San Diego

Prosecutors on Wednesday played another tape recording of Sagon Penn’s interview with police shortly after Penn had killed a San Diego police officer.

The interview, conducted by homicide Detective Larry Lindstrom, took place around midnight after the March 31, 1985, shootings that left Police Agent Thomas Riggs dead and Agent Donovan Jacobs and civilian observer Sarah Pina-Ruiz wounded.

In the tape recording played Tuesday, police asked no questions while Penn rambled on about the shootings. In the tape played Wednesday, Lindstrom asked Penn for details.

“He (Jacobs) threw me to the ground. I said, ‘Is all this necessary?’ He said, ‘Shut up! Shut up!’ He grabbed my throat. He was squeezin’ real tight. My mind was saying, ‘Why? Why?’ ” Penn said on the tape.

Penn said he heard somebody in the crowd say, “They’re going to kill you.” He said he repeatedly urged the officers to stop hitting him.

“He got ready to hit me. That’s when I grabbed for his gun,” Penn said.

Recalling what started the incident, Penn said he walked away from Jacobs when Jacobs refused to go through Penn’s wallet looking for his driver’s license.

“You think you’re bad, huh?” Penn quoted Jacobs as repeating to him twice.

Other witnesses have testified Jacobs added the word nigger to the phrase.

“Sagon Penn never complained about any of these things (racial slurs) to you?” asked Deputy Dist. Atty. Mike Carpenter.

“No, he didn’t,” Lindstrom replied.

“Did he look like the victim of a vicious beating?” Carpenter asked.

“No, he did not,” said the detective, who was the 11th witness in the retrial.

Penn, 25, is charged with manslaughter, attempted murder, attempted manslaughter and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. A jury acquitted him of murder June 26.