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5 STANDARD LEGAL PRINCIPLES IN OFFICER-INVOLVED SHOOTING CASES Possible criminal charges against an officer involved in a fatal shooting include murder [Penal Code Section 187]; manslaughter [Penal Code Section 192]; assault with a deadly weapon [Penal Code Section 245]; and assault by a police officer [Penal Code Section 149]. In order to convict an officer of any of these charges, however, it would be necessary to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that no legal justifications existed for the officer’s actions. (People v. Adrian (1982) 135 Cal.App.3d 335, 340-342.) Several such justifications may apply in any given case and they are set forth in Penal Code Sections 196, 197 and 835a. Penal Code Section 196 provides that use of deadly force by a public officer is justifiable when necessarily used in arresting persons who are “charged with a felony” and who are fleeing from justice or resisting such arrest. Section 196 applies both where the suspect in question is “charged with a felony” and where the officer has “reasonable cause” to believe that the person has committed a felony. (Kortum v. Alkire (1977) 69 Cal.App.3d 325, 332.) The felony must involve violence or the threat of violence to justify the officer’s use of deadly force. (Id. at 333.) Penal Code Section 197 provides that the use of deadly force by any person is justifiable when used in self-defense or in defense of others. Penal Code Section 835a allows any police officer who has reasonable cause to believe that a person to be arrested has committed a felony [public offense] to use reasonable force to effect the arrest, to prevent escape, or to overcome resistance. The section further provides that a police officer “who makes or attempts to make an arrest need not retreat or desist from his efforts by reason of the resistance or threatened resistance of the person being arrested; nor shall such officer be deemed an aggressor or lose his right to self-defense by the use of reasonable force to effect the arrest or to prevent escape or to overcome resistance.” The Court of Appeal in Kortum further held that deadly force against a fleeing felony suspect is justifiable only when the felony “is of the violent variety, i.e., a forcible and atrocious one which threatens death or serious bodily harm, or there are other circumstances which reasonably create a fear of death or serious bodily harm to the officer or to another.” (Kortum v. Alkire, supra, 69 Cal.App.3d at p. 333.) In addition, Penal Code section 834a requires that if a person has knowledge, or by the exercise of reasonable care, should have knowledge, that he/she is being arrested by a peace officer, that person must refrain from using force or any weapon to resist such arrest. Similarly, the relevant Criminal Jury Instruction as written by the Judicial Council of California and set forth in CALCRIM 3470 permits a person being assaulted to defend himself/herself from attack if, as a reasonable person, he/she had grounds for believing and did believe that bodily injury was about to be inflicted upon him/her or upon another person. In doing so, such person may immediately use all force and means which he/she believes to be reasonably necessary and which would appear to a reasonable person, in the same or similar circumstances, to be necessary to defend against that danger and to prevent the injury which appears to be imminent. The law as stated in CALCRIM 3470 and in well-settled case law therefore permits a person, if confronted by the appearance of danger which arouses in his/her mind, as a reasonable person, an honest fear and conviction that he/she or another person is about to suffer bodily injury, to act in self-defense or defense of others upon such appearances, and from such fear and honest convictions. The person’s right of self-defense is the same whether the danger is real or merely apparent. (People v. Jackson (1965) 233 Cal.App.2d 639, 641-642.) Nevertheless, the above justifications must be interpreted in light of United States Supreme Court precedent that limits the right of a police officer to use deadly force. (People v. Martin (1985) 168 Cal.App.3d 1111, 1124.)