Former LASD sergeant charged in noninjury shooting

Deputies respond to the 25400 block of Plaza Escovar in Valencia following a report of a shooting Tuesday morning. July 27, 2021. Bobby Block / The Signal.
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A former Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station sergeant was charged Tuesday with unlawfully firing his handgun at his home in a July 2021 shooting, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. 

On July 27, 2021, Sgt. Joel Nebel was off-duty and in his backyard around 7:29 a.m. when he allegedly fired several rounds from his handgun. One of the rounds struck his television and another struck a neighboring home, but no one was injured, according to the release. 

Nebel was arrested July 30, 2021, in connection with the shooting in the 25400 block of Plaza Escovar, off of Wiley Canyon Road.  

He retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on March 26, 2022, according to an email Tuesday from Deputy Miesha McClendon of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau. 

“Officers are entrusted with the safety of our community. When they act recklessly, endangering lives of the public, we will demand accountability,” District Attorney George Gascón wrote in the news release announcing the charge. “We are very fortunate that no one was injured during this incident, but it could have easily ended in tragedy.” 

At the time of the incident, officials confirmed an LASD Mental Evaluation Team was dispatched to the scene, and one person was transported to the hospital by the Los Angeles County Fire Department, according to previous reporting in The Signal. 

On the morning of the incident, neighbor Ron Van Der Meer said he heard a burst of approximately seven gunshots.  

“It seemed like a burst of five and then a short pause and then two more,” he said, adding squad cars arrived shortly thereafter. “We heard the sirens.” 

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department arrest records indicated Nebel was booked at the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station on a felony charge and released on $35,000 bond that same day.   

He was on an approved leave from work at the time of the incident, according to a statement from station officials in July 2021. 

The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Internal Criminal Investigations Bureau. 

Nebel is due in court Feb. 7 in Department 30 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center for his preliminary arraignment. 

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