"John Deming, the unarmed teenager who was shot to death by Pleasanton police, Did Not have drugs in his system."

First, this is the claim by the Deming family and their attorneys based on tests that they had conducted. This claim has not been confirmed by the county autopsy report, which apparently has not yet been completed or released. Secondly, this claim by the family and their attorney is old news. This claim of theirs came out at least two weeks ago.

OK. So, this 19 year old, San Jose, man was not on drugs. So, in this very quite, sleepy, residential/small business area, presumably thinking clearly. He made the decision to 'break in', literally..Breaking a full wall of plate glass. All at 2:00 AM with the neighborhood sleeping, hours after the business was closed, and neighbors in bed.
Surely, there was a good reason to need to get inside a closed, car collector's store, with no other humans on that property or nearby.
Hmmm, probably not collecting a cancer donation, probably not needing medical help, or he would have chosen an area with visible 'people'. Maybe he just wanted a nap, but if that were the case he would have gone to the nice, grassy neighborhood park, maybe 400 yards down the sidewalk. No walkers and rare cars on that street in the middle of the night.
But, since the family has hired world famous Mark Geragos on the case, we'll have some kind of answer any day now,.

As a Pleasanton resident I want answers. It is hard to understand why this boy had to die.

John Deming rest in peace.

I plan to wait until all reports are made public.

It seems to me that a few self selected individuals have taken it upon themselves to stir the pot. That's unfortunate.

This Damon person who so quickly posted said over and over that this kid was "obviously" high on drugs. The family's attorney wouldn't have released that he was clean if it weren't true because the official autopsy would easily prove they were lying. It's interesting that the PPD haven't released any results of toxicology that they have to have by now. Gee, I wonder if they were hoping for a different result so they could justify this killing?

Something stinks. This was an unarmed kid on a small property with several officers. He was apparently also clean. They also requested a call to a personal phone number from the Lt. who also conducts internal investigations. Then there's the request to turn of the body camera.

I hope the DOJ or someone outside of Alameda County and PPD investigate this. The kid deserves it.

@"Oh Please" : "This Damon person who so quickly posted said over and over that this kid was "obviously" high on drugs. The family's attorney wouldn't have released that he was clean if it weren't true because the official autopsy would easily prove they were lying. It's interesting that the PPD haven't released any results of toxicology that they have to have by now. "

Boy, so many errors here. Where should I begin? First, you should be more careful in quoting people. Pretty sure that I didn't say that Deming was "obviously" high on drugs. I challenge you to provide a quotation where I said he was "obviously" high. Have a feeling we won't be hearing from you again.

Secondly, if the family's autopsy and the official county autopsy disagree on the presence of drugs, it doesn't necessarily prove that someone on the Deming side or on the county side was "lying". One of them could have made a mistake or have not tested for all possible drugs. Finally, it's not up to the PPD to release any autopsy results. The autopsy was done by the county, not the city of Pleasanton.

Maybe everybody that's so critical of PPD should volunteer to go out on those calls when the loonies are breaking into a business and destroying property, maybe go inside and have a talk with them, and hopefully before they start whooping on you maybe you can convince them to calm down and go back to being that "good" boy again!! Give it all a rest and wait till all the facts are public, no matter who is right it's going to be another big lawsuit for the city, and another big payoff for the lawyers!!

Damon, You repeatedly said and implied that he was high. Implied the tox report would explain his behavior.
PPD has withheld information because it is not the outcome that they needed.

Police are trained professionals, cops are not drafted, they chose a profession with risk. They must be held to the highest level of responsibility, when lives are involved. It is looking like the therory of a mental illness is probably the case. Breaking into a business is not a death penalty offence.

@Mike: "Damon, You repeatedly said and implied that he was high. Implied the tox report would explain his behavior. "

What is that, Mike? Do I sense that someone is backing off of the claim that I said that he was "obviously" high? Well, good.

Now as for this toxicology report from the Deming family and their attorneys (which, again, is old news and has been out for at least two weeks), the claim has yet to be confirmed by the county autopsy, so cool your heels. Also, not sure if it helps the Deming's family case if it turns out that John Deming was acting the way he did without the influence of drugs. In fact, it makes his behavior look even worse.

@Damon:

Good Gawd, you said over and over and over that he was on drugs. When others said we should wait for all the results, you still insisted he had to be on drugs. It looks like you were wrong. And if the results of the two autopsies don't match, well then it's probably more that just a mistake and someone has some serious explaining to do on top of trying to justify the death of an unarmed man with six officers on scene that should have been able to subdue him. By the way, it's not a sign of weakness to admit when you are wrong as is the case here unless you are suggesting someone else posts under the name you have chosen.

