Report Clears Officers Who Killed Man in Standoff

“Kaci, please don’t leave me in here.”

Those were Vicki Shade’s last words to her 11-year-old daughter after estranged boyfriend Roland Sheehan forced his way into the bathroom of the woman’s home and held her at knifepoint.

Nine hours later, the 37-year-old mother was fatally stabbed in the chest and Sheehan shot dead by police.

A 47-page report issued Tuesday by Ventura County prosecutors clears officers of any wrongdoing and provides chilling new details of the bloody Dec. 4 standoff in east Ventura.

The report indicates for the first time publicly that Shade was stabbed at least once while in the bathroom, before officers confronted Sheehan in an adjacent bedroom. Blood was found spattered on the bathroom cabinets and floor, and DNA tests showed that it was Shade’s.

Months earlier, Shade had thrown out the father of her youngest daughter and obtained a restraining order to keep the 43-year-old construction worker away from her after the breakup of their stormy relationship.

After stalking her for several days, Sheehan broke into Shade’s house about 6:15 a.m. through a downstairs window.

*

Shade’s roommate, Ya-Ling Hollingsworth, told investigators she heard glass breaking, footsteps climbing the stairs to Shade’s room and then Sheehan’s angry voice yelling at Shade’s daughter, Kaci Custer, to leave the room.

Hollingsworth tried to dial 911 but the downstairs phone wasn’t working, the report said. She ran to a neighbor’s house and told the neighbor to call police.

Kaci also described the incident to investigators. She was in bed with her mother and 17-month-old half-sister, Michelle, when she heard what sounded like breaking dishes, according to the report.

Kaci told investigators that her mother got up, went to the bedroom door, then turned and ran back into the bedroom yelling “Get Michelle! Get Michelle!” as she heard Sheehan coming up the stairs. The mother tried to lock herself and the girls in the bathroom, but Sheehan forced the lock.

Kaci told investigators that Sheehan came in, looked at her and yelled “Get out of here!” Kaci said she grabbed her little sister and left the bathroom.

As she left, she said, her mother screamed for her to stay. Sheehan then grabbed Shade and pushed the door shut.

When Ventura Police officers arrived, a crisis negotiating team was set up and a “throw phone” tossed into the residence to make contact with Sheehan.

According to tape recordings of their conversations, Sheehan warned police he was armed and would kill Shade if they intervened.

“I’m just warning you, and I mean business,” he said. “I have nothing to live for, you know.”

*

Officer Jon Castellanos tried to calm Sheehan, asking him if he thought there was a way to resolve the situation peacefully. Sheehan again warned police to stay away.

“You’ll be taking two bodies out of here if you try to get funny in here, I swear,” Sheehan said. “As much as I love her, I’ll take her out, man.”

For more than two hours, police tried to persuade Sheehan to end the standoff, but he refused, telling officers that Shade had created the situation by filing stalking charges against him. At 3 p.m., he threw the throw phone out the window and cut off communication, the report said.

As evening drew near, police became increasingly concerned about Shade’s safety and their ability to resolve the situation after nightfall. “Any hostage rescue action would be made more difficult and dangerous due to the darkness,” the reports said.

A decision was made to try to end the standoff using tear gas, and gradually members of the department’s SWAT team entered the house on Wolverine Street and cleared the rooms not occupied by Sheehan and Shade, according to the report. But Sheehan heard the officers in the house and grew increasingly agitated.

Police officers then threw the tear gas in the bedroom, waited and entered. Sgt. Brian Roberts told investigators he approached a walk-in closet, where he found Sheehan. He said he asked the suspect to show his hands, and Sheehan immediately raised a large knife in a stabbing position.

Officer Al Davis, standing nearby, saw Sheehan smile at Roberts and raise a butcher knife above his head. At that point, Davis and Roberts shot Sheehan 11 times.

*

Shade staggered out of the closet, covered in blood. She had five stab wounds in the chest, one in the back and cuts on her hand and forearm that indicated she had tried to defend herself from the knife thrusts. She was carried downstairs and taken to a hospital, where she died.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Ellison, who prepared the report, said Tuesday that authorities were unable to determine which wounds Shade suffered in the bathroom before being pulled into the closet, where there was also a large amount of her blood.

Within hours of the incident, the Ventura County district attorney’s office launched its investigation to determine whether the shooting of Sheehan was justified.

The district attorney’s review team analyzed hundreds of pages of reports, witness statements and tape recordings of communications between hostage negotiators and Sheehan. The team declared Sheehan’s death was a justifiable homicide prompted by his own “murderous conduct.” Toxicology tests revealed that Sheehan had small amounts of both methamphetamine and amphetamine in his system.

The review team concluded that the two officers who shot Sheehan acted “reasonably and properly.”