Deputies Meet With Muslims After Bloody Confrontation : Violence: They agree to a continuing dialogue aimed at avoiding a repeat of Tuesday’s fatal encounter. But the two sides differ vastly in explaining what happened.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials and Nation of Islam leaders emerged from a meeting late Wednesday and announced that they have begun discussions aimed at mending strained relations that followed a clash a day earlier in which a deputy fatally shot one Muslim and seriously wounded another.

Both sides said the meeting, from which reporters were excluded, was the first in a series of dialogues intended to open lines of communication that could prevent another violent confrontation.

“We’ve agreed to further meetings to develop an appreciation of the concerns of each side,” said Assistant Sheriff Jerry Harper. “We had a productive meeting in terms of agreeing that we are going to seek all the facts to see that the matter is thoroughly investigated.”

The clash occurred after two deputies in a patrol car stopped a motorist at 12:40 a.m. Tuesday in the Athens District of South Los Angeles and several men came out of a nearby apartment complex and fought with the officers.

Beyond that basic fact, vastly different accounts of the incident began to emerge Wednesday as deputies and Muslims who interviewed witnesses began to piece together their stories.

Sheriff’s officials essentially contend that the shootings occurred only after one officer was grabbed from behind in a chokehold and had his gun wrested away by one of the men who came out the apartment building in the 1100 block of West 106th Street.

Muslim View

But in a hastily called meeting of 80 community leaders, Wali Shamsuddin, a Los Angeles businessman and Muslim, charged that his fellow Muslims were assaulted by the deputies, and that the dead man, Oliver Beasley, may have been trying to return the deputy’s gun when he was shot.

The community meeting Wednesday morning was arranged by activist Danny J. Bakewell at the South Los Angeles headquarters of the Brotherhood Crusade. It was attended by Nation of Islam leaders as well as by officials of such organizations as the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and the Parents of Watts. Representatives of county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden and the U.S. Justice Department were also there.

“An attack on the Nation of Islam is an attack on the entire community,” Bakewell said. “Nobody carries themselves with more respect, more dignity than a member of the Nation of Islam--man, woman or child.”

Basing his account on interviews with witnesses, Shamsuddin told the group that one of the two deputies who pulled the car over repeatedly “body-slammed” the 27-year-old Beasley. He acknowledged that Beasley managed to disarm the officer, but he said the gun was taken away in self-defense. Then Beasley apparently tried to return the handgun, Shamsuddin alleged.

“The brother (Beasley) was so meek and so kind, the witnesses said he was holding the gun out to (the deputy) as if he was giving it back,” Shamsuddin said.

A sheriff’s spokesman labeled Shamsuddin’s remarks “preposterous.”

Later, the deputies and backup officers began firing at Muslims who had left the apartment building after they heard the initial scuffle, Shamsuddin said.

One deputy, Shamsuddin alleged, fired a shot into the already wounded Beasley after he had been handcuffed. Beasley’s body, held by the heels, was then dragged by deputies “up and down the street,” Shamsuddin alleged.

“We’re monitoring this,” said Stephen Thom, a U.S. Justice Department representative who attended the meeting. “We are not involved. But we are very interested in the case. We will offer assistance, if it’s asked for.”

The case is also being investigated by the district attorney’s Special Investigations Division.

The Nation of Islam has yet to issue a formal statement summarizing its own investigation of the matter.

Sheriff Sherman Block could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But Undersheriff Robert Edmonds called Shamsuddin’s story a “preposterous, absurd and racist statement on his part.”

“The facts totally contradict anything of the sort,” Edmonds said. “The body (of Beasley) was not moved from the moment he was shot until well later that day when the coroner arrived.”

Edmonds represented Block at Wednesday’s meeting at the Brotherhood Crusade offices with Nation of Islam leaders. A similar session was held Monday between Los Angeles police officials and Muslim leaders to ease tensions following a confrontation earlier this month involving LAPD officers.

