After decades of rapid reviews, DA Ramsey hasn't issued a report in years
by Dave Waddell | Posted August 31, 2025
The CHP report for the 2022 shooting is still not finalized.
Butte County’s system for investigating officer-involved shootings has stalled without explanation, leaving several cases unresolved and marking a sharp departure from a pattern of rapid exonerations stretching back decades.
District Attorney Mike Ramsey, who oversees such investigations, has issued no reports on police killings since 2020 or on non-fatal police shootings since 2017, according to an extensive review of county records.
A number of cases remain open as a result.
In November 2022, a California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control agent shot four times, missing 19-year-old Madison Sells during a confrontation in a Chico Safeway parking lot. Ramsey’s failure to make a charging decision forced ABC to abandon plans to provide psychological support for the officers involved, according to emails obtained under a Public Records Act request. Nearly three years later, Ramsey still has not ruled on the case, leaving all reports stamped as “drafts.”
On the second day of 2023, 33 days after the ABC shooting, three Gridley police officers fired 31 times in killing Baltazar Rubio, who was in mental crisis and allegedly pointing an unloaded gun at police. The officers’ final few shots came with Rubio on the ground after a four-second pause in the gunfire. It has been more 2½ years since the shooting, with silence on the case from Ramsey.
Also missing is any information on Chico PD’s fatal shooting six months ago of Michael Oxley as well as on the May 8 killing of Valerie Ann Cadwallader, by Butte County sheriff’s deputy Tyler Dentinger. The Oxley shooting involved four officers, including two sergeants previously involved in controversial killings that Ramsey had cleared. The City of Chico last week issued a blanket denial of a Public Records Act request for investigative reports about the Oxley shooting, saying the incident is still under investigation.
Seth Stoughton, one of the nation’s foremost experts on police uses of force, said officer-involved shooting investigations can be complicated and time-consuming.
“There may be multiple witnesses who need to be interviewed, potentially multiple times, as well as physical evidence that may need to be subjected to forensic examination,” said Stoughton, an ex-cop and professor of law who directs the Excellence in Policing & Public Safety Program at the University of South Carolina. “And they aren’t always the highest investigative priority, since they are usually assumed to not have broader public safety implications.”read more
by Lauren Hepler and Robert Lewis, Cal Matters | Posted June 25, 2025
A Scannable LivingTag QR code on Joseph Ramirez’s headstone in Eternal Valley Memorial Park in Newhall, on June 17, 2025. Photo by Jules Hotz for CalMatters
A CalMatters investigation found that courts didn’t report hundreds of vehicular manslaughter convictions to the DMV, prompting officials to belatedly take many drivers’ licenses.
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California courts have failed to report hundreds of vehicular manslaughter convictions to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles over the past five years, allowing roadway killers to improperly keep their driver’s licenses, a CalMatters investigation has found.
Marvin Salazar was convicted in May 2023 for killing his 18-year-old friend Joseph Ramirez, who was in the passenger seat when Salazar gunned his car, lost control and slammed into a tree, court records show. Under California law, the state should have taken away Salazar’s driving privileges for at least three years.read more
The City Council majority voted at its June 3 meeting to staff Fire Engine 1, but the panel was divided over where to find the funding.
The 4-3 vote to cut the road repair fund — instead of cutting unoccupied positions at Chico Police Department or elsewhere in the budget — elicited sighs from some members of the audience. The road repair fund comes from Measure H sales tax revenue.
“I’m not going to lose sleep if we delay some road projects,” said Councilmember Mike O’Brien. “If we lose a neighborhood because our fire department is not adequately staffed, I will lose sleep over that.”
O’Brien, a former Chico police chief, made the passing motion, which defers road improvement projects to fund the engine staffing. His motion was supported by Mayor Kasey Reynolds, Vice Mayor Dale Bennett and Councilmember Tom van Overbeek after an alternative motion from other councilmembers failed.read more
Chico’s Margaret Swick spoke at the April 15 City Council meeting, suggesting that the money allocated for military equipment could go elsewhere.
The City Council voted 4–3 to approve the Chico Police Department’s proposed purchase of more than half a million dollars in additional military equipment.
The acquisitions will include three drones, four remote-controlled cars, a launcher that can fire projectiles, two sniper rifles to replace two old ones, 15 police patrol rifles, and three incident command vehicles that can provide a mobile on-site platform for command, control and communications during major incidents.
The total estimated cost is $562,955, not including maintenance fees, according to Chico PD’s military equipment policy.
“Your continued approval will ensure that the community’s police department stands ready to protect them while also keeping your police officers safe,” Police Chief Billy Aldridge told councilmembers prior to the vote.
“The purpose of those,” Aldridge said, “is they have multiple options for sensors on those – bomb detection, chemical detection, camera systems, audio systems – [so] you can put them into places where you wouldn’t necessarily want to put a human.
