Tag: Gabe Sanchez

Young and old brave cold to protest police killings

Reform leader sees ‘little or no progress’ changing Chico PD’s culture
by Dave Waddell | Posted February 24, 2023

photo by george gold
Jeremiah Lozada, 5, nephew of Gabe Sanchez, and Emily Alma on right.

Sign-carrying demonstrators who braved Wednesday evening’s freezing winds near City Hall to protest Chico police violence came in a wide range of ages.

They included Jeremiah Lozada, age 5, whose sign demanded justice for his uncle, Eddie “Gabe” Sanchez, who was killed before Jeremiah was born. Chico police Detective Mark Bass , now a sergeant, shot the fleeing Sanchez in 2015.

Standing near Jeremiah in a line of about 15 protesters at the corner of Fourth and Main streets was 81-year-old Emily Alma, a leader of Chico’s Concerned Community for Justice (CC4J), which organized the protest along with the group 40 Grandmothers.

“Little Jeremiah was the prize-winning trooper in that cold, cold wind!” Alma said later. “He never whined once, or even said ‘I’m cold’ or ‘when are we going home?’” He just kept smiling and holding a variety of signs. He told me he never met his Uncle Gabe.” read more

Chico PD sued over ‘Gabe’ Sanchez slaying

ChicoSol’s coverage raised doubts about his killer’s story
by Dave Waddell | Posted October 3, 2022
Gabriel Sanchez with his grandfather, Eddie, at the July memorial in Chico.

The father of Eddie Gabriel “Gabe” Sanchez, an armed robbery suspect shot to death by police officer Mark Bass in 2015, has sued Bass and the City of Chico on behalf of Sanchez’s teen-age son.

The wrongful death complaint was recently filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento by civil rights attorneys Stanley Goff of San Francisco and Fulvio Cajina of Oakland. In seeking unspecified damages, the complaint asserts violations of Sanchez’s son’s Fourth Amendment rights due to excessive police violence and of his 14th Amendment rights because of loss of the companionship of his father.

In a press release announcing the legal action, the Sanchez family noted that new details were disclosed about the killing in a ChicoSol investigative report published earlier this year. The family’s press statement asserts that “forensic evidence analysis” contradicts the story Bass told investigators. read more

Expert: Wounds contradict cop’s killing claim

Chico PD discloses records on Mark Bass’ slaying of ‘Gabe’ Sanchez
by Dave Waddell | Posted May 11, 2022

screenshot from Chico PD’s 3D video showing where Gabe Sanchez was struck by police bullets.

A top expert on police use of force says a newly disclosed investigative video seems to contradict key claims made by Chico police officer Mark Bass about his killing of Eddie Gabriel “Gabe” Sanchez in 2015.

The video, a three-dimensional depiction of Sanchez’s fatal wounds, was released by the Chico Police Department in response to a California Public Records Act (PRA) request submitted by this reporter in November 2020.

Sanchez, 34, grew up in Paradise. He was shot to death by Bass while fleeing along Pomona Avenue in west Chico. The killing garnered little media attention, let alone scrutiny, compared with the several Chico police shootings that have followed.

Seth Stoughton, a nationally recognized expert on police practices who was a witness for the prosecution at the trial of George Floyd’s murderer, looked at the 3D video, which shows that Sanchez was shot twice in his left cheek. One bullet exited through the right side of Sanchez’s neck; the other lodged near his right eye. A third Bass shot missed Sanchez and sailed through a nearby residence that was unoccupied at the time, according to investigative reports. read more