Local News in Brief : 3 Police Officers Suspended

The Torrance Police Department suspended three officers last week after a four-month investigation into an officer-involved shooting. Police officials said the report of the inquiry, described as a “criminal investigation,” will be turned over to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office today.

Police would not identify the officers, saying that a state law known as the Police Officers Bill of Rights prohibits departments from identifying officers who are under investigation.

The three officers were suspended with pay Sept. 8. About four months earlier, on May 9, Officer Timothy Robert Pappas, 26, shot Patrick Joseph Coyle, 30. The Daily Breeze reported this week that Pappas was one of the suspended officers, but police would not confirm that, and Pappas could not be reached for comment.

Coyle was shot in the chin but survived.

Capt. James Weyant, commander of the Police Department’s investigative bureau, said he plans to turn the report over to the district attorney’s office today.

Lt. Robert Armstrong, commander of the personnel division, said every officer-involved shooting is investigated by Torrance detectives, and the investigation is reviewed by the district attorney’s office. An investigation “may or may not be (classified as) criminal, depending on what the detectives find out,” he said.

“I’d love to sit down and give you all the details because it looks worse sometimes when we don’t comment,” Armstrong said. “But by commenting, we could jeopardize the investigation.”