minutes, officers gave her repeated commands to walk out of the 5-by-5-foot bathroom and surrender as a police dog barked repeatedly. When she did not, they used a tool known as a Halligan bar to enlarge a hole they noticed in the door, then fired pepperball rounds inside.

The officers and the police dog then moved in. The officers kicked open the bathroom door and, within seconds, Calva, who was holding a steak knife, was shot four times and bitten by the dog.

Police at the time said Calva threatened officers with the knife. The footage shows she was holding the knife in air, the blade pointed up, when Officer Andres Ruiz shot her in the chest and abdomen.

Calva was seriously injured but survived. She was arrested and later charged in San Diego Superior Court with assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer. Her case is still pending.

The series of events was captured on the officers body-worn cameras, but the San Diego Police Department withheld the footage for two years despite a state law enacted in 2019 that mandates the release of video related to such shootings within 45 days, with few exceptions.

The law is intended to increase transparency in cases of shootings by police officers.

The Police Department released the footage May 20, three weeks after the First Amendment Coalition, which advocates for open and transparent government, sent the city attorney a letter that argued the law required police to disclose the video. The coalition also threated to sue.

Along with the body-worn camera video, the Police Department released reports and other records tied to the now-completed investigation. The records reveal that the San Diego County District Attorneys Office cleared Ruiz and that the department determined the officer followed policy.

But the shooting, in light of the footage, has raised concerns.

One use-of-force expert, former Los Angeles County sheriffs lieutenant Roger Clark, said the officers failed to properly handle the situation. Clark, who reviewed the records last week at the Union-Tribunes request, said officers forced a confrontation at a moment when Calva was not a danger to the public.

This is not de-escalation, Clark said.

Rosa Garcia last year as she speaks over the phone with staff at Las Colinas Detention Facility to inquire about her daughter, Rosa Calva, who was shot by San Diego police on May 23 and later charged in San Diego Superior Court in connection with the incident.

(David Hernandez/San Diego Union-Tribune)

The Commission on Police Practices, which reviewed the departments internal investigation into the shooting, also raised concerns. In a report to the department, commissioners said they hoped the department realized there are other means of de-escalation available and urged the department to consider additional training in that regard.

Calvas mother, Rosa Garcia, said she believes police used excessive force and wants accountability. Two years after the shooting, Garcia still is deeply troubled about the way police treated her daughter.

My daughter is not El Chapo, Garcia said. Shes mentally ill.

San Diego police spokesperson Lt. Adam Sharki said the department holds its members to the highest professional standards.

We hear the communitys concerns about this incident, he said.

He said shootings by officers are rare and reviewed thoroughly.

Even if a shooting is deemed lawful and within policy, the department continues to review the tactics and actions of the officer to determine if there are learning points which can be incorporated into training going forward, Sharki said in a statement.

He said Ruiz remains a San Diego police officer.

It was around 9:50 p.m. on May 23, 2020, when police started receiving 911 calls about Calva. Several callers said she had broken her window in her fourth-floor apartment on Market Street near Park Boulevard and was throwing items, including a bucket, mop and folding chair, onto the street below. Two callers said they thought Calva might jump out of the window.

Audio of the 911 calls indicate one caller told a dispatcher he was struck by glass. He told the dispatcher he did not need medical attention.

According to the reports and the body-worn-camera video, officers tried to call Calva, but the number they had did not work. Officers summoned additional resources, including a police dog, and entered the apartment building. They gathered in a hallway on Calvas floor and shouted orders for her to surrender.

Outside, officers saw Calva near the window, waiving a knife, according to officers account of the incident.

Around 11 p.m. officers used a key to open the front door. They noticed blood smeared on the floor and cabinets, although is unclear in the records why the blood was there, or if Calva had hurt herself.

A police canine handler ordered Calva to walk out.

Rosa, this is San Diego police. Were not going anywhere. We want to help you, the officer shouts, according to body-worn camera video.

The officer then tells her she is under arrest and warns her that if she doesnt surrender, police would release a dog. The officer repeats commands as the police dog continues to bark.

There is no response inside the apartment, according to the video, so the police dog and two officers enter the unit and clear the common areas.

An officer then grabs a Halligan bar and hammers the bathroom door, enlarging an existing hole. Another officer fires several volleys of pepperball rounds through the hole.

Some officers had donned gas masks to protect themselves from the pepper spray-like chemicals. Others cough repeatedly. There is still no response from Calva.

The canine handler then sends the dog to squeeze through the hole, but the canine struggles to enter. Calva pokes her hand through the hole, with the knife in hand.

