
Anthony Lara, the Gridley police officer who fired first in the fatal shooting of a man in mental crisis, has been a defendant in at least two lawsuits claiming excessive force and civil rights violations.
Lara initiated police gunfire that on Jan. 2 killed Baltazar Rubio, 43, of Gridley, who was allegedly pointing an unloaded handgun. The barrage came to total 31 shots fired by three Gridley-Biggs Police Department officers. Police bullets sped both directions down a skinny alley in the middle of a normally peaceful neighborhood, leaving residents stunned and shaken.
In a previous shooting in 2019, Lara fired his gun six times and slightly wounded an unarmed 19-year-old driver despite the teen’s girlfriend’s screams from the backseat. Gridley settled a civil suit stemming from that shooting, paying out $150,000, said Police Chief Rodney Harr. Gridley PD has no record of anyone in law enforcement, including Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey, ever investigating the incident -– either criminally or administratively.