Border-crossing journalism from the Sacramento Valley
by Dave Waddell
news analysis posted Oct. 29
The pain of the taser was “searing … like a baseball bat swung hard and squarely into the small of your back. That sensation, which is actually two sharp steel barbs piercing your skin and shooting electricity into your central nervous system, is followed by the harshest, most violent spasm you can imagine coursing through your entire body.” – Journalist Matt Stroud in his book “Thin Blue Lie.”
Tyler Rushing
by Dave Waddell
posted Oct. 17
SACRAMENTO – An eight-person jury decided today that the tasing seven years ago of the thrice-shot, motionless Tyler Rushing by a Chico police officer was not excessive force.
Jurors did find negligence in the incident by police, but attached no monetary award to that judgment, said Mark Merin, attorney for Tyler’s parents, Scott and Paula Rushing.
Tyler Rushing
by Dave Waddell
posted Oct. 10
SACRAMENTO – Jurors on Wednesday (Oct. 9) viewed video clips from Chico police officers’ body-worn cameras that captured the last instants of Tyler Rushing’s life.
A dominant color in the scene was the bright red of Rushing’s blood framing his semi-prone body. After bleeding out for the better part of an hour following a serious gunshot wound to his chest from a private security guard, Rushing was shot twice more by a Chico police sergeant and lay on the floor of a title company’s women’s restroom.
by Dave Waddell
posted Oct. 6
On the eve of a long-awaited civil rights trial over their late son’s tasing by Chico police, Scott and Paula Rushing are “cautiously optimistic” about getting justice for Tyler.
The Estate of Tyler Rushing v. City of Chico will be tried beginning at 9 a.m. Monday (Oct. 7) in Courtroom 4 on the 15th floor of the Robert T. Matsui Federal Courthouse, 501 “I” Street, in Sacramento. Judge Dale A. Drozd of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California will preside.
by Dave Waddell
posted Sept. 12
A veteran Chico police sergeant did almost everything wrong on the night seven years ago when he gunned Tyler Rushing down, according to Chico PD’s own analysis of the incident.
The recently disclosed in-house review, which the Chico City Council spent many tax dollars trying unsuccessfully to suppress, also criticizes that sergeant, Scott Ruppel, for “dangerously” shooting the critically wounded Rushing while he was in the grasp of two other officers.
by Leslie Layton
posted July 9
This story was updated at 2 p.m. today to add comments from both parties’ attorneys.
Shortly after taking under submission a public records dispute, Butte County Superior Court Judge Stephen Benson ruled July 8 that the City of Chico must release a PowerPoint presentation on the 2017 police killing of Tyler Rushing.
