‘I Heard a Shot’ : Former Narcotics Detective Tells Jury About Bullet That Ended His Career

“Everybody was screaming, ‘Police!’ I know I said, ‘Police, we have a search warrant’ . . . at least twice. . . . I heard a shot. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground.”

With those words, Norman R. Eckles, testifying from a wheelchair, told a Los Angeles Superior Court jury Friday of the moment when his 14-year career as a Los Angeles narcotics detective effectively ended.

Eckles, 37, was paralyzed from the chest down by a .38-caliber bullet that plowed through his right armpit and lodged against his spine on the morning of Dec. 1, 1983, while he and 15 fellow officers were serving a search warrant at the apartment of a suspected drug dealer.

Four Injured

Eckles testified at the trial of that suspect, Edwin P. Donelson, 26. At the time of the raid, Donelson lived in the 6000 block of Brynhurst Avenue in the Hyde Park district of Los Angeles. A neighbor was shot and two other police officers were slightly injured during the incident.

Donelson is charged with three counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, firing at an inhabited dwelling, narcotics possession and possessing a gun after having been convicted of a felony.

In his opening statement to the jury last week, Donelson’s attorney said his client was asleep on his couch and never heard the police officers identify themselves.

“He was awakened by the sound of his front window breaking,” attorney Jay Jaffe said. “At the time Mr. Donelson shot at the window, he shot out of fear, feeling his apartment was being broken into.

“The first time he was aware that police officers were at his door was when a volley of shots were fired into his apartment,” Jaffe said. Donelson was not injured by the police gunfire.

Eckles told the jurors how he and the other officers positioned themselves outside Donelson’s door about 7 a.m. that day. Like many of the other officers, Eckles said he was dressed in civilian clothes but wore a blue police “raid jacket” with official identification on the front and back.

Eckles said he and two other detectives, armed with guns and flashlights, crouched near a window while other officers approached the apartment’s barred metal door.

Pounded on Door

Detective James M. Steele yelled: “Police, we have a search warrant. Open the door,” Eckles said. Along with other officers, Eckles said, Steele then began to pound on Donelson’s door. Steele repeated the order several times, Eckles said, but there was no response from inside.

Then, Eckles said, he heard one of the officers yell that someone was running inside the apartment. With that, the police began breaking down the front door.

When it became clear that the door would not yield easily, Eckles said he executed a “diversionary tactic”--breaking the front window with the butt of his flashlight. He moved in front of the window three times without incident, he said.

Then, as he was about to reach through the broken glass to pull down drapes that obscured the view of the apartment’s interior, Eckles said he was hit by the first shot fired from the apartment.

After a volley of gunfire, Donelson surrendered.

Eckles officially retired from the Police Department Nov. 8, calling the occasion the saddest day of his life. He has been awarded a tax-free disability pension of $3,235 a month.