Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Tuesday that officers violated department policy when they opened fire on two women delivering newspapers in Torrance during last year’s manhunt for Christopher Dorner.
The eight officers, who fired more than 100 rounds at a truck driven by a mother and her daughter, mistook the sounds of a newspaper hitting the pavement for gunfire, Beck said. The violent response took place during a massive dragnet for Dorner, who terrorized the region during a 10-day period last February.
“I sympathize with the officers, but I have very high standards,” Beck told reporters.
Citing department policy, Beck declined to discuss what disciplinary action the officers will face.
Beck’s remarks came the same day the Los Angeles Police Commission offered new details about the Feb. 7, 2013, incident, and sided with Beck’s recommendation that the use of force on the Torrance truck violated policy. In a statement, Police Commission President Steve Soboroff called the incident “tragic for all involved” and said the department would “adopt the lessons learned, both good and bad” from the shooting.
This week marks the one-year anniversary of Dorner’s deadly rampage, a period during which he killed four people and left two police officers seriously injured.
The truck shooting occurred in the early morning in the 19500 block of Redbeam Avenue in Torrance, where eight Los Angeles police officers took up posts outside the home of a Los Angeles police captain who served on the panel that fired Dorner.
Dorner, a former LAPD officer, had named the captain in his online manifesto that outlined his plan to seek revenge against those involved in his dismissal from the force.
He had already killed three people, including a police officer, at that point.
About 5 a.m., as officers believed Dorner was on his way to Torrance, Margie Carranza and her mother, Emma Hernandez, pulled onto the street to deliver newspapers. Carranza stopped in front of a house to put a newspaper on an elderly resident’s porch.
The women’s truck had a California license plate beginning with the characters “8 D” – the same as Dorner’s truck, commission President Soboroff said Tuesday.
But there also were major differences. Police were told to be on the lookout for a charcoal gray-colored 2005 Nissan Titan pickup with a ski rack. The car driven by the two women was a blue-colored 2007 Toyota Tacoma pickup.
Despite the conflicting information, police officers immediately opened fire on the truck from behind, firing more than 100 rounds. A bullet ripped through Hernandez’s shoulder; broken glass injured Carranza.
In the hours that followed, Beck called the shooting a case of mistaken identity and apologized. The city of Los Angeles doled out $40,000 to the women for a new truck and $4.2 million to avoid a lawsuit.
On Tuesday, Beck outlined the events of that February day. He said he believes the “officers were truthful … to what they felt they saw,” but nevertheless violated policy.
Glen Jonas, attorney for Carranza and Hernandez, said Tuesday he had doubts concerning the officers’ claim that the sound of a newspaper hitting the pavement sparked the gunfire. He also said the newspapers were being delivered in the early morning, so the officers should have been conditioned to recognize that sound.
“That doesn’t sound believable,” Jonas said. “Newspapers don’t sound like guns.”
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is still reviewing the case, a spokeswoman for the department said Tuesday.
The district attorney already has ruled a second shooting by a Torrance officer during the Dorner manhunt to be a “reasonable mistake” and declined to file criminal charges. Prosecutors said the totality of the circumstances that included the fear created by Dorner and the LAPD gunfire justified the officer’s belief that he was confronting Dorner.
As for the two women, Jonas said Hernandez, who was 71 when she was shot, is still dealing with health issues from the incident. Her daughter is facing some emotional issues, he said.
“Mentally and emotionally, they are both dealing with the incident,” Jonas said.
