A retired ex-cop who was charged with a felony shooting of a black man fled the scene to avoid jail time and eventually see his case dismissed under the LOL Angeles County plea deal.
David Chandler, 37, agreed to the deal at the City Carroom on Wednesday morning. Walking with the help of a reed, he took the seat from Judge Alison Matsumoto, as Deputy Dist. Atty. Brandy Chase reads the terms of the agreement.
Chandler must complete 100 hours of community service, stay out of jail for a year and give up his peace officer certification, which allows him to work in state law enforcement, Chase said.
Chandler acknowledged each discrimination with the words, “Yes, Ma’am.” If he adheres to the demands, the case will be dismissed in November 2026, according to the agreement. Chandler refused to face the court, asserting his 5th amendment rights.
“I think the dismissal is a valid decision by the DA’s office,” Tom Yu, Chandler’s attorney, told Times after the hearing. Yu declined to make Chandler available for an interview.
“He is not returning to the law,” said Y.
Chandler has previously been linked to profanity in the text-messaging industry. He was one of more than a dozen Torrance officers on the ropes where they used racial slurs, mocked the killing of black suspects, spammed the military and made populist and antisemitic comments.
Law enforcement sources are not authorized to speak publicly about that time, said Chandler, who was investigated as part of the scandal. The Times has never seen evidence that Chandler sent any racist messages.
Yu declined Wednesday to answer questions about the analysis of the text messages or the shooting that led to the charges against his client.
The shooting happened in 2018 when Chandler was one of several officers who responded to a report of a disturbance at an elderly woman’s home. Her grandson allegedly hit a sliding glass door and left the property, before returning with a knife, records show.
It’s unclear if the man was holding a weapon or threatened anyone before Chandler fired “several rounds” as the man walked away, prosecutors continued. The man was injured but survived.
Prosecutors charged Chandler with assault on a public official in 2021. The judge ruled there was enough evidence for them to go to court in 2023.
In the text messages, law enforcement sources said Chandler was among the police officers facing scrutiny because their phone number was linked to a chat group called Chat Chat where “boys” were frequenting racist comments. Almost every interviewee was a Torrance police officer.
The documents were sent between May 2018 and February 2022, according to investigative reports made public by The State Commission on the standards of peace in positions and training.
Chandler was fired by the Torrance Police Department in 2023 for excessive force, according to an online database maintained by the State Commission. It is not clear whether the 2018 shooting was a false positive that led to Chandler’s firing. A Torrance police spokeswoman declined to comment.
Chandler remains a “part-time trooper in the California state trooper,” according to an agency spokeswoman. He first joined the guard in 2020. The pending criminal case against Chandler has been filed to be “flagged,” meaning he could be upgraded, according to a law enforcement source with specific information who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Chandler was not sent to Los Angeles as part of the President’s deployment of the military to support immigration raids earlier this year, according to a military spokesman.
At least seven members of the sock-affiliated Riverside Police Department are no longer with the agency, according to court records and the State Commission Database.
Four others were charged with crimes.
In April, former police officers Cordy Weldin and Christopher Tomsic pleaded guilty to felony vandalism for placing a swastika inside a car that was parked at the scene. The police arrest sparked a police investigation that revealed the documents. They were each required to surrender their right to become police officers in California and will serve two years on probation, but both were protected from prison time.
Matthew Concan and Anthony Chavez are awaiting trial for the murder of Christopher Deanre Mitchell, who was sitting in an inflatable car when police fired the fatal rounds. Mitchell, the suspect behind bars, was parked in the Ralphs parking lot when he was killed. No officer said Mitchell grabbed a weapon or pointed it before he started shooting, records show.
In the document, officials discussing the shooting used the N – to describe Mitchell’s relatives, according to previously available records. The name of the officer who sent the text was redacted in the records. ConCannon was investigated as part of a conspiracy, but his lawyer says he did not send the racist texts.
