Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch is expected to announce this afternoon that her office will not file criminal charges against a sheriff's deputy who fatally shot 13-year-old Andy Lopez in October.
Ravitch will announce at 2 p.m. whether sheriff's Deputy Erick Gelhaus will be charged for the shooting of the teen as he walked with a BB pellet rifle that resembled an AK-47 on Moorland Avenue just outside of Santa Rosa on Oct. 22, 2013.
Along with an email announcing today's news conference, the district attorney's office inadvertently sent a draft version of a press release indicating that no criminal charges will be filed against Gelhaus.
District attorney's office spokeswoman Terry Menshek minutes later asked to recall the email.
Menshek did not say the information was inaccurate, only that it "hasn't been updated."
Gelhaus shot Lopez seven times and the teen died at the scene.
The shooting has prompted numerous protests and calls for charges against the deputy.
In the draft version of the news release about her decision not to charge the 48-year-old deputy, Ravitch said Gelhaus "fired his weapon in response to what he honestly and reasonably believed was an imminent threat of death to himself or others.
As such, he was lawfully acting in defense of himself or others, and no basis for seeking criminal charges exists."
Activist Mary Moore said a "meeting" is planned at the former Albertson's supermarket in Roseland at 4 p.m. today.
A rally had already been scheduled for Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the Sonoma County Courthouse.
--Bay City News
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