RICHMOND – No charges will be filed against the three Richmond police officers who shot and killed a 55-year-old man in 2019 after he broke into his estranged wife’s home and attacked her and their children, the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday.
Luc Ciel was shot four times during the April 11, 2019 encounter, prosecutors said in a newly released report. Last November, a coroner’s inquest jury ruled the death a suicide.
According to the report, the officers were responding to a burglary call at the home around 2:30 a.m. when they found Ciel crouched over his daughter with a “large knife” in his left hand. Ciel’s son was behind him trying to stop him from stabbing his sister.
Ciel then raised the knife in a “stabbing motion” and Officer Jeffrey Tyner yelled at him to drop it. When Ciel turned his attention to Tyner, his daughter managed to break free and run to an adjacent room.
Ciel stood and moved toward Tyner, who along with officers Danielle Evans and Terrance Jackson opened fire with their duty pistols, according to the report. Tyner fired three shots and Evans and Thomas fired one shot each in the span of three seconds.
Ciel was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the report, Ciel stabbed his wife in the head, neck and back. The attack also left his daughter with scratches, cuts and red marks to her left wrist and hand. His son suffered a laceration to his face, as well as cuts and scratches to his hands.
A 13-inch knife and an 8-inch knife were found at the scene. Officers also found a homemade spear outside the home and black zip ties wedged into Ciel’s waistband.
In addition to the gunshot injuries, Ciel suffered a stab wound to his abdomen, half a dozen shallow puncture wounds to his chest and six to eight incised wounds to his neck. The victims said the wounds were self-inflicted and Ciel had tried to cut his own throat but the blades were too dull.
Ciel had a history of domestic violence against his wife, according to the report. In 2015, a jury found him guilty of misdemeanor battery on a spouse and battery, and he was sentenced to 300 days in county jail. A five-year restraining order was also issued in 2015, but Ciel’s wife allowed him to move back in 2016 because she said she “felt sorry” for him.
“Like many abused wives, she continued to endure his verbal assaults and emotional gaslighting,” the report said. “He would frequently threaten her that if she ever called the police on him, he would kill her and her family. She finally could not endure the abuse any longer, and in March 2019, she called Richmond police on him.”
Officers arrested Ciel on March 26, 2019, just three weeks before the deadly encounter, for violating the restraining order.
The report concluded the use of deadly force was “legal and necessary under the circumstances.”
“After interviewing the involved police personnel, reviewing all the relevant evidence, and applying the appropriate legal standard, Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office determined the involved officers justifiably feared for their lives and the lives of the victims,” the report said.