Something is not right here. Maybe it was an honest mistake, but that doesn't make it okay. And if this was the case, we need our PD to learn something from it. Perhaps that means it's time for better training on handling someone in a mental health crisis.

I am willing to wait for the final results, but will say I'm troubled by much of what has come out, including that the officer who was apparently knocked out somehow managed to shoot him three times with serious accuracy and that with so many officers on scene of a small lot size that none of them heard this or saw it and could cover the officer so he didn't have to use deadly force. I hope the final report will include the distance at which the shots were fired.

The police knew the suspect was talking to himself. They also knew the only thing he had in his hand was a box, no gun. They had enough information to step back and work toward a peaceful outcome. Instead they forced the confrontation that lead to his death.
Damon, you are talking out of both sides of your mouth.

Why would we have to wait for the county to confirm the autopsy results? Shouldn't it be the other way around? It's sad, but sometimes the police need to be policed. The family appears to want a federal investigation which I don't think they would ask for if their findings so far were fabricated.

And yes, Damon did post multiple times that this kid was high. I felt this was also probably the case, but I guess I was wrong.

@"Oh Please" : "Good Gawd, you said over and over and over that he was on drugs. When others said we should wait for all the results, you still insisted he had to be on drugs."

I challenged you to come up with a quotation of mine to back up your claim that I said he was "obviously" on drugs, and you failed to do so. Glad we settled that. Be more careful about claiming to quote people next time.

As for this over two-week old claim by the Deming attorneys which seems to be news to you, it still hasn't been confirmed by the county autopsy. Kind of ironic for you to be accusing someone else of jumping to conclusions when all of the facts aren't yet in.

That's it for me here. You can continue to argue over this old news though.

This is sad, how is it posible that a boy is dead. I hope there will be answers.

The PPD put out a statment of lies. Public servents must be held accountable.

Damon, You have no credibility either.

Posted by Damon
a resident of Foothill Knolls
on Aug 10, 2015 at 1:02 pm

He was a fairly muscular 19 year old ex-high school football player who was apparently very high on drugs and strong enough to toss a 40 lb floor jack through a plate glass window.

Posted by Damon
a resident of Foothill Knolls
on Jul 7, 2015 at 7:38 pm

Too bad it had to come to shooting him because he apparently was high on drugs and attacked a cop.

So, he was operating sound of mind. But, he never said 'stop,I'm just'.. doing late night shopping, or fill in the blank. Why was he there in the middle of the night? Why did he 'BREAK' in through glass?
Again, every family, black & white, male & female, must learn to NOT run, F STOP, and RAISE both hands....always.

@James

LOL! Thanks for your hard work in making my point! Anyone see the word "obviously" in the quotations that he kindly provided? No?

Oh, and for your information, James, the words "obviously" and "apparently" are NOT synonymous. Please consult a dictionary.

The point is he was not of sound mind, he was having a mental health break. The police had enough information to detirmine that he was having a mental health crisis. They knew he was aggitated and confussed, they said he was talking to himself. Someone having a psycotic break can not be held legally responsible for his actions. The point is it was not an intentional act. He was not intending to break the law or hurt anyone. Police are responsible for the wellbeing of all people and should be trained to recognise when someone is in crisis. This death should not have happened.

I think Damon should run for political office.

The only jumping to conclusions that has happened is and was by Damon and the few that agreed with about the kid being on drugs. Perhaps those posts by others that agreed with him were made by him. When others, myself included, said maybe it wasn't drugs, but a mental health break, Damon attacked them like a schoolyard bully.

I don't need the county to confirm the autopsy. I trust an outside pathologist more than I trust the county. Clearly the county didn't release the results because they didn't favor the officers' account of what occurred.

Where is the video from the business and from the on person cameras on the officers? These videos can cut both ways. If an officer is doing as he should be, then the video will prove this. If it were me, I'd want the camera on to protect me, yet one of the officers wanted to turn his off. Why?

This young man should not have died. With so many officers after him in such a small space and with him being unarmed, there's no reason he should have met with deadly force. If this officer truly had no back up despite multiple officers being there then shame on the other officers for not better backing up and covering their own.

I think a thorough federal investigation is an order. I want to know the truth.

" It is hard to understand why this boy had to die."

