As was widely anticipated, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office has exonerated Deputy Brandon Clancy in the fatal March 9, 2024 shooting of 15-year-old Ryan Gainer in the front yard of his family’s home.
Deputies had been dispatched to the Gainer residence that day to a single family residence located at 13494 Iroquois Road at approximately 4:48 p.m. after Gainer’s stepmother and Gainer’s cousin in emergency 9-1-1 calls reported to the sheriff’s dispatch center that Gainer was actively assaulting another member of the Gainer family, a sister, was acting aggressively toward other family members, had broken a window and was damaging property at the residence and had a shard of broken glass with which he was seeking to perhaps harm himself. His stepmother had asked that the sheriff’s deputies respond to the Gainer home and take Ryan into custody and conduct a psychiatric evaluation. Gainer’s cousin told a dispatcher that he had taken refuge in a closet because Ryan Gainer had just assaulted three people and broke the front door with a shovel and that Ryan was in the front room with his father, Norman Gainer.
A video taken by the bodyworn camera of the first deputy, Wyatt Eisenbrey, to arrive at the scene at 4:54:28 p.m., shows him parking on the right shoulder of the street near the extreme end of the front of the typically desert-landscaped yard of the Gainer home, with the perspective of the camera showing Eisenbrey removing what appear to be his sunglasses and affixing them atop of his head. As he approaches the front door of the home while moving around what appear to be bushes that stand in the yard some fifteen to twenty feet directly before the front door, Eisenbrey steps toward the front porch of the house, at which point the audio from the video activates. The deputy can be heard saying, as he approached the doorway “Where’s he at?” Almost immediately, Gainer emerges into the hallway visible from the perspective of the doorway, carrying a hoe. He advances rapidly toward the deputy, who, it appears from the perspective of the bodyworn camera, to be retreating backwards from the entrance, while simultaneously, it appears, drawing his service gun and pointing it at Gainer. Eisenbrey can be heard saying, “Get back or you’ll get shot.” Again, from the perspective of Eisenbrey’s bodyworn camera, it appears that Gainer is advancing on him more rapidly than Eisenbrey is succeeding in walking backwards, at which point, it appears, Eisenbrey to his right to be able to flee while running forward rather than stepping backwards in the face of Gainer advancing toward him. From the movement depicted on the video and the shadowing visible on the ground, as well as the rapid movement of Eisenbrey’s left arm and empty hand and right arm and right hand carrying his service gun, it appears Eisenbrey is in full running mode away from the pursuing Gainer, who is no longer visible in the scope of the video’s visual field. When the deputy wheels, apparently to his right to again face Gainer, a second deputy, Brandon Clancy, is visible off to the left of the visual field, while Gainer is on the ground.
A portion of the video taken from the perspective of Clancy’s bodyworn camera shows Clancy to be the second deputy to arrive at the Gainer home, whare he parks his vehicle on the left shoulder of the street opposed to traffic, getting out of his vehicle at 4:55:01 and walking toward the Gainer home, more to the left of the bushes in front of the home than Eisenbrey, who came toward the house from the right of the bushes. Unlike Eisenbrey’s bodyworn camera video, the audio is engaged from before Clancy gets out of his vehicle. The perspective of his bodyworn camera video shows that he approached the Gainer residence from the opposite direction than Eisenbrey, as Clancy’s vehicle is parked on the left side of the street at the far end of the yard to the Gainer home opposite of Eisenbrey’s vehicle, which is at the opposite side of the Gainer home yard, such that the vehicles are facing one another at a distance close to the span of the Gainer property’s yard width. During Clancy’s first few steps onto the property at 13493 Iroquois, little can be discerned in the field of view of his bodyworn camera, as the front of the house is lost in the glare of the sun and hidden by the bushes which obscure much of what stands near the front porch. Suddenly audible is the Eisenbrey’s warning to “Get back or you’ll get shot.” A split second later Eisenbrey can be seen backing away from the house’s front entrance and then turning to run away from the hoe-carrying Gainer as he emerges from the house. As Eisenbrey completes his turn to run forward with his back to Gainer, he is yet training his gun in his right hand toward his pursuer behind him without being able to see what it is aimed at. When Gainer fully emerges from behind the bushes at what looks to be a full gallop, Clancy can be seen pointing his gun at Gainer, Gainer takes no more than two to three strides after the fleeing Eisenbrey once his figure emerges unobscured by the bushes before Clancy deputy fires his gun three times, it seems, at 4:55:13 and 4:55:14 on the video. It appears that Gainer is immediately felled by one or more of the shots. One of Gainer’s sisters and his mother can be heard wailing and screaming, yelling “You didn’t have to shoot him!” and “Why did you shoot him” and “Oh, my God!” and “Why’d you do that” and “You are the devil” and “Why would you shoot my baby?” and “Where was your Taser?” Both deputies tell the women, who are advancing toward Gainer, lying on the ground, to get “Get back” and Go back” and “Get back inside.” Both deputies appear to be reluctant to approach the fallen Gainer while the mother and sister are proximate to them. With the women still keening and yelling, the first deputy, at 4:55:48, says “We’re going to get him help. Get back in the residence.”
