Police Kill Unarmed Man After Chase in Anaheim

Police shot and killed an unarmed man early Thursday outside an Anaheim motel room near Disneyland, where his wife and 9-year-old stepson were waiting for him to return from an errand.

Robert Vincent Edson, 28, of Orange died from a single gunshot wound when two uniformed Anaheim police officers fired at him after he appeared to reach for a weapon on the second-floor balcony of the motel, Anaheim Police Lt. Marc Hedgpeth said Thursday. He said that Edson had led the officers in patrol cars on a 45-minute chase when they tried to stop him for a traffic violation.

Edson’s friends said he had evaded police before because he was driving with a suspended license and could not afford auto insurance.

“He had done it before and it was bad judgment to run,” said Kevin Owens, 29, a friend and former neighbor. “He wasn’t a bad guy. But he’s rabbity, scared, down on his luck, kicked out of his apartment, his family in a motel. So he ran. Jail was the last place he wanted to be.”

It was the second fatal police shooting of an unarmed person in Orange County this week. A Garden Grove man was killed in a fusillade of police bullets early Sunday after he allegedly pointed a toy gun at officers.

Edson’s death is under investigation by the Anaheim Police Department and the Orange County district attorney’s office, standard procedure in police-involved shootings, Hedgpeth said.

Both officers, whose names were not released, were placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, Hedgpeth said.

“It’s really premature to make any statements until the facts are in,” said Anaheim Police Chief Joseph Molloy.

Police would not say how many shots were fired. But several bullet holes were found in beams supporting the second-floor balcony of Edson’s room at the Galaxy Motor Inn.

Two more bullet holes were visible in the door of Room 207, where Edson, his wife, Debbie, and her 9-year-old son, Johnny, were staying.

Several of the rooms adjoining Edson’s were occupied at the time of the shooting shortly after 1 a.m. No one else was injured in the gunfire, and all the tenants had left later Thursday morning, said Ann Evans, a clerk at the inn.

The window to Room 207 was shattered when Edson fell against it after he was shot, according to Evans. She said the family had checked into the motel shortly after 11 p.m. Wednesday.

Edson, his wife and three children had been evicted from their apartment in Orange on Wednesday for non-payment of rent. The family went to the motel near Disneyland for the night because they had a discount coupon for the lodging, friends said. Their baby daughter and another son, Robert Edson’s by a previous marriage, spent the night with a family friend.

The night of his death, friends said that Edson had gone out to get shampoo for his wife. While Edson was on the errand, police said, officers tried to pull him over because his headlights were out. Instead, he sped away.

Friends said that Edson, who ran a struggling ticket service for concerts and sporting events, lacked the money to repair his car, which they said had only one functioning headlight and no brake lights.

According to police, Edson was driving without headlights in a residential neighborhood near La Reina Street and Greenbrier Avenue at 12:35 a.m. When police tried to stop him, Edson led officers on a chase through residential streets in Anaheim and Garden Grove, then onto the Santa Ana Freeway.

Edson stopped at the Galaxy Motor Inn on Harbor Boulevard about a block south of Disneyland, got out of the car and tried to run up to his room, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at 1:56 a.m. at Western Medical Center-Anaheim.

Anaheim Police Sgt. Chet Barry said there was no specific policy precluding a police chase for a traffic violation. He said it is mainly left to the discretion of officers at the scene.

“The indications are that officers feared for their safety and that is what they were concerned with,” Barry said. “It’s up to their judgment.”

But friends of Edson spoke bitterly about the shooting.

“There’s no reason to shoot an unarmed man,” said Diana Murray, 41, who described herself as Debbie Edson’s closest friend and a self-proclaimed adopted mother to the couple. “He was trying to keep life and family together, to keep a business going. The poor guy was just trying to make it. He was under so much pressure.”

Murray, who works with Edson’s wife at an Irvine optical firm, said she first learned of Edson’s death at 3:30 a.m., when Anaheim police came to her apartment at Debbie Edson’s request. Murray said that she was taking care of Edson’s 9-year-old son, Sean, and the couple’s 15-month-old daughter, Allison.

When Murray arrived at the police station, she said that Debbie Edson was crying and said, “Ma, he’s dead!”

Debbie Edson told her that Johnny had heard his stepfather running up the stairs yelling, “Debbie! Debbie!” just before shots rang out, Murray related. She said Debbie Edson told her that she had heard no warnings before the police fired.

“She’s about to lose her mind,” Murray said of Debbie Edson, who is in seclusion with the baby and Johnny at her father’s house in Studio City.

The couple each had a child from previous marriages before they were wed about 4 years ago, Murray said. Edson’s son, Sean, is staying with his natural mother in Huntington Beach, Murray said.

Friends described Robert Edson as a thin man who never carried a gun or a knife. Mostly, he liked to go to concerts or stay at home with his family, friends said.

“He was a lousy driver but wouldn’t hurt anybody,” said Rick Garrahy, owner of another ticket service and a longtime friend of Edson’s. “He had a lot of financial problems. It’s a slow time of the year now and he had lots of bills. I heard he was getting evicted, and I called and said if there’s some problem, come and talk to me. . . . But he was crying.”

Edson was a “good tenant,” but he was late with last month’s rent at his Coast to Coast Tickets office in the 700 block of East Katella Avenue in Anaheim, according to Sandra Duke, a secretary in the management firm that leases the office.

Murray said Edson adored his baby daughter and called her “My little Ally.” Just before he finished packing and left to stay the night at the motel Wednesday, Edson knocked at her door to give Allison a present, she said.

“It was a little comb on a blue sash, a Care Bear comb,” Murray recalled. “He said, ‘Would you please give this to my little Ally?’ He was like that. He really loved his little girl.”

Staff writer Michael Cicchese contributed to this story.