By Adam Foxman
Ventura County Star
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — An inquiry into the death of a man stunned 11 times with a Taser during a 2007 confrontation with Simi Valley police found no evidence of excessive force, the District Attorney’s Office announced Monday.
Investigators also concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove that Simi Valley police caused Reymundo Guerrero’s death after the May 15, 2007, confrontation, according to the 74-page report.
“Throughout this investigation, we’ve stood by our officers, and we’ve felt they acted appropriately,” said Simi Valley Police Chief Mike Lewis. “The DA’s report confirms that.”
The city, however, is facing a civil lawsuit filed by Guerrero’s family.
Guerrero, 33, of Simi Valley was pronounced dead at Simi Valley Hospital six days after the confrontation. Officers were responding to a report of an erratic pickup truck driver when they ended up chasing Guerrero, who smashed through a wooden fence and drove through the yard of a home before hitting a tree and getting stuck between a wall and a fence.
When Guerrero didn’t respond to orders to take his hands off the steering wheel, Senior Officer Butch Hale broke a car window and Senior Officer Brian Murray shocked Guerrero with his Taser stun gun. In total, Murray stunned Guerrero 11 times in about 90 seconds.
Guerrero repeatedly groaned and took his foot off the accelerator when stunned, then pressed down again when the shock stopped, according to the report. Senior Officer Rich Lamb eventually broke another window, shifted the vehicle into park and pulled the keys from the ignition.
Four to six officers then struggled with Guerrero for about a minute to handcuff him and bind his legs.
They removed his handcuffs and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation after they could not find a pulse. Paramedics revived Guerrero and took him to the hospital, but he never resumed breathing on his own. Doctors declared him brain dead six days later.
Ventura County Medical Examiner Dr. Ronald O’Halloran determined Guerrero probably asphyxiated because of the way officers had restrained him, according to the report, but said the level of cocaine in his system “would be sufficient to establish cause of death absent evidence of restraint asphyxia,” the report stated.
More than 180 people have died after being subdued by stun guns since 1986, The Associated Press reported in 2006. O’Halloran told investigators the blunt blows and Taser shocks probably didn’t kill him, although they might have contributed to the death.
Investigators concluded they did not have enough evidence to prove officers were responsible for Guerrero’s death, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Christopher Harman, one of the report’s authors. “The cocaine is as good an explanation for how he died as anything else,” Harman said.
Harman said deadly force would have been justified in the incident, because Guerrero’s driving and continued acceleration after the crash put officers and civilians in danger of death or serious injury. Murray was justified in shocking Guerrero 11 times because Simi Valley police policy allows more than four shocks “in exigent circumstances,” the report stated.
Guerrero “had consistently ignored their requests to stop,” Harman said, adding that Guerrero’s revving engine was clearly audible on a recording of the incident. “If the tree had not stopped him, he would have been driving through fences at street speed.”
Copyright 2009 Ventura County Star