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YOUR SOURCE
FOR NATIONAL & CALIFORNIA BREAKING NEWSThe shooting occurred about 8:42 p.m. at 3600 W. McFadden Ave. near Harbor Boulevard, said Cmdr. James Schnabl of the Santa Ana Police Department. The time frame is now important to the case. There is a question as to when did the cops actually know that the suspect was wanted? Was he shot before the officers knew he was wanted? How did that wanted warrant information get transmitted to the Santa Ana cops? The Journal contacted the Anaheim police to ask questions. What time did the Anaheim Police notify the Santa Ana police? What were the circumstances surrounding that notification? The Anaheim police refused to answer those and other questions, saying they did not want to be quoted and referred the Journal to the Orange County District Attorney's Office to prosecutor Fara Emami who did not answer our phone calls.
At least two officers were sent to the store after reports that a man sought by the Anaheim Police Department was there. The fact of who called the police is now in question. Was it a tipster, informant, undercover officer, Wal-Mart employee or just who made the call is still not clear?
Reportedly the officers spotted the unidentified man and gave chase apprehending him in the back of the store and an struggle ensued. It's unclear if one or more officers shot the man, Schnabl said.
An unnamed caller who says he saw the fight has told the Journal that he did not see the victim with a gun and that he felt like the police used unnecessary force. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, According to Schnabl. Callers to the Journal said, the shooting was witnessed by Wal-Mart employees, shoppers and dramatized shocked children.
Authorities said, "No officers or bystanders were reported injured during the incident". What provoked the officer or officers to shoot is unknown?
The Laguna Journal has learned that the incident is being investigated by both the Anaheim and Santa Ana Police Departments and the Orange County District Attorney's Office because it is a so called officer-involved shooting. According to Anaheim police information officer Sgt Martinez.
According to Orange County news accounts there have been a rush of officer involved shootings in Orange County. This was the third officer-involved shooting in just eight days in Orange County. The law gives an officer wide--close to carte blanche--discretion to use lethal force if he says he believed his own life or someone else's was in jeopardy. Prosecutors in the Orange County District Attorney's Office, who are charged with and review police shootings here, never find wrongdoing. District attorney's spokeswoman Susan Kang Schroeder said the last time an Orange County police officer was prosecuted for shooting someone while on duty was in the 1980s. If that isn't enough of a cushion, Orange County residents provide the rest. Courthouse observers can't remember a single example of a local jury ever siding against a Orange County cop.
In California, police decide when to use deadly force, and police agencies get to investigate themselves. They release only the information they want to release when the investigation is complete. The agencies can shield information about "bad apple" cops from the public. And those of us who simply want a little more debate and accountability are told that it's unconscionable to second-guess the authorities. I don't mean to be alarmist here, but the Webster's definition of a police state, i.e., a political system characterized "by an arbitrary exercise of power by police," is starting to cut a little too close to the bone.
Lawyers say the Orange County Grand Jury should investigate these shootings independent of the police and local persecutors, that the grand jury does have the authority to do. They could even appoint a independent attorney to help persecute the legal process, without the Orange County District Attorney's Office being involved. Or the California Attorney General has the authority to investigate and persecute law enforcement wrong doing.