On Tuesday, the Pittsburg Police Department released the name of the man involved in the February 23, 2022 officer involved shooting at the Hampton Inn as 45-year-old Ashton Porter, a resident of Alpharetta, Georgia.
In addition, pursuant to Pittsburg Police policy, we are releasing officers’ body worn camera footage of the incident in an effort to foster transparency and trust with our community. This Critical Incident Video contains a small portion of the footage from an incident that spanned more than 20 hours. All of the officers on the scene were equipped with body worn cameras, but due to the lengthy operation, several were not functioning at the conclusion of the incident due to drained batteries.
The officer involved in the incident is a member of the Pittsburg Police Department tactical team and identified as Officer Ernesto Mejia. Officer Mejia has been a Pittsburg Police Officer for seven and a half years and has been a Pittsburg Police Officer the entire time.
The Contra Costa County Officer Involved Incident Protocol has been enacted and the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office will be completing an independent investigation into this incident. The Pittsburg Police Department’s independent outside investigator is also conducting an independent investigation of the incident pursuant to department policy.
On February 28, 2022, the Contra Costa County District Attorney reviewed this incident and filed five counts of felony assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, one count of felony vandalism, and one count of criminal trespassing. Porter remains in custody with a $430,000 bail.
Original story:
Pittsurg Police Shoot Armed Man After Standoff and Mental Health Crisis Response
Earlier Wednesday afternoon, just after 12:30 P.M., Pittsburg Police Officers responded to the Hampton Inn located on California Avenue regarding a man at the location breaking out a hotel window and smashing items inside his room. Before officers arrived at the business, the man had locked himself inside his hotel room.
When officers arrived at the hotel, they found the man still inside his fourth-floor hotel room. He had now barricaded himself inside using the furniture from inside the room. Officers also spoke with several of the man’s family members who had arrived at the hotel. The family reported the man was suffering from an acute mental health crisis, and they were seeking to get him some assistance.
Officers began speaking with the man through the locked door, but he refused to exit the room. Knowing the man was experiencing mental health difficulties, officers contacted the department’s Crisis Intervention Team, which contains police officers specially trained in working with subjects who are going through a mental health crisis and need assistance. Officers additionally requested assistance from the Contra Costa County Mental Health Evaluation Team (MHET) and the Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT) to communicate with the man.
The County Mental Health Evaluation Team is comprised of a Pittsburg Police Officer and mental health clinician from the Contra Costa County Mental Health Evaluation Team. Together, they work with people throughout East Contra Costa County in need of mental health treatment. The Mobil Crisis Response Team includes licensed mental health clinicians, support workers, and family nurse practitioners employed by Contra Costa Behavior Health Services to provide professional intervention for adults experiencing mental health crises.
Officers and mental health staff continued to communicate with the man throughout the evening. Family members and the man’s spouse came to the hotel to talk to the man and attempt to get him out of the hotel room to receive any assistance he needed. During conversations, the man made statements he wanted to “end it all.” Officers were concerned he could potentially fall out of, or jump from, the broken fourth-floor window and were able to use a utility boom truck to lift a plywood sheet to the hotel room’s window to cover it and prevent this from happening.
While speaking with the man, officers could see he was armed with a large butcher knife and was consistently swinging the knife around. Due to the man being armed with the knife, the Pittsburg Police Department tactical team arrived at the hotel just before 9:00 P.M. Officers and mental health staff continued to talk with the man over the next few hours. Having mental health professionals on the scene was an added benefit to officers. However, no progress was made despite their best efforts, and they left the location just after midnight.
After exhausting all reasonable attempts to convince the man to come out of the room, officers deployed chemical agents into the room to encourage him to come out. The initial deployment of the chemical agent had minimal effect, and the man remained inside the room. Officers waited a period of time and then made several additional chemical agent deployments. Just before 8:00 A.M. this morning, the chemical agents had enough impact on the man to get him to come out of the room.
The man was directed out of the room by officers and instructed not to bring the knife. Within moments, the man came out of the room with the large butcher-style knife in his hand. Officers were positioned in the hotel’s hallway, with several officers assigned to less-lethal devices. In an attempt to detain the man safely, two officers shot him with 40mm less-lethal rounds (sponge projectiles) as he entered the hallway. The less-lethal rounds had minimal impact on him, and he then turned toward several officers positioned at the other end of the hallway. The man then started to walk toward those officers with the knife in his hand, raised over his shoulder. One of the officers fired his service weapon, striking the man twice in the upper body.
The man was immediately taken into custody, and a tactical medic stabilized him for paramedics to transport him to an area hospital. He remains in stable condition and is expected to survive. No officers were injured during this incident.
The Contra Costa County Officer Involved Incident Protocol has been enacted, and the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office will be completing an independent investigation into this incident. The Pittsburg Police Department’s independent outside investigator is also conducting an independent investigation of the incident according to department policy. We are working on releasing the body-camera footage of this incident within the coming weeks. This remains an active investigation, and additional details will be released later.
We want to thank the member and support staff with the Contra Costa County Mental Health Evaluation Team (MHET) and the Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT) for their assistance. Additionally, we would like to thank the support of the man’s family and the management of the Hampton Inn for their support during this difficult and unfortunate incident.
