Slain Son Was Drunk, Not a Danger--Mother : She Says Police Who Shot Him Should Have Tried to Subdue Him: ‘He Wasn’t a Killer’

The mother of a 26-year-old man who was fatally shot by Huntington Beach police after he allegedly charged at two officers with martial arts weapons said Tuesday that her son had been drunk but was not dangerous, and that police should have tried to subdue him.

“He wasn’t an angel, but he wasn’t a killer either,” LaVerne Norried said of her son Alan, who was killed Sunday. “He was drunk a lot, but you don’t shoot a person down like a dog because he’s drunk.”

A neighbor summoned police to the Norrieds’ home on Red Coach Drive about 1 p.m. Sunday after LaVerne Norried ran from the house screaming for help.

Out All Night Drinking

LaVerne Norried said Tuesday that her son had been out all night drinking, and that he struck her in the ribs and began kicking over furniture after she ordered him to turn down his stereo late Sunday morning. She said she called for help because she thought her son was hurting his brother, Matthew, 21.

LaVerne Norried said that when police arrived, they ran past her into the house, calling Alan Norried, and then shot him before he could respond. LaVerne Norried, who did not witness the shooting, relayed an account given by Matthew, who was with his brother in the living room when the shooting occurred. She also disputed police accounts that Alan Norried had two weapons.

Huntington Beach police declined Tuesday to comment on the case, which is under investigation by the Orange County district attorney’s office. Authorities have not identified the police officers, who are on administrative leave pending the conclusion of the investigation.

According to police reports, Alan Norried charged at two officers with two weapons, a sai and a nunchaku. A sai is a karate weapon with one pointed end and one forked end, often used to catch an arm or clothing to disarm an opponent. A nunchaku is two sticks connected by a chain or rope that can be used to strike or restrain an opponent.

When Alan Norried “reached a point very close to the officers and they were in danger of serious injury, two officers fired at Norried,” the police report said. Alan Norried was pronounced dead at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center.

Only One Weapon

LaVerne Norried said Tuesday that her son had only one weapon, a nunchaku, and that his brother was trying to persuade him to turn it over when police began shooting. In addition, she said, he was shot in a doorway between the living room and his bedroom, about 6 feet away from police.

“Police called me outside to answer questions and they zoomed in,” she said. “Matthew started toward Alan and was telling him, ‘Give the sticks to me,’ and police started shooting. The police called Alan’s name and he turned and boom-boom. I heard shooting in a matter of seconds, and there is no way anybody could have answered in that time.”

LaVerne Norried corroborated neighbors’ description of Alan Norried as a heavy drinker who often played his stereo or guitar loudly late at night. She said she had called police to the family home at least twice before because Alan Norried “got rowdy and started kicking furniture.”

He had been charged with being drunk and disorderly two or three times, his mother said, but a check of Orange County court records showed no felony convictions.

Alan Norried dropped out of Marina High School and had drifted from job to job, moving back to his parents’ home when he was down on his luck. He had been unemployed since he broke both legs, his pelvis, an arm and his jaw in a fall at a construction site in San Diego more than a year ago, his mother said.

‘Whole Lives Trying to Help’

He stopped drinking for a while after the accident, and recently was trying to find a job with the help of his father, Rubin, an operating engineer. To pass the hours, he would drink or practice martial arts exercises he had learned from a friend, LaVerne Norried said.

“We spent our whole lives trying to help him, but he would go back to drinking,” she said. “He’s been arrested for disturbing the peace, but he never went up against a police officer in his life, and I don’t think he would. When he wasn’t drinking, he was a perfect kid.”

Funeral arrangements await release of the body by the Orange County coroner.