Answers sought in shooting

Top Inglewood police officials struggled Monday to explain why officers fatally shot an unarmed motorist over the weekend, acknowledging that there was no evidence linking the man or others in the car to the gunfire that drew police to the scene.

“It was a totality of circumstances,” Capt. Eve Irvine said in explaining why the police shot at the car Sunday, killing Michael Byoune, a 19-year-old passenger, and wounding the driver, 19-year-old Larry White.

Irvine said the officers opened fire because they heard gunshots in the area and saw the vehicle coming toward them. Police said they found expended rounds suggesting that someone was shooting in the area, but they were still trying to determine who was behind it.

Inglewood Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks expressed condolences to Byoune’s family -- but said it would be premature to call the shooting a mistake.

“As the chief of police I want to assure you all that our investigations will be objective and they will be comprehensive,” Seabrooks said.

One of the officers who opened fire had been with the department 5 1/2 years and his partner had been with the department less than one year. Seabrooks said both officers have been placed on paid administrative leave. Although California courts have ruled that the names of officers involved in shootings should be publicly released, the Inglewood Police Department refused requests to release their identities.

The chief said there are three investigations into the incident -- criminal and administrative probes by her department, and an independent investigation by the county district attorney’s office.

Inglewood police said they are still trying to piece the incident together and have further interviews to conduct as part of their investigation. Preliminarily, they said the incident began about 1:40 a.m. Sunday when the two officers heard gunshots while patrolling the 3000 block of Manchester Boulevard. At least three independent witnesses told investigators that they saw a man pointing a gun in the direction of the officers who had pulled into a Rally’s fast-food restaurant parking lot, Irvine said. Expended rounds that did not come from the officers’ weapons were found in the parking lot, she said.

About the time the officers heard the gunfire, they saw a man run and get into a slow-moving car in which Byoune was riding. The officers said they heard more shots and felt something hit their cruiser, then fired several shots as the vehicle moved toward them, according to police. Police now believe that the man who entered the vehicle was not connected to the shooting.

Byoune was shot at least three times in the torso and died at the scene, said Los Angeles County coroner’s investigator Jerry McKibben. White, the driver, was wounded in the leg. Another passenger was not injured.

Inglewood police officials have offered conflicting details and accounts of the shooting since Sunday. They originally said the incident might have been gang-related; hours later, they said none of the three men in the car were suspected gang members.

Police spokesmen have focused on the officers’ hearing gunshots, and feeling under attack as their car was struck by something. Later they said there was no evidence that the police cruiser had been hit.

Asked whether there was any evidence of bullets striking the police cruiser, Seabrooks responded: “No, there were not. Not that we could clearly identify as coming from an external source.”

But Los Angeles County coroner’s Assistant Chief Ed Winter said there were “multiple bullet holes through the front of the windshield” of the police car. The report by the coroner’s investigator did not say whether the gunfire came from inside the cruiser or from outside, Winter said.

“The coroner conducts an investigation into the manner of death and does not conduct an investigation into the crime scene,” Inglewood Police Sgt. Gabriela Garcia said.

Although it was unclear whether the officers saw a gunman, Seabrooks defended her officers, saying they “correctly” believed “that they were under fire.” And, she said, the officers believed that they were in danger because “that car was being driven at them.”

But an expert on use of force said it was unusual that no one was charged with a crime if the officers felt threatened by the vehicle.

“It’s quite puzzling no one was charged if indeed they believed that the car and its passengers presented an imminent threat of loss of life or serious injury,” said Merrick Bobb, a county special counsel and executive director for the nonprofit Police Assessment Resource Center.

“We are under no obligation to quickly file charges, and in this case our investigation has to indicate it is appropriate to file charges,” Seabrooks said.

Bobb added that a number of police agencies in Southern California, including the Los Angeles Police Department and the county Sheriff’s Department, have in recent years tightened their policies on firing at moving vehicles.

He said a question that needed to be answered by police was whether the car shot by the officers was bearing down on the police cruiser in a hostile manner, or whether the officers drove their vehicle in the path of the men’s car.

Relatives who gathered at Byoune’s home Monday to mourn his loss described him as a typical teenager who liked playing video games and hanging out with friends. They said they were shocked and upset by the police officers’ actions.

Byoune’s mother, Jackie Roberts, 55, sat on a couch, teary-eyed and head hung low, as family members tried to console her. “We need some closure to this,” she said.

After the shooting Sunday, she told a reporter: “He was a good boy, and I’m not just saying that because I’m his mom.”

“While it is much too early to rush to judgment about what happened, certain facts are plain,” said attorney Carl Douglas, who met with the family Monday. “A mother has lost her 19-year-old son on Mother’s Day. She will never hear from him again. No one in the car was armed. . . . Unless the officers were then being fired upon, there is absolutely no justification for this young man to have had his life snatched from him as it was. The family seeks justice.”

Employees who were working a late shift at the Rally’s restaurant about 30 yards from the incident said they heard gunshots before the fatal shooting. They said the gunfire prompted them to duck. Two employees said the car that was shot at by the officers was driving at a slow speed, as if the driver forgot to put the vehicle in park. Police officials said the speed of the vehicle was under investigation.

At the Skin Game Tattoo shop on Crenshaw Boulevard, across the street from the Rally’s, several tattoo artists were in the back of the shop finishing up with three customers at the time of the shooting.

“In actuality, there were shots fired before [police] ever got here,” said tattoo artist Michael Jackson, 46. “They have to do their job. We understand, because there’s gang activity over here.”

But Kameliegh Hadee, 29, the owner of the business, said she believed the men in the car may have been innocent bystanders trying to get away from the gunfire.

If police felt threatened, “they probably did what they thought they should do,” Hadee said. “But I wish they had taken a moment to assess that there were other people who might be trying to leave.”

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molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

hector.becerra@latimes.com

Times staff writers Andrew Blankstein and Ari Bloomekatz contributed to this report.