An item on Tuesday’s Shasta County Board of Supervisors consent agenda is an unspecified $12 Million increase in the risk management budget that apparently is to cover a settlement from an officer involved shooting in 2020. 41-year-old Thomas Barbosa, a Marine Corps Veteran with PTST who had a history of mental health related incidents, had been chased by deputies to a cliff off Platina Road, where Barbosa drove his pickup down the steep embankment and it came to rest on its side. With several deputies surrounding him, Barbosa was climbing out the back window when he was shot dead with a rifle round by Sergeant Jose Gonzalez from his vantage point up the cliff. Gonzalez had contended that Barbosa was holding a knife and posed a threat to nearby deputies. Two minutes later a K9 was released and he thrashed Barbosa’’s arm before deputies pulled the dead man out onto the ground, handcuffed him, and dragged his lifeless body away from the truck. Based on the knowledge Gonzalez had about Barbosa’s past, the shooting was ruled to be justified by the District Attorney’s Office. The Board of Supervisors had apparently entered into a court settlement with Barbosa’s family. Although the agenda does not specify, a Record Searchlight reporter says that a county official confirmed that it’s for the Barbosa case.
-Steve Gibson