Kendrec
McDade case is full of layers
Family and friends buried 19-year-old Kendrec McDade on Saturday, but inquiries into the events that led Pasadena police to shoot him are just getting started.
Four probes have been launched, including the Pasadena police's investigation of the March 24 shooting and a civil rights inquiry by the FBI. Separately, McDade's family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit last week, accusing police of misconduct during and after the shooting.
McDade was shot on Sunset Avenue by two Pasadena police officers who believed they were chasing two armed robbers. Moments earlier a Pasadena man said he had found two suspects rifling through the contents of his car. That man, Oscar Carrillo, pursued the suspects as they fled on foot, telling a 911 dispatcher they were armed.
Days later, Carrillo admitted he lied about seeing weapons in order to get a more vigorous police response. On March 28 Carrillo was arrested, though he has not been charged in connection with the shooting.
But by then McDade was dead, officers Jeff Newlen and Mathew Griffin were on administrative leave and the case had garnered attention from community leaders who demanded to know why an unarmed teen had died. Pasadena Police Chief Phillip Sanchez met with the public and representatives from a variety of civil rights organizations, and called for an investigation by a civilian watchdog group, the Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review. Another probe was launched by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's task force that looks into all officer-involved shootings in the region.
But some details have been slow to emerge, and the coroner's report has not been released to the public.
The wrongful-death lawsuit filed Tuesday by McDade's mother, Anya Slaughter, alleges Newlen and Griffin did not identify themselves as police officers or command McDade to stop before opening fire. It states McDade was shot multiple times in the chest but did not die immediately. McDade, who police say was the lookout during the theft from Carrillo's car, tried to speak with the officer, according to the lawsuit, but was handcuffed and left on the street for a prolonged period without receiving first aid.
The family, represented by Beverly Hills civil rights attorney Caree Harper, charges the department made another mistake by having Det. Keith Gomez, who has generated controversy before, lead the investigation.
“This was not a ‘split-second decision,'” states the complaint. “This was an intentional selection of Det. Gomez to investigate, and this reeks of cover-up.”
Harper has sued Pasadena police for civil rights violations in the past, and has named Gomez as a defendant in a prior lawsuit. Gomez's name also came up in the murder trial earlier this year of Clifton Cass, who was convicted of killing his brother outside the Rose Bowl in 2011.
While on the stand, Cass looked directly at Gomez and said, “Everybody says you're a dirty cop, plants evidence and so on and so forth … been under investigation many times. Tell me I'm lying.”
Pasadena officials have not commented on the allegations or the lawsuit, saying their response must come in court. Separately, Lt. Phlunte Riddle noted that several officers are looking into the shooting, and that Det. Jason Van Hecke is playing a lead role in the inquiry.
Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI, said the agency routinely takes the lead in investigating alleged abuses of citizens' constitutional rights by government figures acting under “the color of law.”
“The opening of an assessment should not be an indication of guilt, but an indication that the evidence will be reviewed to ensure there wasn't a violation of federal civil rights,” she said.
After the FBI does an initial assessment, the Justice Department's civil rights division will determine if a full-blown investigation of the McDade shooting is warranted, Eimiller said.
The Office of Independent Review probe will hark back to the case of Leroy Barnes, who was killed by Pasadena police in 2009. Barnes' family filed a civil rights suit that was dismissed by the trial court and is on appeal, according to Pasadena City Atty. Michele Bagneris. But the office made 14 recommendations for Pasadena police to follow after that incident, according to the group's chief attorney, Mike Gennaco. The agency, which investigates 40 to 50 shootings a year, will determine whether those recommendations were followed by Pasadena police in the McDade case, Gennaco said.
Meanwhile, the fate of Oscar Carrillo, the man who called 911 on March 24, has taken an unexpected turn.
After he confessed that he lied about seeing weapons and was arrested by Pasadena police, federal immigration authorities held him for living in the country without proper documentation. He is now wearing an electronic tracking bracelet and faces deportation after any criminal proceedings in the McDade incident are complete. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has yet to decide whether to charge Carrillo with involuntary manslaughter.
Carrillo's attorney, Andres Bustamante, said it would be a stretch to hold his client accountable for McDade's death when others pulled the trigger.
“The chief had to do some damage control because of the anger from the community and family, and passed some of the responsibility on [to Carrillo],” Bustamante said. “It's hard for me to conceive that the causation of the shooting was Carrillo.”
Speaking through his lawyer, Carrillo had this to say to McDade's family: “I'm very, very sorry for the tragedy that happened to your son; I regret having exaggerated … it never crossed my mind that he would've been killed.”
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