Media Often at Mercy of Witnesses’ Veracity

From outward appearances, this was the classic story of a grass-roots hero struck down by criminals while trying to defend his neighborhood.

But the story turned out to be a lot more complicated.

On May 5, a resident of the 1400 block of West Walnut Street in Santa Ana was shot and fatally wounded after a confrontation between residents and a group of suspected drug dealers.

Neighbors told Santa Ana police and reporters that heavily armed dealers returned to the street and shot Celestino Morales Davila, 22, as other residents huddled in fear behind locked doors. The story was so compelling that it made Page 1.

But on further investigation, Santa Ana police discovered that the neighbors were the only ones doing any shooting.

In a tragic twist, police said, a bullet fired from the gun of a resident struck Morales, leaving him mortally wounded. Pellets from a shotgun blast fired into the air from a neighbor wounded 19-year-old Sabino Mena Moreno. The neighbors were firing warning shots as the dealers returned to the street to continue a battle, police said.

The story demonstrated the vulnerability of the news media, especially in police stories when there is often no way to immediately verify the accuracy of information.

Having reported the story, I felt a twinge of embarrassment, as did other reporters. Police officials were also taken aback because of the earlier statements from witnesses who claimed the dealers were firing the shots.

Police and residents agree on this much: Beginning at about noon every day, bicycle-pedaling drug dealers, ranging in age from about 20 to as young as 13, cruise up and down the tree-lined street, eventually stopping to peddle their illicit wares. By nightfall, as many as 50 are working the same block, offering marijuana, cocaine and heroin to passers-by.

Police also believe that the dealers had the street under their control; sitting on residents’ cars and trucks, openly smoking marijuana and drinking beer, and taunting and threatening anyone who objected.

That West Walnut Street was a haven for drug sales was clearly evident to me when I arrived in the neighborhood the day after the shooting to interview residents. As I spoke with them, young men identified by residents as drug dealers sauntered past on foot and on bicycle, staring at us defiantly and occasionally asking a sarcastic question.

Salvador Villegas, a 45-year-old man who was involved in the fracas that led to the fatal shooting incident, said, as did several other neighbors, that he and a young dealer had gotten into an angry exchange of words and that a fistfight soon ensued involving a number of people on both sides.

According to Villegas and the others, they chased the dealers out of the neighborhood, but the dealers promised to return. Within minutes, they did; armed with baseball bats, a pistol, rifle and shotguns, Villegas said.

The early account was that Villegas and his neighbors then all ran inside their homes, locked the doors and called police. Only Morales was left outside, Villegas said, and was shot in the head by the dealers as he attempted to hurry to safety.

Santa Ana police later found, however, that two of Morales’ neighbors fired the shots into the air to frighten off the dealers as they surrounded Morales, who was armed with a machete.

A police officer explained that this sort of misinformation happens all the time in police investigations.

“We can interview 10 different witnesses and get 10 different stories,” Santa Ana Police Sgt. Dick Faust said. “You just have to keep digging and talking to people until finally you get the whole story.”

But a newspaper’s daily deadline sometimes puts it in the position of having to accept the story of the moment. All we can do when we are steered wrong is to publish the truth when we get it.