The handler orders the dog to go In, in, in, in! but to no avail as he and Ruiz trail behind.

Ruiz is seen in the video kicking open the bathroom door, but Calva is behind it. The dog handler struggles to open the door all the way.

When the handler finally enters the bathroom, he grabs Calva and appears to push her body, as if to try to pin her against a wall. He grips her right hand as she holds the knife in the air, the blade pointed upwards.

Ruiz appears to aim under the handlers torso and shoots Calva at close range. She falls to the ground and the police dog bites her left arm.

The knife lands near the toilet.

The shooting marked the fourth time Ruiz fired his gun in the line of duty. In the first two shootings, then-District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis cleared him. Her office did not review the third because no one was struck by Ruizs gunfire.

In the most recent case, Ruiz told investigators Calva was about to stab the other officer in the face. District Attorney Summer Stephan noted that the evidence indicates Ruiz was incorrect; the blade was pointed toward the ceiling. But, Stephan said, Ruizs perception in the moment was reasonable because Calva didnt drop the weapon.

Under the totality of circumstances, Ruiz was justified in shooting Calva, Stephan wrote in a letter to the Police Department.

San Diego police Detective Sgt. Jared Thompson reviewed the case for any policy violations and reached a conclusion similar to Stephans: He said that based on all of the circumstances, it was reasonable for Ruiz to believe Calva, with a knife in hand, presented an imminent threat which justified the shooting. Thompson said in a report that officers tried to de-escalate the situation for nearly 30 minutes, citing the commands officers gave Calva and their use of a police dog and peperball rounds.

Clark, the use-of-force expert, said the officers took the wrong approach and escalated the situation with their use of a police dog and pepperballs. He said Calva was contained in the bathroom, which did not require officers to act quickly to subdue her.

This should never have happened this way, he said.

He said a basic lesson rookie officers are taught is if you increase the stress, (a persons) ability to comply decreases.

What I see in these videos is, Youre going to do this my way, exactly as I tell you, or Im going to come and get you, because I am the police, Clark said. Thats the culture. They know they can do this stuff. Theyre not culpable.

Clark said police should have summoned crisis negotiators. The San Diego Police Department has an Emergency Negotiations Team, which works to persuade individuals to surrender, including individuals who are suicidal or barricaded. The team tries to engage in dialogue instead of force.

Clark was one of three use-of-force experts the Union-Tribune contacted. Others did not respond or were unavailable.

Police reform advocate Tasha Williamson, who also requested the body-worn camera video under state law, said she believes the Police Department withheld the footage because it does not show the department in a good light.

She shared several of the same criticisms as Clark. She said the shooting shows that officers unnecessarily put themselves in danger and in situations where they end up feeling the need to use force.

Why not wait this out? Why not call SWAT? Why not have negotiators come in? Why not do all the precautions that are needed to save her life and diminish the risk to officers instead of saying we waited 25 to 40 minutes and that was enough time? she asked. Her life is worth hours.

The reality for us in the community is this was withheld because it was horrific, she said.

The incident occurred two days before the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, which at the time led to protests and outrage over police brutality and racial injustice. Williamson said she believes the video was withheld to mitigate public outcry in the aftermath.

The San Diego Police Department at the time denied requests for the video, citing an investigation and a criminal case against Calva.

David Loy, legal director for the First Amendment Coalition, said the public had the right to see the videos a while ago, at least once the investigation into the shooting wrapped up, if not earlier. He said state law does not allow agencies to withhold video of shootings by police officers based on ongoing court proceedings.

An exception in the law allows agencies to withhold video if they prove that the release of the footage would interfere with an active investigation, but Loy said the Police Department did not do that. He added that at some point the argument that an investigation was ongoing was not plausible.

When they want to release body-cam video of shootings, they do it, and they do it right away, Loy said.

Calva was charged in San Diego Superior Court with assault with a deadly weapon and assault with a deadly weapon on an officer, with a special allegation that she was armed with a knife.

A judge ruled later based on a psychiatric evaluation that Calva was mentally incompetent to stand trial and suspended the court case until her competency could be restored. The ruling was based on a finding that Calva was unable to understand the court proceedings and assist in her own defense. As is common in such cases, Calva was sent to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino County for treatment.

Calva later returned to San Diego County and was allowed to undergo treatment as part of the countys Mental Health Diversion program. If Calva completes the treatment, her case will be dismissed.

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San Diego police shot a mentally ill woman who had a knife in 2020; they just released the video - The San Diego Union-Tribune