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Charles David Chivrell

Age : 35

Gender : Male

Race : White

Date : 09/09/2021

Location : 1000 block of Mad River Road

City : Arcata

County : Humboldt

State : California

Agency : California Highway Patrol; Arcata Police Department

Officer(s) :Michael Griffin

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during armed-person response

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 09/09/2021, California Highway Patrol Officer Michael Griffin shot and killed 35-year-old Charles David Chivrell on Mad River Road in the rural Arcata Bottoms. Arcata Police Sgt. Brian Hoffman had fired multiple pepperball rounds into Chivrell immediately before Griffin fired the fatal rifle shot. The encounter was later investigated criminally, reviewed by the Humboldt County District Attorney, and became the subject of extensive federal civil-rights litigation brought by Chivrell's estate, widow and children.
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The encounter began at approximately 10:47 a.m. when a caller reported a man walking in the roadway near Heindon Road and Miller Lane carrying a firearm and briefcase. CHP Officers Michael Griffin and Moises Cornejo-Mercado and Arcata police responded. Chivrell was openly carrying a handgun in a holster. He was not being sought for a crime and was not the fugitive whom law enforcement had been searching for in the same general area that morning.
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Officers followed Chivrell as he continued walking. Later federal court records show Griffin attempted to communicate with him, including telling Chivrell that police needed to talk to him. At one point Chivrell told Griffin to stop pointing his rifle at him; Griffin lowered the rifle, displayed his hands and attempted to continue talking. Chivrell proceeded onto Mad River Road, a roughly four-mile dead-end rural road with approximately 20 houses.
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Arcata Police Officers Joseph Rodes, Evan Beechel and Alexander Bonaparte joined the response. The officers continued following Chivrell in a caravan while he walked away from them. Police described Chivrell as behaving erratically and making threatening statements. Officers also encountered motorists, a bicyclist and residences along the route.
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Police decided to use a pepperball launcher against Chivrell. Arcata Police Sgt. Brian Hoffman exited a CHP vehicle and fired multiple pepperball projectiles into Chivrell's back and legs. The later federal civil-rights lawsuit specifically challenged Hoffman's decision to fire the pepperballs at Chivrell while Chivrell was walking away.
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According to the officers' account accepted by the Humboldt County District Attorney, after the pepperballs struck him Chivrell reached for the holstered handgun, drew it and raised it while turning toward police. Hoffman reported hearing a gunshot and hearing a bullet pass his head. Cornejo-Mercado similarly reported seeing Chivrell draw his pistol and hearing a shot. Griffin reported seeing Chivrell draw and raise the handgun toward officers.
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Griffin fired one round from his CHP rifle. The bullet struck Chivrell in the back of the head. Chivrell was transported to Mad River Community Hospital and pronounced dead.
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The Humboldt County Critical Incident Response Team investigated. The team included personnel from the Eureka Police Department, Humboldt County District Attorney's Office, Humboldt County Sheriff's Office, Arcata Police Department, CHP and Ferndale Police Department; the Humboldt County Coroner and California Department of Justice Bureau of Forensic Services also participated.
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Humboldt County District Attorney Maggie Fleming completed the criminal review in March 2022. She concluded that Hoffman was legally justified in deploying the pepperballs and that Griffin reasonably used deadly force after Chivrell drew and fired his handgun. Neither officer was criminally charged.
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The criminal clearance did not end scrutiny of the encounter. Chivrell's estate, surviving wife Arielle Chivrell and children filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit in January 2022 against the City of Arcata, Arcata Police Department, CHP, State of California, Griffin, Hoffman and other officers. A separate action was brought by additional children and the cases were subsequently related. The litigation alleged excessive force, disability discrimination, interference with familial association, violations of California's Bane Act, battery, negligence and wrongful death.
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The family's version focused particularly on the officers' actions before Chivrell drew the handgun. Their complaint alleged that Chivrell was walking away with the gun holstered when Hoffman fired pepperballs into his back, causing him to drop his briefcase and run, and that Griffin then shot him in the back of the head. Those allegations were not findings of fact by the court, but they became central to years of federal litigation over whether police unnecessarily escalated the encounter.
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In September 2024, the federal court granted Hoffman qualified immunity on the Fourth Amendment claim involving the pepperball deployment because existing precedent did not clearly establish that using pepperballs under these particular circumstances was unconstitutional. Importantly, the court expressly did not rule that Hoffman's force was reasonable; it found that factual disputes remained concerning its reasonableness.
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The litigation continued. In August 2025, U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam ruled on extensive summary-judgment motions. The court granted Griffin qualified immunity on the federal excessive-force claim, noting Ninth Circuit precedent permitting deadly force when an officer is threatened with a gun and the plaintiffs' acknowledgment that, if Chivrell drew and pointed the gun as described at the final moment, Griffin's shooting was justified. The court's ruling therefore did not erase the family's separate contention that police conduct preceding that moment unnecessarily escalated the encounter.
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The federal litigation remained active well beyond the original 2022 criminal clearance. Court records show proceedings continuing through 2025 and into February 2026, more than four years after Chivrell's death.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Michael Griffin was the California Highway Patrol officer who fired the single rifle round that killed Charles Chivrell. CHP Officer Moises Cornejo-Mercado was present and provided a witness account of Chivrell allegedly drawing his handgun, but Griffin was the officer who used deadly force. Arcata Police Sgt. Brian Hoffman fired the pepperball projectiles immediately before the fatal shooting. Arcata officers Joseph Rodes, Evan Beechel and Alexander Bonaparte were also present during the encounter.
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Hoffman's use of pepperballs became a significant independent issue in the family's federal litigation. The court ultimately gave Hoffman qualified immunity because plaintiffs could not establish that existing law made his conduct clearly unconstitutional under these specific circumstances, while separately finding that it could not determine as a matter of law that his use of force was reasonable.
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Griffin's fatal shooting likewise received qualified-immunity protection in the federal litigation. In its August 2025 summary-judgment ruling, the court relied on the circumstances at the instant deadly force was used—specifically the evidence that Chivrell drew and pointed a handgun—and existing Ninth Circuit law governing officers confronted by firearms.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.times-standard.com/2021/09/09/chp-officer-involved-shooting-in-arcata-leaves-man-dead/
https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2021/sep/9/man-killed-officer-involved-shooting-arcata/
https://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/man-killed-in-officer-involved-shooting-in-arcata
https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2021/sep/9/updating-shooting-arcata-bottoms-sheriffs-office-o/
https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2021/sep/16/mad-river-road-officer-involved-shooting-investiga/
https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2022/mar/9/officers-justified-shooting-gun-wielding-man-arcat/
https://humboldtgov.org/civicalerts.aspx?AID=4230
https://humboldtgov.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=4559&ARC=6355
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/candce/4%3A2022cv00019/390119
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/4%3A2022cv00019/390119/126/
https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/4%3A2022cv00019/390119/159
https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/4%3A2022cv00019/390119/205