Names of CHP officers who killed Erik Salgado made public in wrongful death suit

OAKLAND, Calif. - The names of California Highway Patrol officers who shot and killed Erik Salgado in Oakland last summer were revealed in court documents unsealed last week and not because the CHP or the state Attorney General made them public.

The names of the officers – Eric Hulbert, Donald Saputa and Sgt. Richard Henderson -- were revealed as part of a federal wrongful death suit filing by the Salgado family attorneys, John Burris, Ben Nisenbaum and Jim Chanin.

Salgado, 23, who was not armed, was struck 18 times. His girlfriend, who was in the passenger seat, was wounded but survived.

A CHP spokeswoman told the East Bay Times that the three officers "are current employees who are on patrol" but declined to comment further, citing the wrongful death lawsuit.

The officers' names were also first reported in the East Bay Times, which also noted that CHP officials have refused to identify the officers and state attorneys sought a protective order to keep the identities sealed, arguing the officers’ lives would be endangered if their identities were publicly released. 

MORE: CHP says there's no video of Erik Salgado being shot, killed by plain clothes officers

After the Attorney General's Office, now under Rob Bonta, did not renew a motion for the protective order, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria on July 2 ordered the names unsealed. They appeared in a complaint filed Wednesday by attorneys representing the Salgado family, based on records provided to them by Oakland police, which investigated the police killing.

The documents, since obtained by KTVU, offer the first glimpse into the officers’ roles in the shooting on June 6, 2020, as the nation was reeling from the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. 

The CHP has long contended that its officers were conducting a traffic stop on the Dodge sedan driven by Salgado that Oakland police said was one of 74 vehicles stolen from a San Leandro dealership.

The new court filing indicates that the CHP officers were part of a specialized undercover unit when they ran the license plate of a red Dodge Charger that Salgado was driving. The plate allegedly came back stolen, and the officers in unmarked trucks attempted to stop him on the 9600 block of Cherry Street.

As his family's attorneys tell it, Salgado tried to squeeze the Charger between one of the unmarked CHP trucks and a parked car and as he tried to drive away, but Henderson, Hulbert and Saputa all got out of their cars and began firing into Salgado's car, court documents indicate. 

Henderson fired 30 shots from five to 10 feet away from the Dodge, the attorneys said. Hulbert fired 16 rounds into the driver’s side of the car. Saputa also aimed and fired at the driver’s side, according to court documents.

MORE: Erik Salgado's family demands police accountability for his shooting death, protesters march

According to the attorneys’ filing, Henderson and Hulbert claimed they began firing believing a fellow officer had been run over. But that officer had safely gotten onto the sidewalk before Salgado drove forward, the Salgado family attorneys said. Plus, Salgado drove in the direction away from where that officer had been standing, and no officers were in any danger, the civil rights attorneys wrote. 

According to the court filing, this was Henderson's second fatal shooting as a CHP officer.

 In 2016, he and his partner, Sgt. John Cleveland, fatally shot Pedro Villanueva in the Orange County city of Fullerton. 

Similar to the Salgado shooting, the civil attorneys wrote, Henderson claimed he fired at the suspect because he thought the 19-year-old was going to run over his partner with his truck. The officers were cleared of criminal wrongdoing but are facing a lawsuit from Villanueva’s family.