Man With Toy Gun Slain by Police Gunfire

A 20-year-old man reportedly carrying a toy pistol was shot to death Sunday in a volley of gunfire by two Garden Grove policemen responding to a disturbance call at a residence.

Three stunned eyewitnesses disputed the police claim that Dennis Paul Gonzales of Garden Grove confronted the officers with a weapon, forcing them to fire.

The eyewitnesses, all friends of the victim, said the officers began shooting without provocation as Gonzales walked into the house, where the gunfire left at least 19 bullet holes in the living room walls and furniture.

“All he did was walk in the door. His hands were at his sides,” said Julie Harris, one of the witnesses. “They just started shooting. Then after he was down they just kept shooting at him. It was a nightmare.”

Argued With Girlfriend

Gonzales had been in an argument with his girlfriend at a house in the 9700 block of 11th Street in Garden Grove. The house is owned by a Susie and Jerry Radford Wilson, who were not at home when the shooting occurred.

The Garden Grove police released a statement that “upon arriving, (the officers) were confronted by a male subject with a weapon. . . . Shots were fired.”

“We can confirm it was a replica gun that the subject had,” Police Sgt. Douglas Morrill said late Sunday. “The deceased entered the residence and pointed a replica of a .45-caliber semi-automatic at the officers. At that time the officers shot him.

“The officers, per our policy, are on administrative leave with pay pending a psychological evaluation. We do that when any officer has been involved in a shooting.”

The police did not release the names of the two officers.

The Wilson family said they were told later by District Attorney’s Investigator Matthew Letteriello that the two Garden Grove policemen fired as many as 15 to 16 shots. Letteriello could not be reached for comment.

The Wilsons found five bullet holes in a couch, two in a piano, and two in a mirror. Two bullets struck an exercise bicycle, one struck a bookcase. The rest of the bullet holes were in the walls and the floor near the victim’s body. The Wilsons said that investigators tagged 19 places which had been damaged by bullets; some may have been ricochets.

The couch was between where the officers were reportedly standing and where Gonzales fell on the floor.

The eyewitnesses say that Gonzales was not at the house when the police arrived.

Gonzales and his girlfriend, Paige Richelieu, were visiting Jerry Joseph Wilson, the Wilsons’ son. The fourth person present was Julie Harris, Wilson’s girlfriend and also Gonzales’ stepsister. The four were 20 years old. No one else was in the house, the witnesses said.

‘She Called 911’

“Paige and Dennis got into an argument and she called 911,” Harris said. She said her stepbrother had become physical and there was a lot of yelling.

But according to the younger Wilson and Harris, the feuding couple calmed down before the police arrived.

Harris said she thought Wilson was taking Gonzales home. Wilson said he and Gonzales only went for cigarettes and then were on their way back to the house.

Harris said that a police officer arrived and she met him outside, then took him into the house. She said a second officer soon arrived and entered the house too.

Harris said the first officer was standing next to the two young women, who were sitting on a couch catty-corner from the doorway to the living room. The second officer was near a wall closer to the doorway, she said.

Harris says she saw someone outside and told the officers: “Here comes Jerry now.”

Young Wilson said Gonzales was walking slightly ahead of him.

“The second we walked in the door, I heard shots being fired and I ran,” Wilson said. He added that he did not even know until later that it was police officers shooting because he heard the shots before he had rounded the corner of the doorway.

Harris and Wilson agree that the shots began immediately as Gonzales came through the door. Harris said the officer standing away from the two women fired first, then the officer next to them joined in.

“Dennis was not armed,” Harris said. “He did have a plastic toy gun that he liked to fool around with. But I could see his hands; he was definitely not reaching for it. There was no time.”

Wilson also agreed that Gonzales’ hands were in plain view and that he had made no move toward the gun, which Wilson says may have been tucked inside Gonzales’ belt.

“There just wasn’t time,” Wilson said. “Why would he pull a toy gun on two police officers who had real guns? It just makes no sense.”

Harris said that neither Gonzales nor the officers said a word before the shooting began.

She added that she heard Richelieu screaming: “Don’t shoot him! It’s only a toy gun!”

She said Richelieu’s words and the first shots came at the same time.

‘I Saw Two Shots’

“I saw two shots, and I turned my head, then I turned back and saw them shooting at Dennis while he lay on the ground,” Harris said. “Paige and I ran into the kitchen out of fear we would get killed. We could hear them shooting more shots from in there.”

Richelieu said she was too upset to discuss the incident with a Times reporter. But other members of the family and friends at the house later said the version she gave them is the same as Harris’ and Wilson’s.

The Wilson family said they spent the night with neighbors while investigators spent some 10 hours inside their home.

They said investigator Letteriello told them the only gun found on Gonzales was the toy plastic gun.

Harris said that the officers seemed concerned before the two young men returned that Gonzales might be violent. But she said she told them Gonzales had gone home.

“They didn’t know what he looked like; they could not have had any idea that was him who walked through that door,” she said.

The Wilsons were upset about their living room being shot up.

“What if that had been our son Jerry coming through that door, or my two teen-age daughters,” said Susie Wilson. “What occurred here was a senseless tragedy.”

They were also upset that one police officer asked their son later: “Why did you run?”

“Wouldn’t you run if you started to walk into your own home and you heard shots being fired?” Susie Wilson said.

Gonzales’ father, Dennis E. Gonzales, said that when he arrived at the house later a police officer told him: “Your son came in here brandishing a gun.”

The elder Gonzales said his son had never been arrested for anything and never had had any trouble with the police.

“He was a good, fun-loving boy,” Gonzales said. “He didn’t even have a gun. And if he did, why didn’t the officers say, ‘Raise your hands’ or something like that first? They never gave him a chance.”

Dennis Gonzales son had been dating Richelieu for 3 years and was currently living with her, friends and family said.

“They fought all the time; that’s just the way they were,” Harris said.

One family member said Richelieu had called the police one other time when she and Gonzales were fighting. Harris said Richelieu only started to call the police once but didn’t follow through.

Gonzales’ father was badly shaken by news of his son’s death.

“We tried hard to keep him out of neighborhoods where there was gang violence, and now he is killed by the good guys? They decide to serve as his judge, jury and executioner.”

Family members and friends said Gonzales had picked up the toy gun after it was left lying by children who had been playing with it.