Actually, it's really easy to see why he died. His behavior was not normal and was in fact completely out of control No one knew he was not armed but they did see him throw the floor jack through the window. Who needs a gun when you can do that?They did see him refuse how many offers to come out peacefully? I would have thought that at least being high or drunk might offer some excuse, no matter how lame, for his behavior. Seeing that this was his idea of how to behave in someone else's property, at 2 AM, while surrounded by cops telling him to stand down -- well that tells me that this kid orchestrated his own death.

If he was indeed mentally impaired then we all know that he would just be back on the street in no time to do this sort of thing again. Better to stop him before he took an innocent victim down the next time. And where were the parents while raising this kid to think that his behavior was normal and acceptable just because someone wants to claim that he was having a mental issue? Oh right, he was probably ADHD and the world owes him unlimited chances to screw up. It's called being accountable for your behavior. His behavior caused his death, simple as that.

@resident:

Your comments are disgusting. Should we line up all those with mental health issues and shoot them so they don't bother normal people? You may not know this, but many people don't show symptoms of mental illness until about this young man's age. I'm actually mentally ill myself and didn't get sick until I was 23. Perhaps I too should be killed, being so dangerous and all, and so I don't harm or kill some innocent person like you. Or god forbid I break a window or damage a car. I should have no right to live at all, right?

Here's something to think about.....

I'm the PTA mom, room mom, field trip driver and classroom volunteer. I run a company and manage a large staff. I have two children and host play dates, sleepovers, outings with my children and their friends. BE AFRAID... BE VERY AFRAID. Your kids might have been in my care and someone you know may work for me or be my neighbor.

Why did he BREAK into a business in the middle of the night? WHY when an officer showed up, didn't the intruder STOP and put UP his hands???? He was a bright and educated 19 year old man. WHY did he run?? which made him look guilty. He committed a major break-in and was violent. Did he have a large body sign, saying I'm having a mental episode? so I'm NOT stopping or putting up my hands. The officer's krytonic, penetrating vision and mind reading abilities were not working that night....correction, early morning.

To Pleasanton Resident:

The officers said he was talking to himself and confused. They knew something was wrong. The are supposed to be trained in how to deal with situations like this and to de escalate things. Breaking into a building, damaging cars and breaking a window shouldn't mean a death sentence even in Pleasanton. And what about due process? Should we just let police be the judge and jury and let them hand out the sentence they see fit on the spot? Even the death penalty.

Let's see the video and hear all the audio from all the officers.

The absence of narcotics ("a drug such as cocaine or heroin that affects the brain and that is usually dangerous and illegal") is not the same as "clean." There are numerous legal substances that are capable of causing delusional and violent behavior when abused. Inhalant abuse is one example (with multiple options on the inhalant). If you want answers maybe you will find them in the coroner's report.

There's no money to be made though if the individual is responsible for his own behavior. A lawyer who defends a man who murdered his wife and unborn child has no regard for the truth.

Unarmed people can't be dangerous? How many examples do you need? Brian Stow, David Lamont, the Dublin PD sgt. who sustained severe head injuries, a NYPD officer: Web Link

When your skull is between someone's fist and a sidewalk, while they are straddling you, you don't have a lot of options. Police officers deserve to go home at night too. PPD didn't choose this fight - they were called to the scene.

The police admitted he displayed psychotic behavior and used this as an excuse to storm the parent's home looking for "controlled substances likely to cause psychotic behavior."

They were hoping they'd find drugs on him, in his home or in his system. Unfortunately for them, this doesn't appear to be the case.

If they were looking for drugs that would cause psychotic behavior, then it confirms he was acting in a manner consistent with a mental/psychotic break per their own records. Mentally ill people should not be shot and killed due to a health crisis. He was totally outnumbered and unarmed.

I also noticed that the first report was that the shooting officer was treated for minor injuries and released, and then only later did they change that to say he was unconscious for a period of time during the altercation after having his head hit on the pavement. If this were true, he wouldn't have been treated for minor injuries and released. I guess we are also to believe that this altercation that occurred, which included a man attacking the officer, his losing consciousness, regaining it, then shooting the kid three times all occurred when there were six other officers on scene and not one of them saw it or could stop it. And if the officer lost consciousness and this guy was so violent, why and how did the officer survive if the officer was unconscious and presumably unable to defend himself? Doesn't add up. The changing stories, the timeline, the request to turn off cameras, the police admitting he was psychotic, the request for a call to a personal cell phone, the lack of narcotics in the system of the kid, the lack of drugs where he lived or on his person, seven officers being present and not one was backing up the shooting officer.....

