By Lauren Gold
Pasadena Star-News
MONTEREY PARK, Calif. — An attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union said he had concerns about a volley of five shots a Monterey Park Police officer fired in a fatal officer-involved shooting caught on video.
ACLU staff attorney Peter Bibring, who specializes in police practices, said the shooting — which involved two volleys of five shots each — might have been an exhibit of excessive force. It was the second volley that concerned Bibring.
“I think there are real questions about whether the first round was justified, but I think the second volley of bullets is extremely hard to justify,” said Bibring. “Every use of force requires justification. Once they use sufficient force to bring a situation under control, they shouldn’t be using additional, excessive force beyond that.”
Two officers went to a Carl’s Jr. restaurant in Monterey Park about 9:30 a.m. Jan. 23 after a 9-1-1 call reported Steve Rodriguez, 22, of Chino Hills, was smashing the restaurant’s windows with a large pipe bender. The shooting was caught on a cellphone camera by a man who later posted the video to YouTube.
Officers reported that Rodriguez charged at one officer with the tool, causing each officer to discharge a volley of five shots. Rodriguez was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
It is not clear how many bullets struck Rodriguez, and an autopsy performed Wednesday is on a security hold, officials said.
The amateur video shows Rodriguez walking out of the restaurant, where the two officers confront him. One appears to shoot a Taser and hit Rodriguez in the face or hood of his jacket. The video shows Rodriguez then turn toward the officer, lifting the pipe bender in a baseball bat grip, and the other officer immediately fires the first volley of shots.
Bibring questioned whether the officers should have used a Taser to stop Rodriguez from walking away, or had their weapons drawn for a situation where Rodriguez didn’t appear to be “threatening people.”
“I think it’s a question of whether it was reasonable for the officers to confront him with weapons drawn in that confrontational manner,” Bibring said.
Lt. Eddie Hernandez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau said sheriff’s investigators will use audio recording from the officers’ uniforms to determine what they were saying to Rodriguez as he walked away from them.
The YouTube video does not tell the whole story, and many witnesses have said they felt the officers were justified in their actions, Hernandez said.
“When a situation like this occurs ... it boils down to the perception of the threat of the officer,” he said. “It’s not like when we watch the video where we can hit pause. These situations are tense and uncertain, and they evolve rapidly.”
Rocky Warren, a retired longtime Placer County sheriff’s deputy and an expert witness in court cases involving police use of force, agreed that the officer most likely took justifiable action.
“I don’t see anything that causes me to believe it’s unreasonable,” he said. “People don’t understand the threat level.”
Hernandez said officers usually try to stay a safe distance away from a suspect, especially if he or she is carrying a weapon, which may be why the officers chose to use a Taser and then deadly force, as opposed to using a baton or pepper spray.
“That piece of equipment ... would not be appropriate because of the proximity that you would have to be to the suspect would be too close,” he said. “It’d be like dueling at that point.”
Mike Gennaco, chief attorney for the Office of Independent Review, said concerns about “dueling” have led to a more frequent use of Tasers in the field.
Conversely, the use of batons seems to have diminished.
“Batons are used, I think they have been on the decline, but they are still used and available,” Gennaco said. “The advantage of the Taser is that you can be at a greater distance from the individual, and it reduces the likelihood that you’ll become assaulted.”
Hernandez said Tasers are generally effective in subduing a suspect, although if the person is under the influence of drugs or alcohol or is wearing heavy clothing, a Taser might not have an effect.
Monterey Park police Chief Jim Smith refused to release the names of the officers involved in the shooting.
Hernandez said Rodriguez was a student at East Los Angeles College.
Copyright 2012 Los Angeles Newspaper Group, Inc.