Bail $2.5 Million for Accused Killer

Bradford Warren Powers Jr. told police that he decided to “take the law into his own hands and make the doctors pay” for his father’s death when he shot four people in a rampage at Mission Bay Memorial Hospital, a deputy district attorney said Tuesday.

Prosecutor Robert Eichler made that assertion in a brief San Diego Municipal Court hearing in which Powers pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder.

Powers, his eyes moist and bloodshot, spoke only once to the judge, when he interrupted the hearing and said: “I don’t wish for bail.”

Judge William Woodward set bail at $2.5 million, despite Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Eichler’s request that the 46-year-old La Jolla man be held under no bail. The prosecutor said he wanted no bail because Powers poses a threat to the community and because he had planned to flee to Oregon before he turned himself in to Oceanside police, an hour after he allegedly opened fire in an emergency room Saturday.

The spray of bullets killed a nurse and a student trainee--on his first day at the job--and wounded the on-duty physician and the father of a patient.

The victim involved in the third count of attempted murder was identified as nurse Terri Fagen, but Eichler declined to elaborate on what happened to her.

Asked after the hearing whether he would seek the death penalty, Eichler said he was still reviewing the case. “It’s a double homicide--that makes it a possibility just by definition,” he said.

The shootings occurred about eight hours after Brad Powers Sr. died in the same emergency room, suffering a heart attack while doctors were attempting to repair a ruptured abdominal aneurysm.

Authorities allege that the younger Powers, who has had psychiatric problems dating back at least 25 years, was distraught over the death of his father, a well-known architectural illustrator, and returned to the scene to seek revenge.

In the days since the shootings, a dark side to the father-son relationship has emerged. The younger Powers, who lived at home and seldom held a job for more than several months, was occasionally physically and verbally abusive to his father, a doctor and a family attorney said in telephone interviews.

At the request of a family member, the coroner’s office investigated whether physical abuse had contributed to the elder Powers’ death, said Dr. H. E. Hammerstead, the doctor who tried to save the aging man when he was brought into the emergency room. The coroner’s investigation, however, found no signs of physical abuse, he said. Officials with the coroner’s office declined to comment.

The elder Powers, 75 when he died, had postponed his retirement for fear that he lacked funds to support his wife, their son Powers Jr. and his two children, now 20 and 23, said Marvin Mizeur, an attorney who has known the family for 16 years.

“There were many episodes where (Powers Jr.) was emotionally out of control. I have seen him calm one moment and then blow up the next,” said Mizeur, who represented the younger Powers during part of his divorce case and continued to assist the elder Powers in legal matters.

“His family indicated that he made threats to (Powers Sr.) and struck him once or twice,” said Mizeur, who added that these reports of violence occurred during the ‘70s.

Though the younger Powers felt close to his mother, Mary, he was often hostile to his father, Mizeur said. And the elder Powers felt threatened by his son. “It was not a pleasant situation for Brad Sr. for the last 10 years. And it has gotten progressively worse,” Mizeur said. “I do know certainly there was verbal abuse--that was practically a constant thing.”

In 1965, Powers Sr. filed a petition in San Diego Superior Court to begin having his son tested for mental illness with the possibility of having him committed to authorities, court records show. Powers Jr., then 21, single and unemployed, was examined by Dr. Carl E. Graner.

But the elder Powers changed his mind and suddenly withdrew his petition. Family members were unavailable Tuesday to talk to The Times.

Police said the handgun allegedly used in the shootings had belonged to the Powers family and was kept at the home for protection. The 6-inch, 8-shot .22-caliber revolver was found in Powers Jr.’s white Corvette Monday.

A memorial service for the dead--nurse Deborah Kay Burke and Edward Thomas Rooney, a student trainee--is scheduled for Thursday at the hospital.