LA cops involved in mistaken
Dorner shooting to return, get training
8 Los Angeles officers who
mistakenly shot at a pickup truck during a manhunt for cop-turned-killer
Christopher Dorner will be allowed to return to the field
By Tami Abdollah
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Eight Los Angeles
police officers who mistakenly riddled a pickup truck with bullets during a
manhunt for cop-turned-killer Christopher Dorner last year will be allowed to
return to the field after they get additional training, Police Chief Charlie
Beck said.
"I have confidence in
their abilities as LAPD officers to continue to do their jobs in the same
capacity they had been assigned," Beck said in a department message to
officers obtained Wednesday night by The Associated Press. "In the end, we
as an organization can learn from this incident and from the individuals
involved." Both the chief and an independent commission found the 2013
shooting that injured two women violated department policy. The seven officers
and one sergeant could have faced penalties including being fired.
Other discipline not outlined
in the chief's message could be handed down, police Lt. Andrew Neiman said, but
department policy prevents him from discussing it.
Attorney Glen Jonas, who
represented the two women who won a $4.2 million settlement from the city, said
he was concerned by the chief's decision not to terminate any of the eight
officers.
"If either of the women
had been killed, you can bet your bottom dollar somebody would be fired and
maybe prosecuted," Jonas said. "A stroke of luck, firing more than
100 rounds and missing, should not mean the discipline is lighter."
The civilian Police Commission
that found the officers violated policy also faulted the department itself,
saying the officers were rotated in during the night to protect the home
because of overtime concerns. The sergeant wasn't trained to oversee such a
protection detail and there was no operational plan. The commission also cites
the officers' inadequate firepower.
"The ability to address
this threat was hindered to some degree due to the experience, training and
logistical deployment of the personnel assigned," the board's report says.
"On a larger scale, the planning conducted at the Bureau could have been
more effective, ensuring proper deployment, both personnel and logistics, at
the protected location."
Tyler Izen, president of the officers'
union, said that given those circumstances, the officers should have been
returned to work months ago.
"The involved officers are
all well-qualified and talented members of the department who happened to be
placed into a highly unreasonable and unusually difficult position," Izen
said.
The events unfolded after
Dorner, a fired Los Angeles police officer, claimed he was unfairly dismissed
and vowed revenge against law enforcement officers in a rambling online
manifesto.
He killed the daughter of a former
LAPD police official, along with her fiance, and two law enforcement officers
over 10 days before being cornered and killing himself in a burning mountain
cabin in San Bernardino County.
The mistaken shooting occurred
Feb. 7, 2013, as officers protected a Dorner target's Torrance home. When one
of the newspaper delivery women threw a paper onto the pavement in the early
morning hours, an officer believing the sound was a gunshot opened fire.
Officers unable to see clearly into the vehicle riddled the pickup truck with
103 rounds and hit seven nearby homes and nine other vehicles with gunshots and
shotgun pellets.
Margie Carranza, then 47,
suffered minor injuries, and her then-71-year-old mother, Emma Hernandez, was
shot in the back.
"I appreciate that the
officers involved in the incident took action with intent of protecting the
'target' and his family; however, the chain of events which unfolded and the
extent to which the use of lethal force occurred did not meet my expectations,
consequently there were innocent victims wounded," Beck said in the
message, which is mostly critical of the officers but ends with his vote of
confidence.
Beck goes on to say that he
"found it to be very concerning that officers fired before adequately
identifying a threat; fired without adequately identifying a target and not
adequately evaluating cross fire situations."
Steve Soboroff, president of
the civilian Police Commission, said Wednesday night that while discipline is
the chief's decision and the circumstances were extreme, he "would have
expected a more significant level of discipline for the actions of most of the
officers in this incident."
"I trust that the training
will be extensive and the department and officers will move forward from this
tragic incident stronger and wiser from the lessons learned," Soboroff
said
