GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — No charges will be filed in a shooting that left a man dead last month outside a Grand Rapids dance club.
The Grand Rapids Police Department says 31-year-old Jose Garcia Rivas was shot at La Petite Chateau on Sept. 4 and succumbed to his injuries despite their attempts to resuscitate him.
In an opinion letter released Friday, Oct. 7, Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker says a security guard shot Rivas that night.
Becker explains another employee instructed Rivas and his girlfriend to exit the business after the two engaged in disruptive behavior. He says Rivas threw a bottle at the floor near another employee on his way out and then gestured in a way suggesting he may punch someone.
The security guard in question assisted his coworkers before Rivas and his girlfriend were escorted out of the building, Becker tells us. We’re told an argument ensued in the parking lot, and while the security guard was not involved, he tried to ease tensions and stop a physical altercation from breaking out. Nothing happened and everyone except the couple reentered the business.
After the couple briefly resumed their argument, Rivas rushed to the east side of the club, picked up a beer bottle, opened the door to the establishment and pitched the bottle at another door inside, Becker continues.
The security guard, who stood on the other side of the door at the time, ducked in response, and Rivas opened the second door in a violent manner, the prosecutor says. That was when the security guard reportedly drew his gun and fired three shots. Two of those shots hit Rivas. Becker explains the security guard had open carried his weapon all night.
The security guard informed his superiors of the incident and called police before turning over his weapon and explaining his account of what transpired.
Becker says the security guard told police he heard what sounded like a gunshot, then claiming Rivas raised his hand with something dark in his grip, prompting him to fire his gun at Rivas.
Surveillance video corroborates the security guard’s account except for who opened the second door, which Becker states was opened by Rivas; the guard claimed he himself opened the door. We’re told the video shows nothing was in Rivas’s hand when the second door was opened.
Becker concludes his written opinion saying the security guard involved in the shooting will not be charged because the act was carried out in self-defense, given the evidence leading to the reasonable cause that the guard believed he was in danger.
