Police Slaying of Unarmed Parolee Under Investigation : Crime: Officers say the Costa Mesa man was shot after he reached inside his jacket, but eyewitnesses are giving a different version.

Prosecutors on Friday began investigating the shooting death of an unarmed parolee who rammed a police barricade with his truck and was shot seconds later by police officers as he tried to run away.

Investigators said that Ricky Edward Strickland, a 32-year-old convicted car thief from Costa Mesa, reached into his jacket and turned toward his pursuers before one or more of the officers shot him Thursday afternoon. Witnesses, however, have questioned that account, saying that they did not see Strickland make any move inside his jacket while he was fleeing.

“He was running away from police officers,” said David Ajifu, who was on his way home from work and witnessed the shooting. “He was in a running position.”

An autopsy was performed Friday, but Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown, who is heading the investigation, refused to comment on any aspect of the case. Both police and the district attorney’s office refused to identify the Anaheim officer or officers involved in the shooting.

“We hope we’ll have this thing completed in three or four weeks, and we’ll be happy to answer your questions then,” Brown said. “It’s better for a thorough investigation to keep (publicity) to a minimum.”

Strickland was driving his 1990 Toyota pickup on West Lincoln Avenue in Anaheim when police officers on an auto theft surveillance detail recognized him and tried to stop him, police said.

But Strickland sped off, allegedly trying to run over the officers in the process, police said. Strickland then led police on a chase that ended when he rammed a police car that had blocked off part of Wilken Way near Daryl Lane, just inside the Garden Grove city limits about a mile south of Disneyland.

“He was up on two wheels coming around the corner, and he was probably doing 50 or 60 down this street,” said Harry Ryan, who was standing in his front yard on Wilken Way watching the chase. “Both (Strickland’s and the police car) jumped a foot in the air.”

Despite the impact of the crash, Strickland leaped from his truck and ran a short distance down Daryl Lane before he was shot.

“He was shot in the back,” Ryan said, “from, at the most, seven or eight yards away.”

Ryan and other witnesses reported hearing between three and six shots in rapid succession.

Strickland, who had a history of cocaine and alcohol abuse, was killed less than a mile from an alcohol rehabilitation center where he had recently been living as a condition of his parole. He was paroled in October, 1989, after serving about nine months in state prison on a stolen property conviction. Strickland also had a previous conviction and several other arrests for driving or receiving stolen property, but he was not considered a violent criminal, according to a parole official.

Strickland’s 34 year-old brother, Curtis Strickland, said that after talking to witnesses of the shooting, he wonders why police didn’t chase his brother on foot or give him some warning before firing.

“Why they shot him down I have no idea,” Strickland said. “He was getting his act back together.”

Curtis Strickland speculated that police officers might have stopped his brother because he was driving a new truck. When Strickland was arrested by Anaheim police in 1988 after he and two accomplices climbed into a new Chevrolet Camaro, Police Officer Dan Redd wrote: “We knew that Strickland and (one of his companions) were transients and that neither one had a job that could support a brand new vehicle such as this.”

In that incident, Strickland led police on a chase similar to the one Thursday, and was finally caught after ditching the car.

Strickland told police that he had not stolen the car but knew it was stolen and planned to sell it for money for food, according to court records.

Strickland was a high school graduate and served from 1981 to 1986 in the Navy, receiving an honorable discharge. He was divorced in 1985 and had two sons, ages 7 and 9. Since July, he had been working full time with a Stanton construction firm, according to his parole officer.

Relatives said the work involved earthquake-proofing buildings, mostly in Los Angeles County.

Art Williams, house manager at the Comeback Recovery Home in Garden Grove, said Strickland was no saint but that he seemed to be working on his alcohol problem and often would drive other alcoholics to AA meetings.

“I was under the impression that he knew he had a problem and was willing to do something about it,” Williams said. “Ricky left Thursday of last week and he was sober.”

But Strickland’s parole office, which kept in touch with Strickland twice weekly, was unaware that he had left the rehabilitation center. His parole agent visited him there Dec. 19, and Strickland passed an alcohol test.

“He was current in terms of his commitment with his parole agent,” said Bernard F. Parks, assistant supervisor of the Anaheim parole unit.

Strickland’s parole unit was also apparently unaware of a recent drunk-driving arrest that could have led to revocation of his parole--and that may have been a reason Strickland did not want to be stopped and questioned by police officers Thursday.

Department of Motor Vehicles records show that he was arrested in Orange County on Nov. 14 on a charge of drunk driving and that his license would have been suspended today for one year. He had a previous drunk-driving conviction in 1985.

“We were not aware of that,” Parks said. “As a condition of his parole, he was not to consume alcoholic beverages . . . and it could have been revoked.”

Times staff writer Jerry Hicks contributed to this report.