By Colleen Mensching
North County Times Staff Writer
OCEANSIDE, Calif. -- A woman shot Saturday by an off-duty San Diego police officer during an alleged road rage incident has refused to speak with investigators, police said Tuesday.
“We’re still waiting for her to say ‘Let’s talk,’ ” Oceanside police Sgt. Kelan Poorman said.
Poorman said investigators don’t have the authority to make the woman submit to an interview. Her name has not been released, nor has the name of her 8-year-old son, who was also shot.
Three days after the incident, investigators have yet to release key details about how the traffic dispute escalated into gunfire.
“They (investigators) don’t want to try this in the court of public opinion,” Poorman said. “You don’t want to taint too much of the public because some of these people may end up on a jury.”
The off-duty officer, Franklin “Frank” White of Oceanside, fired an undisclosed number of shots during the incident, which happened at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday in a shopping center parking lot off Old Grove Road, according to officials. The woman and her son were inside their car at the time of the shooting.
White, an Oceanside resident, has already made a statement to investigators, Poorman said Tuesday. White was placed on administrative leave by the San Diego Police Department, pending the outcome of the investigation, San Diego police Chief William Lansdowne said Monday.
White is not in custody and no charges have been filed against him or the other driver, Poorman said.
The mother and son remained hospitalized Tuesday in San Diego, authorities said. Hospital officials would not provide details about their conditions, but both are expected to survive.
The incident began when the driver of one car cut off the driver of the other car, Poorman said. One driver followed the other to the Lowe’s Home Improvement store parking lot on Old Grove Road, where the shooting took place, authorities have said.
Investigators have so far refused to comment on the roles each driver played in the episode.
White, who was not driving a police vehicle, was with his wife, who works as a dispatcher for the Carlsbad Police Department, officials with that city confirmed Tuesday.
The woman who drove the other car is the wife of a Camp Pendleton Marine and lives on the base, Poorman said.
Poorman said he did not know whether White or the woman had been tested for drugs or alcohol after the shooting.
Both cars involved were seized as evidence and will be held until the case is resolved, according to Poorman.
Police say the woman has retained John “Jack” Phillips, the lawyer who represented former San Diego Chargers linebacker Steve Foley in a 2006 officer-involved shooting in Poway.
In that incident, which made national news, an off-duty Coronado police officer said he started following the football player’s car because he suspected drunken driving, police said. The car eventually stopped on a dark road outside Foley’s home.
Foley got out of the car and confronted the officer, who ultimately shot Foley three times, authorities said at the time. The officer was not injured.
Foley eventually pleaded guilty to charges of drunken driving, but it took until December 2007 for the district attorney’s office to decide that neither man would be charged in the confrontation.
The district attorney concluded both men had acted in self-defense.
In that case, the Sheriff’s Department provided a detailed account of alleged events within 24 hours of the shooting.
Sheriff’s Lt. Mike McClain said many factors can affect how soon information about an incident is made available to the public, including investigators’ own access to evidence and witnesses in the case.
“When it involves officers, I think everyone wants to be very careful that what they say happened is what really happened,” McClain said.