An eight-year-old police shooting case in Torrance, California, ended on Thursday, November 5, without a conviction. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Alison S. Matsumoto granted the defence request to withdraw former Torrance police officer David Chandler Jr.'s guilty plea — entered last November to a felony count of assault by an officer — and the case was subsequently dismissed, according to court records reported by MyNewsLA. Chandler had completed the two conditions attached to that plea: 100 hours of community service, and relinquishing his certification as a peace officer in California.
Source: MyNewsLA, Nov. 5, 2026
The dismissal was the outcome the plea deal had promised a year earlier. When Chandler pleaded guilty in November 2025, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said the case was expected to be dismissed on November 5, 2026, if he performed the community service and surrendered his certification. His attorney, Tom Yu, said shortly after that plea: “He'll walk away without a conviction.” On Thursday, that is what happened — the plea was withdrawn first, and the case dismissed after it, so no conviction stands on this charge.
Source: MyNewsLA, Nov. 5, 2025 (plea terms, via LA County DA's Office)
The 2018 shooting: what prosecutors and the defence each said
Chandler was charged in October 2021 for the August 27, 2018, shooting of Jarvis Goode, who was wounded. He was accused of firing multiple rounds at Goode, who emerged from his grandmother's home in Torrance while allegedly holding a knife and then walked away from police. Those are the prosecution's allegations as reported from the court proceedings; the underlying assault charge has now been dismissed, and Chandler has no conviction in this case.
Chandler was ordered to stand trial following an August 2023 hearing in which a judge reviewed body-worn camera footage from Chandler and another officer who was not charged. At that hearing, Deputy District Attorney Guy Shirley conceded that the initial shots could “reasonably be seen” as being in defence of Goode's grandmother, who was also outside the house, but argued that Chandler “continued shooting without lawful necessity” as the man fled from police. Chandler's attorney countered that his client had “about a second and a half to decide what he was going to do,” arguing that Goode had held the knife in an assaultive and threatening manner.
Prosecution at the 2023 hearing: the first shots might reasonably be defended, the shots that followed — as Goode moved away — could not. Defence: the officer had about a second and a half to decide, facing a man holding a knife in a threatening way. The case never reached a jury verdict; it ended through the 2025 plea and Thursday's dismissal.
“Bullets started flying” — the grandmother who called police
Goode's grandmother, Margo Goode, testified that she had initially called police earlier that day after her grandson — whom she described as having a “history of mental health problems” — allegedly broke a sliding glass window and another window while she allowed him at her house to do his laundry despite a restraining order against him. She said she was mad but not scared, and that he left on his skateboard before police arrived.
She said she called police again when he returned to the home that afternoon, and that “bullets started flying” shortly after she stepped out of the house. “It scared me to death,” she testified. “It was so traumatizing … I almost got hit.” Goode survived the shooting and was wounded; the reporting does not describe any later court outcome for Goode himself in this week's dismissal report.
From administrative leave to surrendering his certification
Chandler was initially placed on administrative leave after the shooting. A Torrance Police Department spokesman said last November that Chandler is “not employed with the Torrance Police Department.” Thursday's dismissal does not restore his ability to work as an officer: relinquishing his California peace officer certification was a condition of the deal, and it was surrendered before the case was dismissed. MyNewsLA's 2025 plea report also noted Chandler was the third then-current or former member of the Torrance force to face criminal charges within just over a week in October 2021 — the month he himself was charged.
Why this case took eight years
The timeline explains the long road. The shooting happened in August 2018, but Chandler was not charged until October 2021 — more than three years later. A preliminary hearing in August 2023, built around body-camera footage, sent the case toward trial. Instead of a trial, November 2025 brought the guilty plea with its one-year dismissal path, and November 5, 2026 brought the withdrawal of that plea and the dismissal itself. For readers, the distinction matters: a dismissal after a withdrawn plea is not an acquittal by a jury, and it is not a conviction either — it is the negotiated ending the district attorney's office agreed to in 2025, completed on schedule.
What happens next
For Chandler, this criminal case is closed: the charge is dismissed and, per his attorney's description of the deal, he walks away without a conviction — but also without the peace officer certification he surrendered, so a return to California law enforcement is barred by the deal's own terms. For the Torrance Police Department, the reporting records only that he is no longer employed there. No further court date in this case was reported, and neither the district attorney's office nor Goode's family was quoted reacting to Thursday's dismissal in the available reporting — if a statement follows, it would be a new development, not part of this record.