ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Still Too Many Questions

The war on drugs is being waged on some mean streets where law enforcement officers may have to make quick judgments in tense situations where they or others may be in danger. Most civilians understand that and are sympathetic to the police officer’s challenges. But so far, there are more questions than answers in the fatal shooting by police of a suspected drug dealer last Wednesday outside a convenience store in Tustin.

Why did plainclothes police officers from the city of Orange resort to deadly force when witnesses have said that Jesus Ramos Gonzalez, 27, of Santa Ana, was slowly backing up his pickup truck after allegedly participating in a drug transaction? A drug suspect would not necessarily assume that an armed person ordering him to halt was in fact a police officer, and these particular officers were from another city and working under cover. Nor is it necessarily true that any driver in that situation would have responded instantly to such an order while pulling out of a tight parking space, as witnesses have said Gonzalez was doing.

Moreover, police sources have said that Gonzalez was not armed with a knife or gun when the undercover officers opened fire on him. Two witnesses have said they did not see a weapon either, and that the truck did not appear to be moving toward anyone before the shooting. So why were there four quick bullet holes in a pickup’s windshield and a dead driver on the other side? Officers or citizens in the parking lot should have been clearly in danger for such a shooting to occur.

Orange police, who rely on state Penal Code sections in such situations, really should have their own well-defined policy to guide them. But even the guidance they have from a 1977 state Supreme Court ruling says that deadly force should be used only when there is reason to believe that someone might get hurt. That’s a common thread in firearms policies, even though most are designed to give discretion to officers in the field.

There is reason to wonder whether too much license was used in this shooting incident. The Orange County district attorney routinely investigates such shootings and must pay special attention to that possibility.