It has finally been decided that eight officers involved in last year’s botched manhunt for former cop, Christopher Dorner, acted “out of policy” when they fired on a truck they believed to be the suspect, according to the AP. It actually contained two women who were delivering newspapers early that morning.
LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck said in an interview shortly after the shooting, that the women were the victims of “a tragic misinterpretation” by officers working under “incredible tension,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Beck will decide on the discipline for the officers who are currently on non-field duty awaiting the results of the investigation. He said at a news conference,
“These officers will all and have all received extensive training as had the whole Los Angeles Police Department relative to these types of issues.”
One person who isn’t surprised at the determination is Glen Jonas, the attorney for the women, Emma Hernandez, who was 71 at the time, and her daughter, Margie Carranza, who was then 47. They were awarded 4.2 million dollars for the incident along with another $40,000 for their truck.
“There (are) 4.2 million reasons I have to believe it’s out of policy,” Jonas said. “Anyone with any common sense would agree it’s out of policy.”
Beck admitted that the officers fired on the truck that was “creeping” down the street after one of the women threw a newspaper and an officer thought that the sound of it hitting the pavement was gunfire.
“There is no evidence to support that they were holding an object that could be reasonably perceived to be an imminent deadly threat,” Beck wrote in his report.
Tuesday, he reiterated that sentiment by stating, “I sympathize with the officers, but I have a very high standard for the application of deadly force, and the shooting did not meet that standard,”
Jonas said that Hernandez had recovered except for some shoulder problems, and that neither of them had returned to tossing newspapers, adding that Carranza had tried but that “it was too traumatic for her.”
“The emotional and mental trauma is still there and they’re still dealing with that,” Jonas said.
Surprisingly, there was almost no discipline taken at all. A panel of high-ranking police officials reviewed the shooting right after it happened and urged Beck to clear the officers, said sources. These sources spoke on the condition that they remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.
Beck, however, ultimately found that he just couldn’t justify the action that was taken by the officers. The punishment taken could range anywhere from retraining to firing.
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