W hile Salinas Police Chief Dan Ortega is defending a police officer involved in two questionable shootings in the past seven months, a civil rights attorney says the cop in both cases opened fire on unthreatening civilians.

At a Feb. 20 press conference, Ortega said officer Steve Mattocks acted appropriately when he shot at Adriana Velasquez and Julio Hernandez during a Feb. 3 traffic stop and shot and killed Maria Irma De La Torre in July.

In the most recent shooting, Mattocks ran to the aid of officer Christopher Swanson, who fell to the ground saying he was shot, Ortega said, adding that Mattocks then saw Hernandez reaching across the center console with what appeared to be a gun. “The totality of officer Mattocks’ observations caused him to believe the male passenger had a firearm and had shot Officer Swanson and was going to continue shooting at the officer,” he said.

“THEY ARE LUCKY THEY ARE STILL ALIVE.”

Swanson, however, had not been shot, and Hernandez was holding a wallet. Neither of the occupants was armed and both fully cooperated with Swanson, who pulled them over for a broken license plate light, Ortega said.

Michael Haddad, an Oakland attorney who is representing De La Torre’s mother in a wrongful death lawsuit, says he sees a dangerous pattern.

“In the De La Torre case [Mattocks] mistakenly perceived a crochet hook wielded by a sick 45-year-old woman as a threat,” he says. “In the Feb. 3 shooting he hears no gunshot. He says he thinks he sees a gun in the car, turns out to be wrong and again he starts shooting.

“Clearly he is not measuring up to what we expect from our law enforcement officers. We give him the power to take life, and we expect him to use that power more responsibly.”

The department fired Swanson, who was still working under a probationary period, but plans to keep 24-year-old Mattocks on the force. Ortega said Mattocks returned to patrol after the De La Torre shooting because there was no evidence of wrongdoing on his part. Police say the officers thought De La Torre had a knife or ice pick when they shot and Tased the epileptic woman. It turned out to be a knitting needle.

Mattocks is currently on administrative leave and Ortega hasn’t ruled out allowing him to return to the streets, though the department is considering giving him a desk job.

The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office is expected next week to announce results of an investigation into whether Mattocks and Officer Robert Balaoro did anything criminal in the De La Torre shooting. While the D.A. is unlikely to file criminal charges against Mattocks, he will see his day in civil court.

Aptos attorney Omar James says he will sue the city for violating Hernandez and Velasquez’s constitutional rights and causing them emotional distress. “They are lucky they are still alive,” James says. “You can’t imagine… the feeling of absolute helplessness which is exasperated by the fact that these are the people that are there to protect you.”

While James says he is primarily focused on Swanson’s actions, whose inexplicable behavior triggered the shooting, Mattocks is not absolved from guilt: “I don’t think anyone is justified opening fire on an unarmed individual at any point in time.”