At 4:55:59, a man can be heard saying, “Check him out, guys. Check him out!”
At 4:56:01 on Clancy’s camera video, a third deputy, one who appears to be putting gloves onto his hands, comes into the camera’s field of vision. At 4:56:17, the third deputy walks to stand over Gainer and then bends down to examine him. At 4:56:20, the video shows that the second deputy has gone toward the prone Gainer where he bends down to pick up the hoe. It appears that the third deputy begins cardiopulmonary resuscitation at 4:57:13, which is just about two minutes after Gainer was shot.
Over the next several minutes, the video shows three deputies are engaged in providing Gainer with cardiopulmonary resuscitation while pausing briefly to check for a pulse, for wounds, to put a compression patch or tourniquets in place. “Come on, buddy,” one of the deputies can be heard saying on a couple of occasions when another deputy reports that he cannot detect a pulse in Gainer.
At 5:03:15, a firefighter/paramedic team arrives, the video shows.
Gainer was eventually transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
According to a public release memorandum put out by the district attorney’s office that does not bear the signature of any specific deputy district attorney but is based upon an investigative report logged under the number DR# 602400019 and which was completed by Detective Shawn Thurman of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department as the “case agent” assigned to evaluate the shooting, Eisenbrey went up to the front door of the Gainer resident and was invited inside by Norman Gainer. SAs he stepped into the entryway of the house, Eisenbrey heard, he later told investigators, someone say, “Hey! Watch out, watch out, he has a stick.” That stick, according to the public release memorandum, proved to be a so-called “hula hoe,’ which Gainer had earlier used to break the houses window and which had been misdescribed by his cousin in the call to the sheriff’s dispatch center as a shovel
“As Deputy Eisenbrey started to step inside the residence, Ryan appeared from the west end of the residence,” the public release memorandum states. “There was a small hallway between Ryan and the front door where Deputy Eisenbrey still stood. Ryan was armed with a steel stirrup-shaped hula-hoe with a 4-foot, 10-inch wooden handle, and a 10-inch black metal frying pan. Ryan held the hula-hoe with two hands by the wooden handle with the stirrup-shaped, flat, sharpened metal portion over his head in a striking position. Ryan also grasped in his right hand a metal frying pan, held against the wooden handle of the hula-hoe. Ryan’s left hand grasped the hula-hoe towards the bottom of the wooden handle. When Ryan appeared he was approximately 12 feet from Deputy Eisenbrey Ryan charged at Deputy Eisenbrey while the weapon was still held over Ryan’s head in a striking position. Deputy Eisenbrey yelled, ‘get back, get back or you’re going to get shot.’ As Deputy Eisenbrey gave commands, Deputy Eisenbrey retreated from the front doorway, walking backwards, as he drew his duty weapon. Deputy Clancy heard these commands and drew his duty weapon and pointed it in the direction of Deputy Eisenbrey and Ryan. Ryan disobeyed Deputy Eisenbrey’s orders and continued advancing towards Deputy Eisenbrey. Ryan closed the distance between him and Deputy Eisenbrey. Deputy Eisenbrey turned away from Ryan and began to run east into the front yard; Ryan was still in pursuit of Deputy Eisenbrey. Deputy Eisenbrey was in fear for his life and fired one round at Ryan. Simultaneously, Deputy Clancy feared for Deputy Eisenbrey’s life and fired two rounds at Ryan.”
Without stating so directly, the public release memorandum appears to indicate that Ryan Gainer was hit by both shots fired from Deputy Clancy’s gun and the single shot fired by Deputy Eisenbrey as he was running from Gainer and twisting to aim his gun in the opposite direction he was moving.
The public release memorandum states that Dr. Jolie Rodriguez, the forensic pathologist for the Riverside County Coroner’s Office conducted an autopsy on Ryan Gainer on March 11, 2024, two days after his death. “Dr. Rodriguez determined the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds,” the public release memorandum states.
