Records show San Diego deputies in friendly-fire case saw fellow officer before shooting at suspect

Two San Diego sheriff’s deputies who opened fire on a vehicle-theft suspect in 2022, inadvertently striking a National City police detective in the process, testified that they saw the detective and one other officer “downrange” behind their target but fired at the suspect anyway, according to recently unsealed records in one of two lawsuits related to the shooting.

A defense expert hired by San Diego County to evaluate the incident also concluded that if National City Detective Rowdy Pauu was standing at the time of the shooting, as he has said he was, rather than crouching, then at least one of the deputies “would have had direct line of sight to at least Mr. Pauu’s head” when that deputy and his partner squeezed off 17 shots at the suspect.

Those new revelations were part of a recent court filing by Pauu’s attorneys in his lawsuit against the county and the two deputies, David Lovejoy and Jonathon Young. The theft suspect who was shot that night, Erik Talavera, has also sued. Both cases are pending.

Attorneys for the county and the deputies have asked a judge to dismiss Pauu’s case. On Thursday, U.S. District...