A federal civil rights trial that begins Tuesday will explore whether Sanger police officers were justified in shooting 46-year-old Charles “Charlie” Salinas, a Marine veteran with a history of alcoholism, mental illness, a criminal record and a death wish.
The trial in U.S. District Court in Fresno will give a rare glimpse into an officer-involved shooting. That’s because a cellphone video taken by a bystander shows four officers shooting Salinas as he stood unarmed in a flower bed outside a Sanger business on Academy Avenue in June 2012.