Sacramento Television Stations Inc. v. Super. Ct.

BACKGROUND

I Gunshots, Records Requests, and the Party’s Initial Filings Around 12:30 p.m. on April 6, 2023, gunshots were fired in a City park after officers of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) attempted to serve a search warrant on Eric J. Abril. When Roseville PD responded to the park, they understood that a CHP officer had been shot and that Abril had a gun and was holding two civilian hostages. Multiple Roseville PD officers fired shots, and a wounded Abril was captured at approximately 1:13 p.m. Both hostages sustained gunshot wounds, one of them fatally. In response to a Sac TV reporter’s inquiry about the release of police body camera and dashboard camera footage of the April 6 occurrence, a Roseville PD lieutenant wrote in a June 2023 e-mail that officers “exchanged gunfire with . . . Abril between approximately 12:38 p.m. and 12:57 p.m.,” 3 and “[w]hile a much larger criminal event occurred, the incident involving the discharge of a firearm at a person is the only ‘critical incident’ involving” Roseville PD. (Italics added.) The lieutenant’s e-mail included a link to “portions of the audio/video records related to the involved officers,” specifically: (a) four…