A Butte County sheriff’s deputy was cleared on Oct. 30 in the fatal shooting of a Durham man. District Attorney Mike Ramsey ruled the shooting was self-defense.
Deputy Matt Calkins was acting as part of a SWAT team on Aug. 22 near Durham Community Park when he shot and killed Mark Jensen outside his Durham home, according to the Butte County District Attorney's office.
Ramsey stated that evidence supported Calkins' belief that he needed to protect himself from Jensen, which resulted in the fatal shooting.
“For the prosecution to prevail against a claim of self-defense we must show that the shooter — in this case deputy Calkins’ belief that he needed to use self-defense for himself and his partner, Sgt. (Jack) Storne, would be unreasonable. It’s our belief that we could not maintain such a burden under theses facts,” he wrote.
According to Ramsey’s statement about the self-defense ruling:
Calkins responded to a scene where Jensen was in the driveway of his home waving around a Glock .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun, which he then pointed in Calkins' direction.
Using a sniper rifle, Calkins fired one shot at Jensen striking him in the chest. He died at the scene.
Prior to the shooting, a complaint was made alleging a marijuana garden was being grown at Jensen’s property in violation of the county’s marijuana-growing rules.
Two officers went to Jensen’s home to leave a 72-hour notice to remove the plants.
After seeing the notice, Jensen left harassing voicemails threatening the officers.
Deputies planned to take Jansen into custody for his threatening phone calls before receiving a 911 call from a woman claiming a man was yelling at her to get off his property while pointing a gun at her after she pulled over to respond to a text message she received.
It was after that when SWAT and Crisis Negotiation teams arrived at Jansen’s home hoping to negotiate with him.
Calkins was hiding under a walnut tree approximately 128 yards from the residence with his sniper rifle aimed towards Jensen. When Jensen noticed Calkins, he turned and aimed at the deputy..
Fearing that Jensen would fire, Calkin’s then fired a single shot, striking Jensen in the chest.
Jensen’s wife confirmed to deputies that her husband had been acting erratically lately as well as experiencing dark moods in the weeks leading up to his death.
Calkins was reassigned to administrative duties during the investigation.
-By Katalina Santamaria