Officer-involved fatal shootings in Butte County

April 28, 2014: Victor Ray Coleman, 53 (Oroville PD)

May 18, 2014: Cory Lee Bush, 24 (Butte County Sheriff’s Office)

Nov. 25, 2015: Andrew Thomas, 26 (Paradise PD)

Nov. 10, 2015: Eddie “Gabe” Sanchez, 34 (Chico PD)

March 17, 2017: Desmond Phillips, 25 (Chico PD)

July 23, 2017: Tyler Rushing, 34 (Chico PD)

Aug. 17, 2017: Mark Jensen, 56 (Butte County Sheriff’s Office)

April 7, 2018: Larry Siordia, 33 (Butte County Sheriff’s Office)

April 26, 2018: Myra Micalizio, 56 (Butte County Sheriff’s Office)

Nov. 15, 2018: GD Hendrix, 48 (Butte County Sheriff’s Office)

Jan. 28, 2019: Richard Moulton, 52 (Butte County Sheriff’s Office)

Oct. 14, 2020: Stephen Vest, 30 (Chico PD)

Jan. 2, 2023: Baltazar Rubio, 43 (Gridley PD)

Four confirmed deaths of unhoused residents this year

ChicoSol has confirmed the following deaths, all taking place on streets or in encampments in 2024:

River Chase Bernreuter, 25. His body was found Feb. 2 on Business Lane.

Kenneth James Corbitt, 44, whose body was found Feb. 5 on Fair Street.

Francisco Franco, 61, of Chico. His body was found Feb. 15 on Business Lane.

Julie Bergstrom, 41, of Oroville. Bergstrom was found dead Feb. 29 at the Alternate Site encampment approved by the City for unhoused individuals.

City attorney: “Public take over” was an emergency

In a Jan. 17 email to ChicoSol, City Attorney John Lam said the City was not in violation of the Brown Act when it held a Jan. 6 emergency meeting.

Lam said the use of City property near The Hands sculpture in back of the Municipal Center by the nonprofit Safe Space the previous day had amounted to a “public take over.”

Safe Space, which operates an emergency winter sheltering program, ran intake in the space from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Jan. 5, an operation that it says proceeded smoothly. The group’s leadership said it believed that it was using public property as defined in the City code, and wasn’t required to get special permission.