By Jason Kotowski
The Bakersfield Californian
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Jim Amormino wasn’t in the least surprised to hear about the planned ambush of deputies and police officers by gang members in Kern County.
A former officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, Amormino, now the director of media relations for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, said making false 911 calls and then attacking responding officers is nothing new.
“There’s no question there were similar ambushes during my time with the LAPD,” Amormino said.
Information about the threats surfaced Tuesday when a Kern County Sheriff’s Department internal memo was sent anonymously to The Californian. The memo warned that deputies might be ambushed by gang members in retaliation for the fatal shooting of high-ranking East Side Crips member Leon Anderson Jr.
The plan detailed in the memo was for members of the Kelly Park Crips, from Compton, to come to Bakersfield, make a false 911 call and then ambush a responding deputy while he was still in his vehicle.
Riverside County sheriff’s Investigator Jerry Franchville said he wasn’t aware of specific cases of officer ambushes in his area, but he’s heard of such incidents happening before. He said the department’s dispatchers are good at letting deputies know when a call sounds suspicious.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Ed Komin said nothing has changed recently in how deputies respond to 911 calls. Deputies and dispatchers have been trained since 911 was first used to be on the lookout for fake calls and calls in which a person might be trying to lure a deputy to danger.
Komin said deputies take everything into consideration when responding, from the details the dispatcher relays to the deputy’s personal knowledge of the street and the particular house where the call is coming from.
Bakersfield police Officer Dennis Eddy, one of three officers who fired at Anderson in the shootout, was hit in the chest and leg. Eddy’s bullet-resistant vest stopped one shot, but another caused serious damage to his leg, and doctors amputated the leg below the knee.
BPD officers remain very aware of the danger, Sgt. Greg Terry said.
Duty danger Three cases where officers were ambushed by people who made false 911 calls: In October 2006, former Bakersfield resident James George Lunsford opened fire on two Fresno police officers after calling 911 and claiming a friend was suicidal at the San Jose Villa complex where he was living. One officer was struck in the calf and the other was hit in the back, forearm and upper thigh when they opened the door to Lunsford’s town house, according to The Associated Press. Lunsford killed himself in the bathroom. Both officers survived.
A man in Pleasanton, Texas, lured police to his mobile home with a false 911 call in 1999 and killed three officers with a high-powered rifle as he hid in a thicket of cactus and mesquite trees. Jeremiah Engleton, 21, shot and killed himself as dozens of other officers moved in on his location, The Associated Press reported.
In New Jersey in 1997, Deon Bailey, 25, shot and killed a police sergeant after making a bogus 911 call and then led police on a 60-mile chase before shooting himself, according to The New York Times.
Copyright 2008 The Bakersfield Californian