Sheriff deputies kill Alpine resident Robert Liddell during wellness check

CA Attorney General is investigating the shooting

East County News Service

November 21, 2025 (Alpine, CA) – A concerned neighbor called 911 to request a wellness check on her neighbor on November 5,  after she found his door partially open and he did not answer. The incident ended tragically. Sheriff’s deputies fatally shot the resident, 72-year-old Robert Edmund Liddell,  after they saw him holding what appeared to be a gun, but was later determined to be a replica weapon.

The Sheriff’s Department has released video of the shooting. Viewer discretion is advised.  

The video shows deputies Christopher Kleppe and Jordi Herrera finding the door ajar at 1753 Kyrsten Terrace Court. They called out and identifying themselves as with the Sheriff’s department, then entering and beginning to search for what they believed might be an incapacitated resident.

Video from the two officers’ body cameras and audio reveal  that upon seeing a man with a gun, the officers repeatedly told him to drop the weapon, retreated said that they were Sheriff’s deputies, and told him that his neighbor had called them. Shots can be heard, and at one point the man says he had dropped the weapon but it was too late; he had been mortally wounded.

Deputy Kleppe applies pressure to the wound and asks Herrera to get a trauma kit.  Liddell is transported to a hospital, where he later died.

The California Department of Justice is investigating the officer-involved shooting under the requirements of Assembly Bill 1506.  Once the investigation is completed, it will be submitted to the DOJ’s Special Prosecution Section within the Criminal Law Divison for an independent review. 

Deputy Kleppe has been with the department since 2019 and Deputy Kerrera since 2022. Both are assigned to desk duty pending completion of the investigation.

Anyone who may have information on this incident is asked to call (916)210-2871.