Alfred Olango

Alfred Olango, 38, a Ugandan refugee who had lived in the U.S. since childhood, was shot and killed by El Cajon, California Police Officer Richard Gonsalves on September 27, 2016, within about two minutes of officers arriving in response to his sister's 911 call reporting he was mentally ill, unarmed, and having an emotional breakdown after a close friend's death. Officers said Olango pulled an object from his pocket, assumed “what appeared to be a shooting stance,” and pointed it at Gonsalves, who fired four times as a second officer simultaneously deployed a Taser; the object turned out to be a vape pen. San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis declined to charge Gonsalves in January 2017, finding the shooting legally justified. A 2019 civil jury also cleared Gonsalves of negligence. No one has ever been criminally charged in Olango's death.

El Cajon, CA · San Diego County

• 2016: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The 911 call from Olango's sister, describing him as mentally ill and unarmed, and the shooting roughly two minutes after officers arrived, per the El Cajon Police Department and San Diego County District Attorney's public findings.
• The object Olango drew from his pocket was a vape smoking device (a Pioneer for You Vape), not a weapon, per the El Cajon Police Department's own evidence release.
• District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis announced in January 2017 that Gonsalves acted lawfully, concluding Olango's motion with the vape pen was a purposeful act intended to make the officer fear he was about to be shot.
• Officer Gonsalves had been demoted the year before the shooting following an unrelated sexual harassment lawsuit, and was never relieved of duty following Olango's death.
• A 2019 civil jury deliberated approximately one hour before unanimously finding Gonsalves not negligent in a wrongful death suit brought by Olango's sister, who witnessed the shooting.
• U.S. immigration authorities had twice attempted to deport Olango in the years before his death but were unable to, since Uganda would not accept him back.

• Whether Olango's exact hand movement with the vape pen was, as the district attorney concluded, a deliberate act meant to provoke fear of being shot, or an ambiguous gesture by a man in visible mental distress, was disputed by the family's attorney and never tested at a criminal trial.
• Full, unedited bystander video of the incident, which police said corroborated their account, was not made public in its entirety, per contemporaneous reporting.
• Whether officers' roughly hour-long response time to the initial 911 call, during which Olango continued walking in traffic and behaving erratically, affected the outcome once they finally arrived has not been directly addressed in any official finding.

• Wikipedia — “Killing of Alfred Olango” (sourced case history)
• LAist — “Man Fatally Shot By El Cajon Police Was Holding A Vape Pen”
• 10News San Diego — “Family marks 2 years since Olango shooting death”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs