No charges against officers for shooting Osmar Hernandez, who was armed with a lettuce knife.

When Salinas police officers shot and killed Osmar Hernandez in the parking lot of Mi Pueblo on a Friday evening in May, 2014, it was before Michael Brown, Freddie Gray or Walter Scott became household names. It was before #BlackLivesMatter and #BrownLivesMatter became buzzwords mobilizing a movement.

But within days, family members of Hernandez' and community activists starting calling for justice, seeking criminal charges against the police officers who shot and killed 26-year-old Hernandez.

More than a year later, prosecutors cleared the three officers involved from criminal wrongdoing, according to a July 10 letter sent by Managing Deputy District Attorney Ed Hazel and Assistant District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni to Salinas Police Chief Kelly McMillin. 

"Police officers can lawfully use deadly force even if from 20/20 hindsight other feasible, and even less dangerous, options existed," Pacioni and Hazel wrote. "The situation must be viewed from the perspective of a reasonable officer at the scene."

The scene was a busy Friday night at the Mi Pueblo parking lot on East Alisal Street, around 7:30pm.

"The scene was very chaotic," according to the DA's letter. 

According to investigators, Hernandez began his night around 5:30pm at Bar Rio where he drank at least nine shots of tequila and three beers. Toxicology reports later showed his blood alcohol level was 0.25, three times the legal driving limit. 

A bartender there confiscated Hernandez' lettuce knife, a common Salinas-area tool for farmworkers, after he started swinging it around the bar. Staff later returned the knife to him, and he left and headed toward the Mi Pueblo shopping center. 

Multiple calls to 911 reporting a man swinging around a lettuce knife. Police contacted at least eight witnesses who had been frightened by what they saw, according to Pacioni and Hazel's letter. 

The first officer to respond spoke to Hernandez, who didn't respond. He fired his Taser twice, knocking Hernandez to the ground, according to the police and to the DA. 

By then, three more back-up officers had arrived. The officer who'd emptied his Taser approached Hernandez, who was then on his back. That officer had put away his pistol, meaning he was effectively unarmed at point. 

The police described his behavior as "bizarre," and say Hernandez never responded to their repeated commands to turn over onto his belly.

Instead, as the officers approached, Hernandez puckered his lips at one, as if to blow a kiss, then said in Spanish, "Please forgive me." He then lifted his shirt and reached for a lettuce knife in his waistband. That's when Officer Derek Gibson and Sgt. George Lauricella fired, killing Hernandez. 

"When someone refuses an officer's command to drop a weapon, they are immediately placing themselves in grave danger," McMillin said Friday afternoon in response to the DA's findings. 

"The observations and conduct of the officers were corroborated by several civilians," according to the DA's letter to McMillin.

According to their letters, here are the statements of the two officers who fired, in respond to the question, "Why did you shoot?" (They aren't named in the letter, so we don't know who said what.)

One officer: "He quickly reached down for the knife and started drawing the knife out of his pants. At that point, because I was in such close proximity to the subject, I feared for my safety because I was easily within lunging distance of him…I elected to deploy my service weapon and fired approximately four to five rounds at the suspect."

The other officer: "Given previous dispatch, the fact he was swinging the knife at people…I felt that he posted a threat to public safety.…I was also concerned for our safety, concerned there would be the same issues, serious bodily injury or death to the officers and while I feared for officers out with us, I was extremely concerned for [the officer closest to Hernandez, who had fired his Taser] because I had asked him—I ordered him—to put his pistol away.

"All he had was a Taser and both cartridges had been spent, so he didn't have anything else to shoot with any kind of distance. It would have to be hands on."

Family members describe Hernandez, an El Salvador native, as a hard worker who didn't get out much.