Deputy To Be Fired After Choking Carjacker To Death

Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick announced on Friday he intends to fire a deputy who applied a lethal choke-hold on a man who evaded officers in his car, calling the deputy’s conduct “extremely troubling” in a video that included body camera footage of the violent encounter.



David Glen Ward, 52, died on the morning of Nov. 27 after two sheriff’s deputies and two Sebastopol police officers mistook him for a stolen car suspect. Ward had reported his green Honda Civic stolen three days earlier and had recently retrieved it when officers tried to stop him, leading to an early morning chase near Bloomfield and Murray roads just south of Sebastopol.



Body-cam footage shows an officer with a gun drawn shouting at Ward to keep his hands up as officers move toward the vehicle. Ward is then ordered to unlock the door, but he is unable to do so with one hand. Ward eventually rolls down the window and the officers pounce.



One officer deploys a Taser while a sheriff’s deputy, identified as Charles Blount, restrains Ward by the head and neck and attempts to yank him out of the vehicle through the driver’s side window. A struggle ensues as Ward’s legs become trapped under the steering wheel, and deputies can be heard saying Ward bit them as he shouts in pain. Blount appears to then slam Ward’s head against the car.



Ward became unresponsive during the arrest and later died at the hospital.



“If you watch the body-worn camera video closely, you may be concerned by what you saw,” Sheriff Essick said in the video released Friday. “So was I.”



Blount was served a notice of termination, Essick said. The deputy is currently on administrative leave as an investigation into the incident continues.