Suspect Slain by Police Unarmed, Sources Say

A suspected drug dealer killed by Orange police on Wednesday was not armed with a knife or gun when undercover officers opened fire on him in his pickup truck, sources said Thursday.

Jesus Ramos Gonzalez, 27, of Santa Ana was fatally wounded about 2 p.m. after police participated in a drug transaction outside a 7-Eleven market on the corner of Williams and Main streets in Tustin. One officer joined in the drug deal with the suspect while other officers watched from a nearby van, police said.

Witnesses said Gonzalez had just finished meeting with another man in a Mercedes-Benz and was slowly pulling out of a tight parking place when plainclothes officers ran up and ordered him to freeze. When the small Chevrolet pickup did not stop, at least one officer fired four shots through the windshield, according to police.

A law enforcement source, who requested anonymity, said the suspect was not armed with a gun or knife. Two other witnesses said that they did not see a weapon and that the truck did not appear to be moving rapidly or toward anyone before the shooting.

“He looked like he was just trying to get out of a parking space,” said Neil Patel, manager of the 7-Eleven. “The truck was not moving very fast. I could not see everything of course, but I could see there was a regular car behind it (the truck).”

The Orange County district attorney’s office, which investigates police-involved shootings in the county, is trying to determine whether the officer or officers who shot Gonzalez committed any crime. Among other considerations, investigators are looking into whether the suspect made any suspicious gestures or tried to use his car as a weapon and run down officers or anyone else before he was shot.

Lt. Art Romo, a police spokesman, declined to comment Thursday on whether the suspect was armed and referred all media inquiries to the district attorney. George W. Schaeffer Jr., an attorney representing the police involved in the incident, said only that the shooting was “justified.”

While rules governing the use of deadly force differ among departments, most firearms policies are designed to give officers discretion in the field. But in all cases, officers must have a solid belief that fellow police, hostages or innocent bystanders are in immediate danger.

Similarly, officers may shoot at fleeing felons as long as the suspect, whether armed or not, presents a danger to the public or has committed a violent crime, such as murder, rape, robbery or mayhem. To protect the general public, some departments also prohibit warning shots or shooting at moving vehicles under certain circumstances.

U.S. Supreme Court rulings also have held that it is improper for police to shoot fleeing felons who are unarmed and nonviolent.

But, prosecutors say, an officer’s perception of a threat, even if it is not necessarily well-founded, can make it extremely difficult to prove intent, a prerequisite for sustaining criminal charges. In Orange County, no officer has ever been prosecuted in connection with a shooting.

The Orange Police Department relies on state Penal Code sections that relate to the use of deadly force by police officers, hence, the force has one of the least-defined policies compared to other law enforcement agencies in the county. The code states that officers may shoot in self-defense, to protect another person or to stop a fleeing felon.

The state Supreme Court, however, changed the fleeing felon rule in 1977, when it held that the felony must be “a forcible and atrocious one which threatens death or serious bodily harm or there are other circumstances which reasonably create a fear of death or serious bodily harm to the officer or another.”

Staff writers Matt Lait and Davan Maharaj contributed to this story.