Gang members aren’t the only ones firing their weapons more in Salinas in recent months. Salinas-area law enforcement officers have been involved in four shootings since July.

The most recent incident took place Feb. 3 during a traffic stop when two Salinas officers opened fire on unarmed Adriana Velasquez and Julio Hernandez. Hernandez was reaching for his wallet when Officer Christopher Swanson thought he heard a pop and saw a muzzle flash, then fell to the ground saying he was shot, according to outgoing Police Chief Dan Ortega. Both Swanson and Officer Steve Mattocks fired multiple rounds, remarkably not injuring anyone.

Ortega fired Swanson, who was still on probation, after the department’s internal investigation was completed, who said Mattocks acted appropriately.

Aptos attorney Omar James, who is representing Hernandez and Velasquez, says he will sue the city for violating the Salinas residents’ constitutional rights and causing emotional distress. “You can’t take lightly the use of deadly force,” James says. “We live by rule of law. But when the rule of law is violated by the people who are there to protect you, you have anarchy.”

There were three other officer-involved shootings:

On Jan. 15, Sheriff’s Deputy Jesse Piñon shot Carlos Fletes after authorities say he pointed a gun at members of the county’s Gang Task Force. Fletes’ attorney says he was holding a spray-paint hose in his body shop.

On Aug. 31, 2008 Iraq war veteran Philip Michael Dorado was shot and killed by Salinas Police Officer Louis Plunkett outside a Wells Fargo bank in north Salinas. Police say Dorado pulled a loaded AK-47 out of his waistband but family members question whether the shooting was necessary.

On July 13, 2008 Officer Mattocks shot and killed Maria Irma De La Torre (Officer Robert Balaoro used a Taser) after she allegedly lunged at the officers with what appeared to be a knife but turned out to be a knitting needle.

De La Torre’s husband and mother are suing the city for wrongful death in federal court. Oakland Attorney Michael Haddad says lethal force was not justified. “Even under the police version, the victim was a 45-year-old woman needing medical assistance holding a four-inch long crochet hook,” Haddad says. [The officers] are wearing bullet proof vests and fully trained in defensive tactics.”

In a legal response, the city said the officers used reasonable force because the “Defendants …believed that decedent was going to harm them and used only that amount of force reasonably necessary to protect themselves and others.”

Crescencio Padilla of the League of the United American Citizens, which has investigated previous officer-involved shootings, says the streak of incidents has hurt community-police relations. “That’s why Salinas residents don’t cooperate with the police,’’ he says. “They don’t trust them.”

Ortega says he doesn’t see any department-wide behavior problems or the need for additional training in light of the shootings.

“I never expect my officers to get hurt in order to justify the use of force,” he says, adding that Mattocks is back to on the job and will eventually return to patrol.