“And it’s a robot,” he said, “so no danger to a human in what they’re doing.”
Several members of the community expressed their concern about the City’s purchase of military equipment during the public comment session.
“The goal of AB 481 is for elected officials to curb and regulate the militarizing of our police,” said Chico resident Margaret Swick. “It is not to celebrate the growth of a military-style arsenal,” she said.
Assembly Bill 481 was passed by the California Legislature and signed into law in 2021, in part to “give strong consideration to the public’s welfare, safety, civil rights, and civil liberties” the text states. The law calls for “meaningful public input” prior to the purchase of what it defines as military equipment, and requires California law enforcement agencies to obtain approval from their governing body for the funding, acquisition, or use of that equipment.
“Chico has plenty of issues we could solve by redirecting money to perhaps painting and improving crosswalks so that children, bicycles, and pedestrians are safe,” Swick added.
Diane Suzuki-Brobeck, a member of Concerned Community for Justice, voiced concern about the potential use of the equipment on peaceful protesters. She asked Aldridge to make a public statement “reassuring us that Chico PD will follow the law, … which restricts law enforcement’s use of less-lethal munitions to disperse protests, and also increases the frequency of mandatory use-of-force reporting.”
Councilmember Bryce Goldstein echoed her sentiment. “I’m also concerned in our current political climate about the potential for military equipment being used against people exercising their First Amendment rights,” she said.
Goldstein added that she supports public safety but wants to “make sure that we’re investing our taxpayer dollars into proactive public safety measures.”
Councilmember Tom van Overbeek expressed support for the purchase of the equipment: “My take on this … is that almost every one of those items, it protects … the police officers, and it protects citizens, because it gives you (the police) more non-lethal options when you’re dealing with a difficult situation.”
Councilmember and former Chico Police Chief Mike O’Brien said this equipment “mostly is defensive in nature and designed to save lives.”
After O’Brien motioned to approve all the items requested by Aldridge, Councilmember Katie Hawley introduced a substitute motion to remove several items from the acquisition list.
They included one of the three incident command vehicles, the police patrol rifles that “were only used once in 2024,” and the Boston Dynamics robot.
“Boston Dynamics is a $75,000 piece of equipment,” Hawley told ChicoSol on March 20. “Even if that is awarded with grant funds, upkeep and maintenance of that would be extremely expensive and specialized. It is an erroneous spending allowance in my opinion.”
Hawley’s substitute motion failed 3–4, and O’Brien’s motion passed 4–3. Mayor Kasey Reynolds, Vice Mayor Dale Bennett and van Overbeek voted in favor of O’Brien’s motion.
During the March 31 community forum held by Chico PD to collect public opinions about the military equipment purchases, Aldridge said, “I disagree with the terminology that they use in this law (AB 481), because nothing that we have in our inventory is truly military equipment. It makes it sound like you went to the military and said, ‘Hey, can I buy your tank?’ But that’s not the case.”
According to Chico PD, most of the “military equipment” in their possession is commercially available and made for civilian or law enforcement use.
AB 481 designates in its text a dozen categories of items as “military equipment,” including any firearm or firearm accessory designed to launch explosive projectiles, “Flashbang” grenades and Humvees.
Aldridge specifically addressed concerns over the use of drones — one of the items mentioned in the law that Chico PD utilizes.
Anytime they’re launched, their flights are logged into so-called “air data,” which is posted on the police department’s website.
“Typically, they’ll do a report on why they flew that drone,” Aldridge said. “Then it goes through a review process for that supervisor, and then a manager who will review it, [and] say this was in policy or not in policy.
“Obviously, if we find someone out of policy,” Adridge said, “then we start the investigation into why they violated that policy.”
Yucheng Tang is a California Local News Fellow reporting for ChicoSol.
Two SWAT sergeants were involved in previous fatal incidents
by Dave Waddell | Posted March 22, 2025
photo by Leslie Layton
Chico Police Chief Billy Aldridge called the shooting that killed Michael Oxley a “traumatic incident.”
While few details have been disclosed about the fatal shooting March 2 by Chico police of 43-year-old Michael Oxley, quite a lot is known about two SWAT team sergeants who fired their assault rifles.
The sergeants, Alex Fliehr and Nick Bauer, were each involved in a previous fatal shooting incident, while Fliehr’s unorthodox use of a taser in yet another case led to a civil rights trial in federal court.
Police say Oxley was killed after four SWAT team members returned his fire. In addition to Fliehr and Bauer, officers Tyler Hernandez and Gabe Durney shot at Oxley, said Chico Police Chief Billy Aldridge.
The police were attempting to arrest Oxley for allegedly shooting George Ramirez III, 43, a well-known downtown barber. Ramirez was shot in the neck, head and shoulder after getting into his car in a downtown parking lot about 6 p.m. Feb. 28. Ramirez was soon after air-lifted in critical condition to an out-of-area hospital, but is “making an amazing recovery and talking about returning to work in a few weeks,” said Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey.
