Penn Jurors See TV Tape From After Police Shootings

Despite strenuous objections by the defense, the jury in the Sagon Penn murder trial Tuesday viewed a videotape of paramedics desperately trying to revive a San Diego police officer moments before a Life Flight physician pronounced him dead.

The tape, filmed by a television news crew last March 31, began with paramedics pulling Agent Thomas Riggs from underneath a police car, ripping open Riggs’ shirt and pounding on his chest. The camera then followed Dr. David Guss as he moved from one shooting victIm to another at the chaotic scene in Southeast San Diego where another police officer and a civilian lay critically injured.

Guss testified that it took him about a minute to decide to call off rescue efforts for Riggs, who had no vital signs after Penn shot him three times.

“Clinically, it was an easy decision to make,” said Guss, who had arrived after 15 minutes of frantic resuscitation attempts by other officers. “ . . . It’s never easy to do. It’s particularly difficult in that circumstance, given the conditions going on there.”

As the videotape rolled on, Guss told the jurors how he turned his attention to Officer Donovan Jacobs, who was shot once in the left side of the neck. He said Jacobs initially had no blood pressure but was revived and transported to Mercy Hospital by helicopter. Jacobs is expected to testify later in the trial.

The videotape depicts a “horribly awful scene” that should not be shown to jurors, defense attorney Milton SIlverman argued in court Tuesday shortly before Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Carpenter played the film clip.

“There’s no reason for showing these efforts of CPR,” Silverman said. “We don’t need photographs to show us . . . a mortally stricken officer lying lifeless. . . . The prejudice that arises I think is considerable.”

Silverman’s pleas were rejected by Superior Court Judge Ben W. Hamrick, who ruled that the tape was an appropriate piece of evidence.

“I don’t find anything gruesome about it other than . . . wounds on the chest,” Hamrick said. “It’s not a shocking scene. It doesn’t show gaping open wounds or body fluids oozing out.”

Carpenter said he wanted to show the film clip to illustrate Guss’ testimony and verify the location of the victims sprawled on the ground. He also said that the position of Jacobs’ revolver, which was seen on the tape being recovered near Riggs’ body, was essential to the prosecution’s case.

“I don’t want to inflame the jury, but I think (the tape) is absolutely critical as to where things were,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter assured Hamrick that he had heavily edited the tape to eliminate any graphic scenes, including close-up views of Riggs’ body.

But Silverman disagreed, saying that the only portion of the tape Carpenter removed was a scene of two police officers standing against a wall observing the rescue efforts.

The statement touched off a verbal sparring match between the two attorneys that ended with Carpenter saying, “I have cut out an awful lot of blood, gore, guts and crime, and (Silverman) knows it.”

Penn, who is charged with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder, claims that he acted in self-defense when he shot Riggs, Jacobs and Sara Pina-Ruiz, a civilian ride-along who accompanied Riggs. Witnesses have testified that the officers beat Penn with their batons and Jacobs shouted racial comments before the shootings.

Prosecution witness Ricky Clipper, a passenger in the pickup truck driven by Penn last March 31, testified Tuesday that Penn politely asked the officers why he had been pulled over and became frustrated when he did not get an answer.

Clipper testified that he went into a nearby house and did not see the shootings. Inside the house, Angela McKibben called the Police Department to report that officers were abusing Penn, according to a tape played in court Tuesday.

When McKibben said she would like to report “some police brutality right in front of my house,” the police dispatcher responded, “What is the emergency?”