No charges in deputy’s shooting of man he mistook as burglar

Wednesday, Nov. 11, 1998 | 2:41 a.m.

The deputy shot and killed Ben Hull, 22, two weeks ago when Hull charged him, swinging a fireplace poker in Hull's darkened living room.

Police had been called to the house in the middle of the night after a "911" hang-up call.

Each man apparently mistook the other for a burglar, District Attorney Richard Gammick said.

Deputy Victor Ruvalcaba, 35, who fired the fatal shot, and his partner did everything they were trained to do "by the book," Gammick said.

"From all the evidence I have available to me, it appears that this entire situation was nothing but a set of tragic circumstances that, had any particular circumstance been missing, would not have occurred," he said.

Hull's wife, Erika, was in a bedroom at the time of the shooting. She said neither she nor her husband understood the deputies shouted warnings.

She said the deputy started crying when she told him the victim was her husband.

Gammick said the hum of an oxygen machine for Hull's 85-year-old grandfather may have prevented Hull and his new wife from hearing the deputies yell.

archive