Police Seek Answers About the Shootings : After Dozens of Interviews, No One Can Answer Question: Why Did This Happen?

After more than 40 interviews with witnesses to the fatal shooting of a San Diego police officer Sunday night, homicide investigators still couldn’t say Monday why a verbal confrontation between a supposedly placid young man and a policeman ended in the death of one officer, critical injuries to another and wounds to a woman participating in a ride-along program.

“It was just one of these things that escalated,” said Lt. Paul Ybarrondo, chief of the department’s homicide unit.

Ybarrondo and Police Cmdr. Larry Gore said police still weren’t sure what prompted Officer Donovan Jacobs to pursue and stop a pickup truck carrying eight young men on Brooklyn Avenue in the Encanto section of San Diego a few minutes after 6 p.m. Sunday.

“At this point, we don’t know yet what was going on in his (Jacobs’) mind about that truck,” Gore said. “We won’t know for some time why he made that stop.”

What followed is more clear: Sagon Penn, the 23-year-old driver of the truck, first argued with Jacobs over Penn’s driver’s license, and then exchanged blows with Jacobs and Officer Tom Riggs, who had responded to a call for cover. According to the accounts of witnesses, police and family members who talked to Penn on Monday, Penn and Jacobs exchanged blows and fell to the ground, and Penn grabbed Jacobs’ service revolver and shot the officer in the neck.

Penn then rose and shot Riggs twice in the chest, killing him. Then he walked to the side of Riggs’ patrol car and fired two shots through the window at Sara Pena-Ruiz, 32, a neighborhood resident accompanying Riggs as part of a community affairs ride-along program.

Penn fled in Jacobs’ patrol car and turned himself in to police minutes later. He was arrested and booked without bail at County Jail on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. He is to be arraigned by Wednesday.

The seven others who were with Penn in the truck have since been interviewed and are not suspected of any crimes, Ybarrondo said. He said Penn’s companions were “circling around” as Penn and Jacobs struggled, but they were not interfering.

Jacobs remained in critical, but stable, condition Monday after surgery at Mercy Hospital, a .38-caliber bullet still lodged in his neck. Doctors were meeting Monday to determine “when, how and if to take the bullet out,” said Esther Lange, a hospital spokeswoman.

Lange said tests conducted Monday afternoon showed that Jacobs had suffered no brain damage.

Pena-Ruiz, who police said was riding along with Riggs because she had an interest in joining either the San Diego Police Department or the California Highway Patrol, was in good condition with wounds in the arm and abdomen. Lange said Pena-Ruiz was under sedation and would probably remain hospitalized for several days.

Funeral services for Riggs were scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday at the First United Methodist Church on Camino del Rio South in Mission Valley. Riggs’ body will be available for public viewing from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. today at the Clairemont Mortuary on Mt. Abernathy Avenue.

Donations to a fund for Riggs’ widow were being accepted by the San Diego Crime Victims Fund. Checks should be mailed to the fund, at P.O. Box 86318 in San Diego.

Although Penn has said through relatives that the shootings were in self-defense, police officials scoffed at that notion Monday.

“That’s wonderful,” Gore said when told of Penn’s contention. “That’s not consistent with what we know about the case.”

Police accounts of the incident said the fight broke out after Jacobs asked Penn for his driver’s license. Penn gave Jacobs his wallet, but police regulations forbid officers from handling citizens’ billfolds, so Jacobs gave it back and asked again for the license.

At that point, Penn threw up his hands and began to walk away, police said. Jacobs grabbed him by the arm, and the two struggled. Jacobs and Riggs both hit Penn with their fists and batons before Penn grabbed Jacobs’ gun.

Why Penn resisted is not clear. He had never been in trouble with the law before. Police said they had no reason to believe that drugs or alcohol were involved.

“I think sometimes something disengages up in a person’s head,” Ybarrondo said. “They don’t stop and think what’s right.”