San Jose: Civilian officer charged with weapons crimes after investigation into cop threats on alt-right social media

SAN JOSE — A civilian community service officer for San Jose, who briefly served as a sworn police officer, has been charged with gun crimes after he reportedly elicited FBI attention for his remarks to followers of alt-right social media, including allegedly advocating for killing cops.

Denis Shevchenko, 40, of Gilroy, was charged this week with three misdemeanor counts alleging illegal weapons possession, topped by a charge that he kept an unpermitted loaded handgun in his locker at the South San Jose substation of the police department, which oversees the community service officer program that employs him. He was arraigned Tuesday and is currently out of custody.

In response to an inquiry from this news organization, the police department said it planned to address the allegations against Shevchenko at a Friday morning news conference. Calls made to listed phone numbers for Shevchenko were not answered Thursday, and court records do not show a listed attorney for him.

The weapons charges resulted from a police investigation into Shevchenko prompted by the FBI San Francisco Bay Area division’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which reportedly linked him to a series of potentially threatening comments posted May 24 on the alt-right social-media platform Gab.

According to a police investigative summary accompanying the criminal complaint, he allegedly “solicited people to shoot police officers and to kill people based on political ideation.” According to the police summary, FBI agents also told San Jose police that Shevchenko “posted additional generalized threats to shoot and ‘cull’ law enforcement officers.”

The FBI probe, which traced the messages to Shevchenko’s home IP address, was relayed to San Jose police on Oct. 14. That night, San Jose police officers arrested him while he was on duty at PayPal Stadium.

Police said a search warrant served the same night at Shevchenko’s home led to the seizure of at least nine firearms registered to him, including an AR-15 style rifle that authorities say had illegal modifications and additions including a flash suppressor and pistol grip. Early the next morning, police state that after interviewing Shevchenko, they discovered he had a loaded and holstered .357 revolver attached to a pair of pants in his duty locker.

Shechenko is not authorized to carry a gun as part of his duties as a community service officer. The CSO program in San Jose was formed in 2014 in part to delegate non-enforcement police tasks like taking non-urgent reports and maintaining crime-scene cordons, thereby keeping sworn officers available for emergency response.

According to police records and the state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training — which certifies police in California — Shevchenko graduated from the San Jose Police Department academy in March 2013, but he left the agency five months later, before he completed his probationary period. Records also show he was briefly with Pinole police for about four months before leaving in April 2014, which also would have fallen within his probationary period at that agency.

Public records show that Shevchenko joined San Jose’s CSO program right around its launch, about four months after he left Pinole police.

The rifle at his home, the handgun in his locker, and a concealed boot knife that police reportedly also recovered form the basis of the misdemeanor weapons charges against him. There is no indication in the court record that Shevchenko will be charged with any threat-related crimes related to his alleged online conduct.

On Oct. 15, San Jose police obtained a gun-violence restraining order for Shevchenko. This restraining order draws on the state’s red-flag laws and authorizes law enforcement to temporarily seize a person’s guns based on information that they could pose a public danger, and is in effect pending a Jan. 20 Santa Clara County Superior Court hearing to assess Shevchenko’s fitness to get back his weapons.

Check back later for updates to this story.