According to the public release memorandum, Gainer had an entry wound on the right side of his back, roughly 20.87 inches from the top of his head and 5.333 inches to the right of the center of his back, consisting of a .393-inch circular hole. The exit wound for that bullet was on the left side of his chest at the anterior axillary line, approximately 14.57 inches below the top of his head and 7.48 inches from the middle of his torso. That exit wound was slit that was roughly .59 inches in length and roughly one-fifth of an inch wide. The direction of the wound path was back to front, right
to left, and upward.
A second entry wound, .512 of an inch long and .394 inches wide, was noted on the left hip, approximately 30.31 inches below the top of the head and 6.3 inches to the left of the middle of the front of his body. The wound was anterior midline. The bullet that caused the wound was retrieved from under the skin of Gainer’s left buttock, approximately 31.1 inch below the top of Gainer’s head and the head and 3.543 inches to the left of the middle of his body. The direction of the wound path was front to back, left to right, and downward.
A third entry .59 inch long and .512 inch wide wound was found on the top left upper arm, approximately 12.6 inches from his left wrist. It consisted of a 1.5 by 1.3-centimeter oval defect. An exit wound was noted at the medial aspect of the left upper arm, approximately 40 centimeters proximal to the left wrist. The direction of the wound path could not be determined.
In the section of the public release memorandum devoted to “analysis,” is stated, “In this case, Deputy Eisenbrey had an honest and objectively reasonable belief that Ryan posed an imminent risk of serious bodily injury or death. Prior to Deputy Eisenbrey’s arrival, there were multiple calls to 9-1-1 from two separate occupants of the residence, detailing that Ryan assaulted family members, broke the window of the front door, had a ‘shovel,’and had a piece of glass in his hand. Deputy Eisenbrey arrived at the scene wearing a sheriff’s department uniform identifying himself as a peace officer.
Once Deputy Eisenbrey arrived at the residence’s front door, he announced himself, “sheriff’s department,” and was invited inside by one of the occupants. On the heels of being invited in, a warning was yelled to the deputy, “look out, he’s got a… .” Before the warning was complete, Ryan was seen entering the short hallway leading to the front door and running towards Deputy Eisenbrey with a long hula-hoe held over his head in a striking position. Deputy Eisenbrey drew his firearm and gave a verbal command to Ryan to get back. Deputy Eisenbrey also retreated backwards to make space between himself
and Ryan.” Noting “Ryan did not stop running towards Eisenbrey” and that Eisenbrey was both “walking backwards… and began to run to retreat” as well as that he had “then turned his body away from Ryan,” the public release memorandum stated that “Ryan then started to bring the hula-hoe down towards Deputy Eisenbrey. The distance between the two was so close that Ryan would have easily been able to strike Deputy Eisenbrey which would certainly have killed or caused serious injury to the deputy. It was objectively reasonable that Deputy Eisenbrey thought Ryan was going to attack him with the hula-hoe if Deputy Eisenbrey did not shoot him. Given those circumstances, the decision by Deputy Eisenbrey to use
deadly force was justified.”
Furthermore, according to the analysis, “Deputy Clancy also had an honest and objectively reasonable belief that Ryan posed an imminent risk of serious bodily injury or death to Deputy Eisenbrey based on the same information in the 9-1-1 calls and what Deputy Clancy observed immediately upon arrival at the residence. Noting Clancy heard Eisenbray telling Ryan to get back or he would be shot and that “Deputy Clancy observed Ryan running after Deputy Eisenbrey in close proximity with a hula-hoe raised above his head in a striking motion,” the analysis states that “Deputy Clancy withdrew his firearm but did not have time to give any commands to Ryan before he observed Ryan’s hands bringing the hula-hoe down towards Deputy Eisenbrey in a striking motion. From Deputy Clancy’s view, it was objectively reasonable that Ryan was going to strike Deputy Eisenbrey with the hula-hoe and Deputy Clancy needed to intervene. Deputy Clancy’s decision to use deadly force was also justified under these circumstances.”
According to the conclusion presented in the public release memorandum, “Based on the facts presented in the reports and the applicable law, Deputy Eisenbrey’s use of lethal force was a proper exercise of his right of self-defense and therefore his actions were legally justified. Furthermore, based on the same facts and applicable law, Deputy Clancy’s use of lethal force was a proper exercise of his right of defense of others and therefore his actions were also legally justified.”