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Update: One of the Barstow Police officers involved in the shooting of Diante Yarber, Jimmie Aflred Walker, was charged in 2010 with hate crime and battery charges after the then 30-year-old officer used racial slurs against a man and assaulted him and a woman while off-duty. Walker eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of fighting in a public place and being drunk in public, while the battery charge and hate crime charge were dropped. Walker was forced to make a $200 donation to the NAACP and attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings, but was eventually reinstated to patrol. The other officers involved in the shooting of Yarber were corporal Jose Barrientos, officer Vincent Carrillo and officer Mathew Allen Helms. These officers did not provide medical aid to Yarber when he was bleeding to death in the car, hit by at least 10 bullets. According to witness statements, Walker, Barrientos, Carillo, and Helms were yelling racial slurs the entire time of the incident. Video footage shows Yarber’s car was moving without any officers or officer’s patrol cars in its path.
San Bernardino District Attorney Michael Ramos said he will not prosecute the officers involved in the shooting, claiming they were justified in their actions. The officers have not faced any disciplinary action at the Barstow Police Department. An attorney representing the Yarber family is calling for California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to investigate, evaluate and prosecute DA Ramos for his actions in the case. The Yarber family has also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Barstow, alleging excessive force and civil rights violations in the killing of Diante Yarber.
On April 5, 2018, 26 year-old father-of-three Diante Yarber drove his cousin and two friends to a Walmart in Barstow, California. While in the parking lot, Diante’s vehicle was suddenly surrounded and boxed in by officers with the Barstow Police Department who were responding to a report about a “suspicious vehicle.”
Video footage shows Diante slowly reversing his cousin’s car to move away from the Barstow police officers blocking him in front. Officers immediately exited their vehicles and fired more than 30 rounds into the Mustang, killing Diante at the wheel instantly. A 23 year-old woman in the vehicle was shot at least twice, then handcuffed and put in a police vehicle and treated as a suspect before being given medical attention. One other passenger was shot and injured. Bystanders can be heard gasping in video taken of the incident.
It has now been verified that the vehicle Diante was driving was not a stolen vehicle. Neither Diante nor anyone else in the vehicle had committed any crime. They were unarmed.
The case is now under investigation by San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department homicide detectives. They will decide whether to file charges against the officers involved.
Please contact San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon through one of the channels below and give him the following message:
Please bring charges immediately against the officers who shot and killed Diante Yarber and injured two other people in his vehicle on April 5, 2018. This was a lethal use of excessive force that was NOT warranted by the circumstances. These were innocent, unarmed people sitting in a parking lot at Walmart. They were engaged in no criminal activity whatsoever. And your officers attempted to execute them (30 rounds!) for what? Because they didn’t want Yarber to slowly roll into a police vehicle? This was a dangerous (to EVERYONE in that parking lot) and reprehensible act that will not be tolerated. Bring charges against these officers immediately and do justice for Diante Yarber, those injured, and the people forever traumatized by this act of murder.
San Bernardino County Sheriff/Coroner John McMahon
Phone: (909) 387-3700
Email: paffairs@sbcsd.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sbcountysheriff
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sbcountysheriff
Once you have contacted Sheriff McMahon, click the orange banner below to report taking action!