D.A. Clears 3 Deputies in Slaying of Armed Woman in Lancaster

Los Angeles County district attorney’s investigators concluded Wednesday that three sheriff’s deputies acted in self-defense when they shot and killed a 50-year-old woman armed with a knife in a Lancaster fast-food restaurant in April.

The slaying of Betty Jean Aborn, a black transient who was shot 18 times, was one of three shootings in Lancaster within an 8-month period that prompted accusations by the NAACP and others that sheriff’s deputies use excessive force against minorities.

Deputies William Phelton, James Vetrovec and Tony Ortiz acted “within the bounds of reasonable self-defense” when they shot Aborn in a Carl’s Jr. restaurant during the confrontation April 11, said the letter to the Sheriff’s Department from the district attorney’s office.

“The evidence indicates that the deputies showed considerable restraint until” Aborn, a robbery suspect cornered by six deputies, lunged at them with the butcher knife, stated the district attorney’s Special Investigations Division report.

A lawyer working with relatives of Antelope Valley shooting victims said the ruling shows that the district attorney’s office is unwilling to prosecute police officers accused of misconduct.

“She didn’t have a gun, she allegedly had a knife,” said David Lynn of the Coalition for Police Accountability. “They could have used night sticks to knock the knife out of her hands.”

Number of Shots

Like other critics, Lynn said the 28 shots fired was excessive.

“We’re talking about an indigent, frail, elderly black woman,” said Lynn, who attended a meeting Tuesday of Antelope Valley residents concerned about alleged misconduct by sheriff’s deputies. Lynn’s coalition wants to create independent police review agencies and a special independent prosecutor to investigate police brutality in Los Angeles County.

The district attorney’s report cited the accounts of deputies and the only civilian eyewitness, a manager at the restaurant, that supported previous official statements that the deputies had to fire when Aborn attacked.

“The laws of self-defense don’t take into account the amount of force you can use in terms of how many shots are fired,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas A. Gray, head of the investigation. “If one officer had fired several shots and the suspect had been disabled, then additional shots were fired, that would have been different.”

Witnesses and others who heard the shots indicated they were fired in rapid succession, Gray said. He said it is not unusual for more than one officer to fire numerous shots simultaneously in such a situation.

The confrontation at the Carl’s Jr. on Avenue K and the Antelope Valley Freeway lasted about six minutes. It began when deputies found Aborn after responding to a report that she had stolen ice cream bars from a market across the street and threatened a clerk with a knife, Gray said.

Yelling Threats

Aborn stood on a bench in the corner of the restaurant yelling threats and ignoring commands to surrender, the report said. It noted that deputies first cleared the restaurant, then tried unsuccessfully to subdue Aborn with a Taser gun.

After being struck by the Taser darts, Aborn moved suddenly as if to step onto a table-top and lunge at the nearest deputy about five feet away, Gray said.

The restaurant manager said the deputy “moved backward but was trapped by a table and chair” and “this was when the other deputies fired their weapons,” the report said.

Aborn’s daughter, Mona Aborn, has consulted with an attorney about filing suit against the Sheriff’s Department.

County and Lancaster city officials met recently with National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People leaders and a federal mediator to discuss the recent shootings.

The Lancaster City Council rejected a NAACP proposal last month calling for a community review panel with the power to investigate allegations of misconduct by sheriff’s deputies and city hiring practices. The council said the proposal would have given the agency excessively broad powers and duplicated the functions of existing state and federal watchdog agencies.