Duck! You're in Wine Country

Subsequently, three officers found Robbins in the parking lot in front of the police station, sitting in his red pickup, staring blankly at the dashboard. Robbins mumbled that he was there to see the Mormon officer.

After police searched Robbins and his truck for weapons, Sgt. Jim Carlson told Robbins he would have to leave and return during business hours. A records check had revealed that Robbins had a history of mental illness. But that morning he seemed calm, so the officers did not detain him. Robbins drove away.

An hour later, he came back and again asked to speak with a policeman. When Officer David Albritton came to the front counter to talk with him, Robbins pointed a long, heavy metal rod -- a "Club" steering wheel lock -- at the officer.

Robbins ignored orders to put the rod down, and began shuffling his feet, shaking his head rapidly from side to side. Albritton extended his baton, to distance himself from Robbins and prod Robbins to obey and put down the Club. But Robbins wouldn't drop it.

Carlson, who had dealt with Robbins earlier, came to the lobby to back Albritton up; Albritton, meanwhile, was holding the man at bay with his baton, warning him that he would use pepper spray if he did not drop the Club. Officer Carrie McConville had arrived in the lobby too, but she was off duty and unarmed.

Events escalated quickly. Carlson pepper-sprayed Robbins after he refused to drop the Club and moved toward the officer. Even after a dose of pepper spray, and after Albritton had hit Robbins on the leg with the baton, Robbins continued to hold the Club.

Carlson was surprised Albritton hadn't drawn his firearm. The pepper spray hadn't seemed to do anything to Robbins. So when the man stepped toward him, Carlson shot Robbins three times in the chest.

In an interview, Carlson later said Robbins had taken a swing at him with the club, which he was holding with a baseball grip.

"I'm scared to death. Think he's gonna hit me with the thing," he said in police reports. "And I figured the only way I'm gonna be able t'protect myself is to, is to shoot him."

During the investigation, nobody questioned the initial decision to let Robbins leave the police station -- even though he was acting quite oddly and even though a records search revealed his long history of mental illness.

In an interview with Santa Rosa Police Detective Dan Lujan and Jack Karr, an investigator with the District Attorney's Office and a former Santa Rosa officer, Carlson, a 21-year veteran of the Police Department, offered this analysis of the situation:

"You know, what I got the impression of that, he changed his demeanor just before I shot him is that he wanted me to shoot him. That he was forcing me to do that. That's the impression that I got. Ah, that's just a guess."

The Santa Rosa Police Department took the lead in investigating the shooting of Dale Robbins, which was ruled to be justified. A 1996 civil grand jury report criticized the investigation, noting that the only person on the investigating team with no connection to the Police Department was the deputy district attorney on the case.

Since that incident, under the direction of a new chief, Michael Dunbaugh, the Santa Rosa Police Department has adopted the practice of requesting that the Sheriff's Department take the lead role in investigating officer-related shootings.

The new investigative procedure is one of several changes Dunbaugh has made since becoming chief last July. He has arranged for a new mental health response team to advise police in crisis situations. He even equipped the department's SWAT team with "bean bag" ammunition -- 2-1/2-inch shotgun shells that expand on contact and incapacitate, but do not kill, suspects.

On July 4, Officer John Noland shot and wounded 48-year-old David Wharton, a suicidal man who had been threatening to shoot himself in the head. Noland said he shot the man when he pointed his gun at him. In the spirit of openness, Dunbaugh recently met with a local civil rights group concerned about the shooting. And Dunbaugh says the Police Department is trying to give the media all possible information about police shootings. The Santa Rosa Police Department's version of glasnost even extends to an open house next month for the people of Santa Rosa -- the first ever.

Critics of police procedure in Sonoma County say the chief's efforts, while promising, are not enough to change a law enforcement culture in which use of deadly force is far too common. Judith Volkart, the chair of the Sonoma County ACLU, says regardless of additional training and kinder, gentler weapons, accountability is crucial -- and is still lacking. Volkart says the connection between Sonoma County's police agencies is too close for any sort of genuinely independent investigation to take place, and the police are the only ones doing any investigation.

"The police are policing themselves in this community. There is no community involvement and there's no accountability directly to the community," says Volkart. "At this point, the investigatory power is maintained completely within law enforcement.