Deputy, Man He Shot in Face Tell Conflicting Tales in Court

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy and the man he shot in the face six years ago offered strikingly different versions of their confrontation at the start of a personal injury trial last week in Torrance Superior Court.

In the civil trial, which is expected to be decided by a jury this week, Armando Estrada charges that the county is liable for the May 17, 1983, shooting that left him with blurred vision, severe headaches, a stiff neck and occasional breathing problems.

Estrada, who was 19 at the time of the shooting, is demanding unspecified damages.

The county and Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Garcia argue that Estrada caused the injuries when he lunged for Garcia’s .357 magnum revolver.

A few facts are not contested:

The incident occurred at about 1 a.m. as Garcia and his partner were patrolling in an unincorporated neighborhood east of Inglewood that is rife with gang activity. The Sheriff’s Department had just broadcast a report that shots had been fired when Garcia saw Estrada and three friends in a sedan on South Vermont Avenue. Garcia said he stopped the car, believing that the young men might have fired the gunshots.

What happened next is the subject of the lawsuit.

Garcia, 31, testified Thursday that he recognized Estrada, whom he had arrested less than two months before. The deputy and the teen-ager had scuffled in the earlier incident, and Estrada had served 16 days in jail after pleading guilty to resisting arrest.

On the night of the shooting, Garcia said, he had his gun drawn as he escorted one of Estrada’s friends to the curb. He said he returned to the car and asked Estrada to get out of the back seat.

Estrada obeyed, but as he touched the ground he pivoted and lunged for the deputy’s revolver, grabbing his hand that gripped the pistol, Garcia testified. He said he reacted by pulling the trigger, although he could not recall if he intended to shoot.

“I was scared,” Garcia told the jury. “I was surprised that he closed the (arm’s length) distance that fast on me. . . . I just remember thinking that I was about to lose the gun.”

Estrada testified Friday that he did not see the deputy clearly and so did not recognize him from their previous encounter. He denied that he lunged at Garcia.

Estrada said he was turning to comply with Garcia’s order to walk toward the squad car, when the deputy demanded, “Estrada, do you remember me?”

“I heard a little noise like a firecracker and I saw like a fire,” Estrada testified. He said he remembered nothing else until days later, when he regained consciousness at a hospital.

The bullet entered his skull under his left eye and traveled downward, lodging against the top of his spinal cord. Fragments of the bullet are still lodged in his neck, said Estrada, now 25.

Estrada’s attorneys, Eric G. Ferrer and Winston K. McKesson, said they will present expert witnesses this week who will testify that Garcia did not follow Sheriff’s Department procedures--particularly standing at a safe distance from a suspect.

Deputy County Counsel J. Patrick Joyce said he will argue that, regardless of the deputy’s tactics, Estrada caused the shooting when he lunged for the gun.