Detective Says Officer Lied About Shooting

Los Angeles Police Officer Rodney W. Kelley shot a Cuban immigrant in the back and then lied to investigators because he feared the 1984 fatal shooting was out of line with Police Department policy, a detective testified Tuesday.

Kelley, 26, is accused of making false and misleading statements about the fatal shooting of Miguel Herrera to his superior officers.

Detective Otis Marlowe of the Police Department’s Officer Involved Shooting Team, testified during Kelley’s Board of Rights hearing at Parker Center.

The detective said that, originally, Kelley said he shot Herrera in self-defense, after the man he had been trying to handcuff attacked him with the officer’s baton.

A subsequent autopsy revealed that Herrera, 30, was shot in the back.

Marlowe said that when he re-interviewed Kelley, the officer admitted he lied.

“He was very upset,” the detective told the hearing tribunal composed of three captains.

“He felt bad about lying. He said he made it up because he was proud to be a policeman and didn’t want an out-of-policy shooting to mar his career.”

The incident occurred Oct. 24, 1984, after Kelley and his partner, Officer Daniel Perez, spotted Herrera at 30th Street and Kenwood Avenue. They stopped the man for questioning, believing he was under the influence of the drug PCP.

An altercation ensued during which Herrera obtained Kelley’s baton and struck him.

Marlowe said that originally Perez backed his partner’s story, but later Kelley admitted that both officers had concocted the cover story.

Kelley and his partner first discussed the incident while still at the scene, Marlowe said.

“Perez asked Kelly how he was going to justify shooting a guy in the back and Kelley said, ‘I never shot anyone in the back,’ ” the detective said.

Later at the Southwest Division station, Marlowe said both officers again discussed the shooting while waiting to be interviewed by investigators.

Perez said Kelley told him he remembered shooting Hererra in the back because he was angry, Marlowe told the hearing.

Perez has already been found guilty of lying about the incident by a Board of Rights, which recommended he be fired. But Police Chief Daryl F. Gates overruled the board and suspended the officer for six months.