UC Merced officer-involved shooting under review by DA’s office

Merced County prosecutors this week will begin reviewing the Nov. 4 officer-involved shooting that ended a freshman student’s stabbing spree at UC Merced.

A UC Merced police officer fired at least two shots, killing 18-year-old Faisal Mohammad, who wounded four people during a violent rampage with a hunting knife. The name of the officer and three of the four victims have not been released.

The Merced County Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation into the officer’s decision to open fire, a standard inquiry in such cases. Sheriff Vern Warnke on Monday confirmed his detectives had concluded that portion of the case and sent it to the District Attorney’s Office for review.

It will be up to the prosecutors to determine whether the officer followed the laws and procedures required to use force and to decide whether the decision to shoot the suspect was justified.

District Attorney Larry Morse II said there was no time frame for when his office may conclude the review.

“We are responsible for evaluating all of the evidence in connection with the officer-involved shooting,” Morse said Monday. “We have no reason right now to believe it wasn’t (justified), but we need time to evaluate all of the evidence.”

Chief Investigator Pat Lunney will “take the lead” in examining the evidence and statements collected by the sheriff’s investigators.

Other aspects of the case also remained under investigation Monday, including the university’s internal review and its investigation into the attacker’s background, which it is conducting with assistance from the FBI.

James Leonard, a UC Merced spokesman, confirmed those investigations were ongoing Monday.

Investigators have described Mohammad as an isolated young man who was angry about being kicked out of a study group before the attack. Mohammad apparently detailed his plan of attack in a two-page note that deputies have said read like a script and included dialogue Mohammad planned to use during the melee.

His plan included forcing a student to zip-tie other students to desks and smearing petroleum jelly on the floor to make responding law enforcement officers slip and fall. He then planned to take an officer’s gun and kill multiple people at a nearby dormitory, authorities said.

His elaborate plan was interrupted by 31-year-old Byron Price, a construction worker who was across the hallway overseeing a project when he heard screaming and went to help, according to investigators. Price struggled with Mohammad and was slashed around the waistline. Mohammad, who had already stabbed one student inside the classroom, left the building and stabbed two more people. He was shot and killed on Scholars Lane Bridge, a short distance from the building.

Investigators later discovered a computer printout of an Islamic State flag among Mohammad’s possessions, according to law enforcement officials who spoke to the Sun-Star on condition of anonymity. Whether he was influenced by the extremist group or its tactics remains under investigation, they said.

All four victims are expected to make full recoveries.

This story was originally published November 16, 2015 at 6:54 PM with the headline "UC Merced officer-involved shooting under review by DA’s office."