Not buying it. This kid has a family and they deserve answers. The officers are usually paid in excess of $100K and are paid and trained professionals. No one should have died.

Many people here are making the legitimate point that police need better training in how to deal with the mentally ill. I don't understand why people are so quick to disagree with that. All of our lives would be improved if police received this training.

Web Link

@"resident"

Would it be okay to say that Hayward police sergeant Scott Lunger caused his own death? I mean it was his decisions that day that ultimately led to his death. Maybe he was behaving incompetently and deserved to die, to prevent him from more bad police work in the future.

Web Link

That makes about as much sense as what you wrote.

Completely agreed its unfortunate he lost his life.

He attacked a police officer after multiple non lethal attempts to subdue. Attack a police officer and you're risking your own life.

Let's put a few things to rest...

1) the request to call a personal cell phone. we know that PPD officers are issued a city owned cell phone. we know that cell to cell phone calls are not recorded. i'm not sure if the LT was at the station or in the field at the time of the request to call an officer's personal cell phone. let's say he was at the station. he would have been calling the officer's personal cell phone from a department line (recorded). no difference there. if he was in the field, he would have been making a cell to cell call (no recording). no difference there. why would the officer request a call to his/her personal phone? perhaps their department cell phone's battery was dead. perhaps they forgot their department cell phone at home. probably many other reasons. so please, stop implying there was some sort of subterfuge involved in this request.

2) the false narrative of the "changing stories". "treated for minor injuries" does not mean long term care is unnecessary. what will an ER do for a knee injury? maybe an x-ray, tell you to ice it, and recommend orthopedic follow up. same with a shoulder. same with a back. same with a neck. etc. we don't know what the officer was treated for and we don't know what, if any, follow up treatment was recommended. there's hipaa issues with releasing that sort of info so we might never know. this does not mean "the story changed".

3) the request to turn off the camera. this was probably done well after the incident and after the crime scene was established. again, there are many possible logical explanations for this request. maybe the officers were in shock and needed time to console each other. maybe the battery in the camera was low (some types of cheaper, personal video recorders lose data if they aren't stopped and shut down properly, yes the data can be recovered by other more costly and time consuming procedures).

4) the idea that a man was executed for property crimes. an officer defended his own life by using deadly force. the initial crime doesn't factor into the use of force. deming lost his life for feloniously assaulting an officer.

5) no children were involved in this incident. a MAN lost his life. 19 years old. he was an adult. to continue to state a "boy" was involved serves only to skew the facts to elicit an emotional response.

damon brought up an excellent point that the damon-haters fail to address. you people seem ever so eager to demand answers to your questions about how PPD acted, yet you take the word of a toxicologist working for a hired gun lawyer as gospel. what drugs were tested for? was it only the big 4 (cocaine, meth, heroin, marijuana). what other illicit drugs were tested for? were prescription meds tested for? bath salts? flakka? i can guarantee you not all drugs were tested for that could have caused deming's behavior. there are many research chemicals that are easily purchased on the internet that there aren't even tests for. but the reality is it doesn't really matter what caused his behavior. his actions of assaulting an officer are what cost him his life.

There is no evidence he attacked anyone. There is no evidence that any of the propaganda put out by the city of Pleasanton occurred. What is predictable is a number of posts probably by members of the Union defending the actions of the police.

Peter: If some guy is having, as you say, a "Mental Health Break" and he is breaking into your house or you still going to stick to your "He can't be held legally responsible for his actions" even if he is attacking you. Trust me, you will be on the 911 so fast and when the cops get there you will demand that he be arrested and fully prosecuted.

Terri: Your right, breaking and entering is not a death sentence, however, "Attacking" a cop CAN be a death sentence. The Supreme Court as said cops and civilians can take a life if they fill their life is in danger, cops just have a little more lea way.

I find it hard to believe that this kid never had a mental or emotional issue and the night he is driving from San Jose to Oakley he has a mental breakdown and breaks into an auto shop at 2am.

Maybe they used their personal cell phones to hide the conversation. Like using a personal server.
Maybe head injuries are different than knee injuries.
Their seams to be three sides to this debate. Those that believe the police, those that believe the Demmings and those that want the truth.
I posted several times on the pw asking simple questions and have been personally attacked (removed).
Why are people so scared of questions?
Police officers lie. That's a fact.
Police officers murder people. That's a fact.
Did it happen here I don't know.
To all you who blindly support the police version,
How many officers set up the perimeter? Where were they stationed?
How was it only one officer witnessed the attack and shooting?
How can a man climb out a broken window, run from
the police, be tased, turn and attack a police officer, mount him, hit him, bash his head in the ground, and be shot three times by an unconscious or almost unconscious officer. All in around 20 seconds?
It takes over ten seconds just to say what I just wrote............. Just makes me ask more questions.
The Deming family does not work for me. The police do. I think when you kill someone you need to be held accountable to at the very minimum explaining your actions.
It would be nice if a real journalist would ask these questions of our police. The p.w should be doing this. Wait. What am I saying , journalism. And the p.w. In the same sentence. Can you say jumbo shrimp.

