Christopher DeAndre Mitchell

Christopher DeAndre Mitchell, 23, was shot and killed by Torrance, California Police Officers Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez on December 9, 2018, within seconds of them approaching a parked car matching a stolen-vehicle report. Officers said they saw Mitchell reach toward what turned out to be an altered air rifle wedged between his legs and that he failed to comply with commands; his family maintained he was asleep and never given a chance to surrender. Then-District Attorney Jackie Lacey's office declined to file charges in 2019, finding the shooting justified. After George Gascón took office pledging to revisit police shootings, his office reopened the case in 2023 and secured a grand jury indictment for voluntary manslaughter — the same year it was publicly revealed that both officers had exchanged racist text messages. In November 2025, under a new district attorney, prosecutors moved to dismiss the case, and a judge granted that dismissal in April 2026, citing insufficient evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. No one has ever been convicted in Mitchell's death.

Torrance, CA · Los Angeles County

• 2018: 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 stolen-vehicle report, the parking lot encounter, and the shooting within roughly 12 to 15 seconds of officers' arrival, per Los Angeles County District Attorney records and grand jury indictment materials.
• Mitchell was found in the driver's seat of a black Honda Civic reported stolen, with an altered air rifle positioned between his legs; officers said they believed he was reaching for it.
• Then-DA Jackie Lacey's office reviewed the case and declined to file charges in 2019, concluding the officers were legally justified.
• In 2021, it was revealed that numerous Torrance police officers, including both Concannon and Chavez to varying degrees, had exchanged racist text messages; Mitchell's family's attorney cited this as evidence of potential racial bias in the shooting.
• District Attorney George Gascón's office reopened the investigation and secured a grand jury indictment against both officers for voluntary manslaughter in April 2023, more than four years after the shooting.
• Special Prosecutor Michael Gennaco, a nationally recognized use-of-force expert retained by the DA's office, produced a 26-page memo concluding the case could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, given the 12-second window officers had to assess the situation.
• Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Samuel Ohta dismissed the indictment in a 34-page opinion in April 2026, finding no evidence prosecutors sought dismissal in bad faith, and stating explicitly that the case was not a civil rights matter but a voluntary manslaughter case bound by that charge's evidentiary standard.

• Whether Mitchell was in fact reaching for the air rifle, as officers maintained, or was asleep and given no real opportunity to comply, as his family argued, was never resolved at any criminal trial since the case was dismissed before reaching one.
• The specific content of the racist text messages exchanged by the officers, and how directly connected they were to this particular shooting as opposed to reflecting broader department culture, was described as difficult to conclusively link by the special prosecutor's own analysis.
• Why the original 2019 charging decision and the 2023 reopened investigation, examining substantially the same evidence years apart, produced such different initial conclusions before the case was ultimately dismissed regardless.

• Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office — official statement on the case's dismissal
• NBC Los Angeles — “DA asks charges to be dropped against Torrance police officers for 2018 on-duty killing”
• FOX 11 Los Angeles — “Charges dismissed against former Torrance officers in fatal shooting of Christopher DeAndre Mitchell”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs