Police officers who shot and killed a 39-year-old man in Stockton in 2020 will not be prosecuted, the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office said this week.
Antwaune Burrise was shot by officers at an apartment complex in July 2020 after police arrived to serve an arrest warrant.
Burrise was wanted in connection with the 2020 murder of Renard Thomas, 39, who had been shot multiple times in his car.
Officers found Burrise inside a vehicle in the 5200 block of Cosumnes Drive. Police said they blocked him in with their patrol cars, but that he allegedly rammed one of the officer’s vehicles.
Officers alleged that Burrise was non-compliant and remained in the car as officers approached him.
“He was considered to be armed and dangerous,” police said in a statement.
Police said Burrise accelerated his vehicle toward an undercover officer, which resulted in three officers firing their weapons at him.
When officers noticed there was no movement coming from inside the car, an officer used bean bag rounds to break the windows for an emergency extraction.
Burrise later died from his injuries at the hospital.
Police allege that Burrise was found to have a loaded semi-automatic .40 caliber handgun under his seat and a .223 caliber semi-automatic AR-15 rifle on the back seat.
For the past four years, Burrise’s mother, Stephanie Hatten, has voiced that the police wrongfully killed her son.
Last year, the family said in an interview that Burrise had partial paraplegia and could not move well — a condition she says the police knew about.
“He couldn’t run,” she said.
His wife said in the same interview that she believed her husband should have been held accountable in a court of law if he was guilty of any crime, not by a police officer’s gun.
In April of 2020, Burrise had been released from prison and was on community supervision in addition to federal probation.
Out of respect for family members, officers involved, and the Stockton Police Department, the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s office will not comment further on this case,” the DA’s office said in a statement.