"If some guy is having, as you say, a "Mental Health Break" and he is breaking into your house or you still going to stick to your "He can't be held legally responsible for his actions" even if he is attacking you. Trust me, you will be on the 911 so fast and when the cops get there you will demand that he be arrested and fully prosecuted. "

Nope, not how it will happen. Some guy breaks into my home and I shoot him. No questions, no bargaining, no trying to analyze whether we just need to hug each other while he has a mental breakdown. Break into my home, you will die. So I guess breaking and entering is a capital offense. I will be happy to hand out the death sentence.

We could better understand if we knew what lead up to an officer ever arriving on the scene, and what was in the mind of this San Jose man, so far from home. Being 2 AM, July 5th, most in Bay Area had stopped 'partying' from 4th festivities. This 19 year old man apparently 'broke-in' through the glass wall alone. How did he get there? Was he dropped off at that corner? then he saw a car inside he liked.? WHO was he with at midnight?? He didn't live anywhere close to Pleasanton. Has social media been checked? I'm still trying
to understand WHY did he even want to break in? Was he there to steal a car?
Being 'inside' it appears either small burglary or auto theft was his intention. Breaking a wall of plate glass is a rather violent & physical action at 2p in afternoon or 2:am in the middle of the night. Was this San Jose man employed anywhere? You can be sure Mr slick Hollywood ambulance chaser Geragos is looking for his giant chunck of a Pleasanton lawsuit.

Hopefully all you who have already sentenced PPD to purgatory don't ever get your home broke into,get attacked on the street, or need any other kind of emergency assistance if so you could call one of your do- gooder buddies and see how that works out for you!! Too many people around here born with the silver spoon in their mouth and have never opened their eyes to the real world.

Enough:

Well said and I agree with you 100 percent, someone breaks into my house I'm not going to evalurate him to see if he is haveing a Mental Breakdown. However, Enough, there are people commenting on here that would. They would try and talk the potiential rapist or killer to please stop. These are the victims in society, sadly and why we need cops

I have had a young man enter my home through an unlocked door during the night. I was frightened but my instinct was NOT to kill him. I grabbed a heavy object and kept a distance until I determined that he was confused. He had been drinking and entered the wrong house. I am not a well paid, well trained professional, but the young man was not killed for his youthful misstep; he went home to his family.
The blood thirsty comments from my gun-totten neighbors scares the hell out of me.

@Falselogic

Your attempt to draw a parallel between your case and the case under discussion breaks down because - unlike the case under discussion - neither you nor anyone in your family was physically assaulted by your intruder. What would you have done if the young man in your example had suddenly started beating you, your wife, or your child? I'll bet your story would then be much different. The physical assault by John Deming on another person was the key act that led to his death, and that key factor is absent from your tale.

BTW, you were also under no obligation to stop your intruder and detain him so that he didn't wander out your door and possibly cause either intentional or unintentional harm to any of your neighbors or anyone else in his drunken state. The police don't have that option. They have a responsibility and duty to apprehend a person in a state like that and keep him under control until they determine that he is not a threat to others or himself.

We know PPD attached John with pain compliance weapons, at the point that protocol for dealing with a disturbed person would have suggested to keep a safe distance and de-escalate. There is no proof that John attached anyone.

John had no weapon. If the possibility that he may have harmed someone is justification for killing him...heaven help us all!

"John had no weapon. If the possibility that he may have harmed someone is justification for killing him...heaven help us all!"

Indeed...heaven help us all!

John attached police offices, when you attach a police office you will dye.

I studied martial arts with an officer who was called into situations like this on many occasions. Some sounded quite similar to this case (if we can assume it is mostly true). He told as that some people simply panic if confronted with pain compliance techniques, and react fight back when they wouldn't have otherwise. I've practiced the techniques myself.

It may well be that this could have been resolved without injury or death if De-escalation techniques had been tried. At the very least, I hope our police department learns from this, and gets more officers trained to deal with these situations.