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Authorities on Friday released video footage of the fatal shooting by a sheriff’s deputy of an Alpine man nearly three weeks ago.
Robert Edmund Liddell, 72, allegedly approached him and his partner with a replica pistol in hand as the deputies checked in on him at the request of a neighbor.
Deputy Jordi Herrera opened fire on Liddell in a hallway at the man’s home in the 1700 block of Kyrsten Terrace on Nov. 5, according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies arrived about an hour after a 6:30 p.m. 911 call in which the neighbor reported that she was concerned about a man she had been unable to contact.
Speaking to a dispatcher, she said she was outside Liddell’s home, where she found the front door open but got no response from anyone inside.
“When I knocked, then I noticed (the door) started – you know, it didn’t open completely, but it pushed forward, and if I had knocked again, it would have opened the door,” the caller said in a recording that was part of footage posted on YouTube by the Sheriff’s office. The woman added that she called out, but received no answer.
Herrera and Deputy Christopher Kleppe, can be seen upon arrival, inspecting the scene outside briefly, before deciding to enter through the unlocked front door.
Repeatedly identifying themselves as sheriff’s deputies, they walked through the dark home with their flashlights on and their body-worn cameras activated. About 30 seconds after they entered, Liddell emerged from a room with the imitation pistol in his hand and said, “Get the (expletive) out.”
As Kleppe took refuge in a room and the resident moved past that doorway, the deputies shouted at him to drop it. Moments later Herrera fired four rounds at Liddell and he collapsed against a wall. They ordered him again to drop the gun, and he yelled, “I dropped it.”
Herrera and Kleppe provided emergency aid prior to the arrival of paramedics who took Liddell to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
Herrera has been with the Sheriff’s Office for three years, and Kleppe for six. Per the agency’s policies, they were placed on desk duty while the shooting is investigated by California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office under terms of a 2020 state law.
Assembly Bill 1506 requires the state Department of Justice to investigate law enforcement shootings resulting in the deaths of unarmed people.
Under the statute, “armed” means being in possession of a deadly weapon, according to the DOJ. Replica firearms do not fall into that category unless they are used in a manner likely to produce death or great bodily injury, for example, to bludgeon.
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