Chico police deploy body cameras in wake of Phillips shooting

Advisory board to launch discussion about treatment of mentally ill
by Dave Waddell | Posted April 4, 2017
photo by Dave WaddellDavid Phillips, right, father of Desmond Phillips, talks to Police Chief Mike O'Brien and DA Mike Ramsey at today's meeting.
 

photo by Dave Waddell

David Phillips, right, father of Desmond Phillips, talks to Police Chief Mike O’Brien and DA Mike Ramsey at today’s meeting.

The Chico Police Department – criticized for not having body cameras on its officers in the recent killing of a mentally disturbed young black man – deployed those cameras on Saturday, Chief of Police Mike O’Brien said today.

O’Brien made the surprise announcement at the somewhat raucous April 3 meeting of the Human Relations Network of Butte County (HRN), at which he and Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey revealed more details and answered questions about the Chico police shooting of 25-year-old Desmond Phillips on March 17. Two officers fired 16 rounds, with 10 bullets hitting Phillips, Ramsey said. read more

Red Bluff man fights deportation

Immigration raids rattle North State communities
by Leslie Layton and Kate Sheehy | Posted March 31, 2017

Sandra Jimenez never expected that she’d have to visit her husband in 30-minute spells at an Elk Grove jailhouse. Or that only a few days after their one-year wedding anniversary, he would be fighting deportation and she would be wondering whether she’d have to leave her country — the United States — to be with him.

But that’s where it stands after the operation conducted last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in rural Northern California. Jimenez’s husband, Oscar Oseguera, 26, was detained by ICE officials March 21 as he left his Tehama County apartment in Red Bluff at daybreak to report to his job at a Driscoll strawberry plant. read more

Former resident adviser couch surfs after firing

Off-campus party costly for more than 20 Chico State students
by Dave Waddell | Posted March 30, 2017

photo by Dave Waddell

“I was very honest about what happened” – Edgar Vasquez

College is supposed to be full of lessons. This semester, Chico State junior Edgar Vasquez is learning a particularly painful one that has left him homeless and losing weight.

Vasquez, 21, says he was one of about two dozen university resident advisers who were fired en masse in early March after they attended an off-campus party at which some drank alcohol. With the firings, the university forced the RAs out of their dorm rooms and off their meals plans. Vasquez valued the economic hit to him at between $2,000 and $2,500.

According to another fired RA who asked not to be identified, a total 23 RAs were terminated, including 16 from Whitney Hall, a nine-story dorm that houses exclusively freshmen and has a reputation for rowdiness. The remaining seven RAs came from the Shasta, Lassen, University Village and North Campus dormitories, she said. Some of those terminated have been rehired as resident advisers for the 2017-18 academic year, she said. read more

North state raids on immigrant communities underway

ICE plans to be in area for a week
by Dave Waddell | Posted March 24, 2017

Federal immigration officials recently briefed the sheriffs of three counties – Shasta, Tehama and Glenn – on north state raids that are expected to last about a week, Glenn County Sheriff Rich Warren said today.

Warren said raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were supposed to start three days ago and were expected to continue for several more days. He said he has not been informed about any arrests in Glenn County, nor was he aware of any bookings of immigrants at the county jail.

Warren said the sheriffs were assured by ICE that the only immigrants to be arrested would be those for which a criminal warrant had been issued. read more

ICE descends on Tehama County

Two residents detained early Tuesday
by Kate Sheehy | Posted March 22, 2017

It was still dark when a Red Bluff woman peered through her apartment window this morning to discover two men dressed in dark uniforms with badges that read “police.” She opened the door only after they showed her the driver’s license of a family member who had left for work less than 10 minutes earlier.

The officers were actually from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in town, according to the Tehama County Sheriff’s Department, for a two-day operation. Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston told ChicoSol that his office was notified March 18 that the ICE Mobile Criminal Alien Team had “targeted 41 criminal alien individuals” in the area.  He did not provide specifics on the types of crimes involved, but said ICE had outlined three tiers of “fugitives.” read more

Fatal shooting by Chico police sparks protests

Community calls for probe by outside agency
by Dave Waddell | Posted March 20, 2017
photo by Karen Laslo
 

photo by Karen Laslo

Bethel AME Church service 

An estimated 200 people turned out Sunday evening to protest the fatal shooting by Chico police of a mentally ill black man who officers say threatened them with a knife.

The demonstration began with a remembrance for Desmond Phillips, 25, at the Bethel AME Church on Ninth Street. It then moved to the front of the Chico Police Department, where an emotional candlelight vigil was held. Speakers expressed outrage at the killing “of this dear brother of ours,” as one put it, and called for a federal investigation into the shooting.

“We’re not laying this down. … Things are being done,” the Rev. Stephen Shy of Chico’s Ministry of Hope said in the aftermath of the March 17 shooting of Phillips at his father’s apartment in the 700 block of West Fourth Avenue. The two officers involved in the shooting, who are on paid administrative leave, have not yet been named by the department. read more