Jeff McDonald; Staff Writer
December 29, 2000, Friday
Copyright 2000 The San Diego Union-Tribune
The San Diego Union-Tribune
December 29, 2000, Friday
(SAN DIEGO) -- District Attorney Paul Pfingst yesterday cleared two San Diego police officers in the September shooting of a man police found with a bloody knife minutes after discovering a homicide victim. The fatal shooting of Michael Edward Norman, 41, occurred about 8 p.m. Sept. 22, about 40 minutes after officers were called to a Rolando Park home to investigate a possible homicide.
Police were summoned to the Celia Vista Drive residence by owner William Reid, 83, who told officers that a woman was stabbed and bleeding inside the home.
Officers found Tracey Ann Galkoski, 32, of El Cajon dead from an apparent stab wound to the heart.
Reid told officers that Norman, his live-in caretaker, was no longer at the home, and he gave investigators a description of the suspect, Pfingst said.
Soon afterward, police found Norman in the back yard with a bloody, 9-inch knife in his hand. Norman ignored the officers’ warning to drop the weapon and fled down an embankment. Several beanbag shots failed to stop him.
He later confronted the officers who chased him.
“Despite repeated requests to drop his knife, Mr. Norman chose not to,” the report issued yesterday says. “Instead, he moved toward the officers with the knife pointed toward them, and telling them to shoot him.”
Officers Joseph Harper and Larry Holloway told investigators they fired eight shots each, and Norman was killed instantly. He had come within 7 or 8 feet of the officers when they began shooting, the investigation found.
Numerous witnesses to the shooting provided details to investigators that were consistent with the officers’ version of events that night, the district attorney said.
Norman was found to have a blood-alcohol level of between 0.28 percent and 0.33 percent -- four times the legal limit for driving a car. He also was under the influence of methamphetamine and possibly cocaine at the time of the killing.
Galkoski and Norman had been involved in a relationship that included previous domestic violence-related incidents, Pfingst said.
Galkoski was found to have a blood-alcohol level of 0.12 percent or 0.13 percent at the time of her death, and also was under the influence of methamphetamine when she was killed, investigators said.
Terms and Conditions
Copyright©2000 LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights Reserved.