Oxley is thought to have been living for at least a month as an Airbnb resident at The Post on Nord, a large apartment complex of mostly college students at 1200 Nord Ave. When the SWAT team attempted to arrest Oxley as he was leaving his apartment about 6 p.m. March 1, “he evaded police by retreating back into the building and his apartment,” Ramsey said.
That prompted a lockdown affecting other residents.
Chico PD, in a press release, said the fact that Oxley was armed “necessitated the use of distractionary devices by search teams. These devices, when deployed, emit very loud noises which sound like explosions or gunshots.”
The booming sounds prompted false social media claims of an active shooter, creating additional fear, according to Chico State’s police department.
Oxley eventually fled to the building’s parking structure, where he was contained on a ramp connecting the fourth and fifth floors. Police negotiated his surrender for a couple of hours before Oxley stood from a crouch and fired at officers using “a pistol with an extended magazine,” Ramsey said.
Aldridge said the incident resulted in the “tragic death of a community member and [is] a traumatic incident for the involved officers, their families, the community, and the organization.”
Ramsey said he hoped to provide more information about the shooting before the end of March.
On St. Patrick’s Day 2017, Fliehr had been a Chico cop for just a couple of years when he and Jeremy Gagnebin, an officer with even less experience, shot and killed Desmond Phillips, a 25-year-old Black man in mental crisis.
Phillips was tasered to the floor of his living room but was able to get up. Within a few seconds, the two officers fired 16 times, with two rounds going into an adjoining apartment and another nearly hitting officers near the front door. Phillips was hit by 11 bullets. Fliehr was the first to fire and shot nine times.
Just three months later, with other officers, Fliehr tasered Tyler Rushing in the back after he lay motionless in his own blood. Before the tasering, Rushing, who was in mental crisis, had been shot a total of three times by a private security guard and a police sergeant.
A police practices expert providing court testimony, Roger Clark, said Fliehr showed “imaginary fear” in considering the prone Rushing a threat.
After the federal court trial in October, a jury ruled Fliehr did not use excessive force in the tasering of Rushing.
After the Rushing incident, Fliehr was reportedly reassigned from patrol to the department’s TARGET team. Aldridge promoted him to sergeant in 2024, a few months before the Rushing trial.
Bauer, an investigator
A 19-year law enforcement veteran, Bauer was promoted to sergeant in 2018 by then-Police Chief Mike O’Brien, who is currently a member of the Chico City Council.
Sgt. Bauer was involved in a previous fatal shooting incident, the October 2020 killing of 30-year-old Stephen Vest. Bauer was commanding sergeant when he and officer Tyler Johnson shot Vest, who appeared to be in psychosis and holding a knife.
At the time, bean-bag shotguns were standard equipment in the sergeants’ patrol SUVs. But Bauer’s regular vehicle, on the day Vest died, was in the shop. When the sergeant went to grab the beanbag shotgun, to his surprise there was only a regular shotgun in his replacement vehicle, Ramsey said.
That left officers with just one “less-lethal” option — a taser blast was deployed by another officer. The deployment, however, had little noticeable effect on Vest, who reacted by slightly changing direction and walking toward Johnson.
Johnson was the primary shooter, firing nine rounds, including into Vest’s back multiple times after he had been shot to the ground. Bauer joined the shooting and his two rounds hit Vest, though neither was fatal, according to Ramsey.
Bauer did not turn on his body-worn camera until after Vest was shot.
Before his promotion to sergeant, Bauer, while a Chico PD detective, participated in multiple officer-involved shooting investigations under Ramsey’s direction, including the Rushing case. After Bauer shot Vest, Ramsey brushed off conflict-of-interest concerns raised by the police reform group Concerned Community for Justice (CC4J).
CC4J argued, to no avail, that a state attorney general’s office investigation into the shooting would be more impartial than Butte County’s standard process.
Dave Waddell writes about law enforcement in Butte County.
Cal State Parks asks that people who have photos or video related to the Mansion fire scan the QR code to submit information to the CAL FIRE Evidence Submission Portal.
A Chico man, Kevin Alexander Carlson, 30, was jailed Jan. 2 in connection with the fire that virtually destroyed the city’s Bidwell Mansion. Carlson faces arraignment on what are likely to be felony arson charges at 3 p.m. Jan. 6.
A California State Parks press release issued today said Carlson was arrested Jan. 2. “CAL FIRE investigators found clear indicators pointing to an intentional act and on Dec. 17, determined the cause to be arson,” the statement says in reference to the Dec. 11 early morning fire.
No other information on Carlson was provided, but the press release notes that Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park remains closed to the public, and the 26-room Mansion, which was completed in 1868, was undergoing renovation.
