Trial Date Set for Ex-Cop Who Fatally Shot Mentally Impaired Corona Man

RIVERSIDE (CNS) – An Aug. 23 trial date was confirmed Friday for an ex- cop accused of fatally shooting a developmentally disabled man in a Corona Costco, as well as critically wounding the victim’s parents — all of whom were unarmed — in what the former lawman contended was an act of self defense.

Salvador Alejandro Sanchez, 34, of Corona is charged with voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm resulting in great bodily injury for the 2019 shooting.

During a status hearing Friday at the Riverside Hall of Justice, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jason Armand conferred with the prosecution and defense regarding trial scheduling, and the two sides tentatively agreed to be prepared to move forward with proceedings during the last week of August.

Sanchez is free on a $155,000 bond.

The shooting occurred on the evening of June 14, 2019, inside the Costco at 480 N. McKinley St., where 32-year-old Kenneth French was killed and his parents, Russell and Paola French, all of Corona, were wounded.

A witness at the defendant’s preliminary hearing last August, William Gagnon, testified that he was in the store, searching for items, when he misplaced his keys and went looking for them along the main aisle. He heard shots ring out, resulting in several moments of chaos. The witness said that when things settled down, he went to where he saw four people laying on the floor.

“I saw one guy with a gun in his right hand, pointing it another person on the ground,” Gagnon testified. “I asked him, `Where’s the gun?’ And he said, `He still has it in his hand! He still has it in his hand!”‘

The person pointing the handgun was Sanchez, according to testimony. Gagnon said he checked the wounded individual — Russell French — to whom the off-duty policeman was motioning, but there was no gun.

The witness said before walking over to check on Kenneth French, he saw the mortally wounded man’s mother laying on the floor, pleading, “Help me, help me.”

Store employees and other witnesses soon began rendering aid to the wounded husband and wife, while Gagnon knelt beside Kenneth French.

“I stayed with him for five or 10 minutes,” he said. “I took his right hand and tried talking to him, but he didn’t respond. Then he appeared to stop bleeding, and there was no more labored breathing.”

According to Corona police investigators, only Sanchez was armed and fired 10 shots from his off-duty pistol.

The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office in September 2019 took the matter to the 19-member county grand jury, and the panel declined to indict Sanchez, culminating in the California Department of Justice ultimately filing charges.

In the summer of 2020, the Los Angeles Police Commission determined the Costco shooting reflected unjustifiable use of force, and Sanchez was booted from the Los Angeles Police Department.

The French family filed a lawsuit against the LAPD, the city of Los Angeles and Sanchez at the end of 2019 for negligence and civil rights violations. An L.A. jury in November 2021 ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, awarding them $17 million.

The victims were shopping when they approached a food sample table with sausages, where the defendant was also standing, holding his then-18-month- old son. No one has disputed that, for reasons never determined, Kenneth French shoved the off-duty lawman to the ground.

According to Sanchez’s civil attorney, David Winslow, his client was dazed, and when he saw his son next to him screaming, he “had no choice but to use deadly force.”

Tapes from body-worn cameras of Corona police officers who went to the scene captured statements from Sanchez indicating that he initially believed Kenneth French was holding a weapon. But the victim was not armed.

Russell and Paola French said they pleaded with Sanchez not to shoot, telling the officer that their son, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was largely nonverbal, was ill.

Store security surveillance tapes showed the victims backing away from Sanchez when he fired.

Kenneth French was shot once in the shoulder and three times in the back, while his mother was shot in the back, and her husband was shot in the abdomen, resulting in the loss of a kidney.

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