Deputy Who Killed Fetus Sues County
Former sheriff’s deputy Robert Armstrong Jr., who shot a pregnant Duarte woman and killed her unborn child during a phony drug raid in 1982, sued Los Angeles County and the Sheriff’s Department on Thursday.
Armstrong’s Superior Court suit claims that the shooting was the result of poor training and emotional instability from exposure to PCP during drug raids and arrests. The incident, he alleged, caused him to suffer emotional distress and to lose his job, retirement benefits, reputation and marriage.
The suit seeks unspecified general damages, medical costs and lost earnings and retirement benefits.
County officials could not be reached for comment.
Armstrong was convicted of second-degree murder and attempted murder in the shooting of Delois Young, and the killing of her near-term fetus. Armstrong and other deputies staged the raid in April, 1982, by calling in a false report that drugs were being sold in the home.
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