By Jim Walsh, The Arizona Republic
A former Chandler police officer on trial for murder in an on-duty shooting took the witness stand today in a packed Mesa courtroom to defend himself.
Dan Lovelace, 39, was fired by the department and charged with second-dgree murder and endangerment after the Oct. 11, 2002 shooting of Dawn Rae Nelson, 35. Lovelace shot Nelson, a prescription drug fraud suspect, as she attempted to flee from a Walgreens drive-through window.
Lovelace testified for about 20 minutes before Maricopa County Superior Court Judge James Keppel recessed the trial for lunch. Lovelace told the court he had investigated five cases of prescription-drug fraud during his 71Z2 years as an officer.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, they are either high or desperate to get high,” Lovelace said when defense attorney Craig Mehrens asked him to describe the attitude of prescription-drug fraud suspects.
Lovelace also testified he had been hit by a car once, before he became an officer, while riding a bicycle on Long Island, N.Y., where he was born.
The former officer maintains that he shot Nelson because he feared she was going to run him over with her Camaro, or crush him against the pharmacy’s building, at Warner and Dobson roads.
But prosecutor Vince Imbordino argues that Lovelace had no reason to fear for his life when he shot Nelson from behind as her 14-month-old son, Kenneth, sat in a rear car-seat.
Wearing a gray suit and a white shirt, the muscular Lovelace said he is a former professional trainer who always wanted to become a police officer. He now works part-time for a cleaning company. His wife, Trish, is a Chandler police dispatcher.
“I always felt it was a citizen’s duty to do something for the community,” Lovelace said. Lovelace is the first Arizona officer to stand trial in modern times on felony charges stemming from an on-duty shooting.