Among those present at Wednesday’s talks with sheriff’s officials was Minister Leonard Farrakhan Muhammad, chief of staff to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

“I would characterize the meeting as one to create an opportunity to determine the direction in which the Sheriff’s Department wishes to take this issue,” Muhammad said, “whether they want to take this to justice.”

But Edmonds suggested the two sides are far from a resolution.

“We have sets of facts that are significantly different,” Edmonds said after the private meeting. “We did not get into the details of the incident (on Tuesday), but we have agreed to further meetings, although no specific date has been set yet.”

Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Michael Quinn said that taped radio transmissions indicate that Tuesday’s situation escalated from a somewhat routine traffic stop into an emergency within 25 seconds.

The deputies--identified by sources as trainee David Dolson, 24, and training officer William Tackaberry, 39--first called for assistance at 12:40 a.m., requesting two backup cruisers. The usual call is for one backup unit, Quinn said.

“They perceived a possible problem and thought they needed more officers (than usual) at the scene,” the lieutenant said.

The call was made, Quinn said, after the deputies had placed the driver of the vehicle, David Hartley, 18, against an automobile to be searched. A crowd of neighbors had already begun to gather and several men were on the apartment building steps, he said.

Just 25 seconds later, a deputy placed a call for emergency assistance, Quinn said.

“The deputy was excited and the (transmission) garbled,” Quinn said. “The only thing (dispatchers) picked up was 106th Street.”

It is not discernable from the transmissions whether the deputy was in a struggle when he radioed, Quinn said.

Lt. Frank Merriman, who is heading the sheriff’s internal investigation into the shooting, said the situation deteriorated rapidly when the group of men who rushed out of the apartment building twice refused orders to go back inside.

When deputies put their hands on Hartley’s arms to walk him back to their radio car, “one of the deputies was attacked from behind and placed in a chokehold,” Merriman said.

“As the other deputy went to his aid, he was also grabbed by three to four males,” Merriman said. Soon, both deputies were grappling for control of their weapons, he said.

Dolson lost his gun to one of the assailants, Merriman said. Tackaberry fired a round that did not hit anyone, Merriman said.

Shots Fired

“The crowd of males retreated, one of whom had the trainee’s gun,” the lieutenant said.

Dolson drew his backup weapon and fired four rounds. One shot hit Hartley in the shoulder. Seconds later, Dolson fired another round, “striking Beasley in the head,” Merriman said.

Hartley was in serious condition at County-USC Medical Center, where he was held in the jail ward for investigation of attempted murder.

Coroner’s spokesman Bob Dambacher said an autopsy on Beasley is scheduled for today.

Neither deputy has been involved in any previous shootings, a spokesman for the district attorney’s Special Investigation Division said. Nor has either officer ever been sued for use of excessive force, court records show.

While Dolson had been on patrol for only about three months, he had been a deputy since October, 1987, according to the department.

Before his assignment to the Lennox Station, Dolson attended the Sheriff’s Academy for 17 weeks, then apparently was assigned to the Custody Division for about 1 1/2 years.

Quinn would not confirm Dolson’s work history or his identity. But he said that all young deputies are first assigned to custody duty, working in County Jail facilities, usually for about two years.

At the academy all deputies are trained in patrol procedures, including ways to defuse confrontations with the public, Quinn said.

Deputies must also take a two-week refresher course on new laws, training and procedures before being assigned as patrol trainees, he said. The trainee phase usually lasts about six months, Quinn said.

“We cover things such as . . . how to defuse situations (by speaking calmly), but this went well beyond that,” Quinn said of Tuesday’s incident. “And what these deputies were ultimately involved in, I don’t think they could have talked their way out of it.”

A source close to Dolson said he had taken a few days off work and would be temporarily assigned to an office job upon his return. A department spokesman said that is the usual procedure in such cases.

Arraignment for the five suspects, four of whom were being held without bail in the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail, has been set for Thursday in Inglewood Municipal Court.

One of the suspects, an unidentified 15-year-old boy, was released to his parents on Tuesday.

Times staff writers Louis Sahagun, John H. Lee and Victor Merina contributed to this story.