2 Controversial Shootings Held Justified by D.A. : Inquiry: Critics express frustration. No law enforcement officer involved in a shooting has been prosecuted by the San Diego County district attorney since 1984.

The district attorney cleared law enforcement officers in two of San Diego County’s most controversial shootings Friday by concluding that officers in both cases were legally justified in shooting to death their unarmed victims.

Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller said reserve Sheriff’s Deputy John S. Wickham would not be held criminally liable for fatally shooting 21-year-old Jeffrey Bray in the back of the head in Vista last May as Bray shifted his truck into reverse and collided with a patrol car.

Likewise, San Diego Police Detective Leslie Oberlies will face no charges for shooting and killing John Joseph Kelley, 30, in August as Kelley attempted to drive out of a Denny’s restaurant parking lot in Mission Valley, he said.

Only in the Bray case was Miller critical of officers involved, terming the shooting “regrettable and avoidable” and adding that “a thread of unprofessionalism was entwined throughout the entire incident.”

Although Miller determined that Oberlies most likely mistook Kelley’s reaching for the parking brake by thinking he was reaching for a gun, the district attorney’s report did not criticize Oberlies’ actions.

Both officers were fearful of their victims, Miller concluded, adding that no criminal prosecution is warranted “if the evidence does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer’s fear was unreasonable.”

The district attorney’s rulings that both shootings were legally justified, while expected, was troubling to police critics because neither victim had a weapon and both were preparing to leave the scene when they were shot.

Miller’s office has not prosecuted an officer involved in a shooting since 1984. Since then, the district attorney has cleared more than 100 police officers in shootings, in each case justifying the officer’s actions because a suspect posed a deadly threat.

“We’re not surprised, because we have long since given up hope that there is going to be a meaningful review of these shootings,” said Betty Wheeler, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in San Diego. “Both of these shootings were very disturbing to the public, and there were very serious questions surrounding both. I don’t think the district attorney’s reports will answer many of those questions.”

“We’re fed up,” said Jim Butler, a victim of police brutality who has formed a support group to help others in the same situation. “There’s not any place in the country that I know of that has so many shootings by police officers that are consistently cleared.”

Of the two cases, the Bray shooting generated more intense criticism because sheriff’s deputies had tailed a truck they believed was stolen, followed it into an apartment complex, and then opened fire when the truck suddenly backed up. They later learned that Bray’s truck had not been stolen and it remains unclear whether Bray ever knew he was being followed.

Bray, a construction worker, was survived by a pregnant wife who gave birth to their daughter six months to the day after he was killed.

“It’s quite shocking,” Bray’s father, Joe, said of Miller’s conclusion. “It was gross negligence and a blatant disregard for human life. But I’m not surprised at Edwin Miller at all. I hope he can sleep at night. I know we haven’t been able to.”

District attorney spokesman Steve Casey said his office would have no comment beyond the report. He dismissed the suggestion that the investigations, which had been in progress for months, both were released on a Friday afternoon to avoid more intense media scrutiny that would have been possible during the week.

According to Miller’s report, Reserve Deputy Wickham and his partner, Deputy William Curtis Fewell Jr., had responded to a report of a stolen red pickup.

Fewell said he did not tell Wickham that the circumstances were potentially dangerous. But Wickham said he was under the impression that the pair were about to conduct a “hot stop,” in which deputies assume cover and draw their weapons once they stop a suspect.

The deputies spotted a red pickup and followed it into a Vista apartment complex.

One witness to the shooting, Bray’s friend Jimmy Gambrell, said he saw the truck turn into the apartment complex and called to Bray, who backed up to talk to his friend.

At that moment, Wickham and Fewell pulled in behind the truck.

The two deputies “were operating on different wavelengths,” Miller said. Wickham “was at the highest state of readiness as a prelude to what he perceived as (a) life-threatening” situation, he said.

Wickham said that, when Bray rapidly backed the truck up, he believed both he and Fewell might be killed.

“I thought about . . . Curtis first,” Wickham said in the report. “I thought . . . he’s going to die . . . it happened so fast. . . . He’s coming right back at both of us. And I pictured, like, if you can picture it . . . the doors crushing us. (My intent) was to stop him . . . just stop him.”

Although both officers shot at the truck as it crashed into the patrol car, Wickham fired the fatal shot. He had been counseled in 1989 for inappropriately displaying a firearm, and his personnel file showed “a history of demonstrated exuberance, aggressiveness and overzealous behavior,” Miller said.

Sheriff Jim Roache, elected in November on a campaign that included a pledge to curb unnecessary deputy shootings, said Friday that he has convened a panel of sheriff’s officials to re-examine the department’s policies related to the use of deadly force.

Roache said the panel will determine whether Wickham, who is still on an administrative assignment, or Fewell, who returned to patrol duty last October, should be disciplined.

Bray’s parents are proceeding with a civil lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department, as is is widow.

In the case of Oberlies, a 23-year San Diego police veteran, Miller said the officer fired out of fear brought about by the reputation of his victim, John Joseph Kelley.

Several of Kelley’s friends told police that he was a martial-arts and weapons expert who allegedly trained Navy SEALS in hand-to-hand combat.

Oberlies arrived about 10 p.m. Aug. 6 at Denny’s restaurant, where Kelley had arranged to meet his estranged wife, Ruki. The couple, both British subjects living illegally in the United States, had been arguing over custody of their three children.

Ruki Kelley had called police the previous day to report that Kelley had taken the two younger children from her and threatened to take them to England. When Kelley called and asked her to meet him at the restaurant, Ruki Kelley notified police.

She “was fearful of her husband due to prior incidents of physical abuse and threats,” the report said.

Oberlies, who was going home at the end of his shift, was diverted to the restaurant.

He told police and district attorney’s investigators that he fired after Kelley ignored his commands to get out of the car and appeared to be reaching for a gun. According to Oberlies, Kelley had one hand on the steering wheel and reached under the seat with the other hand.

Police found no gun or weapons in Kelley’s car. He died at the scene.

“When he went under the seat, I pulled off at least two rounds. Because it was, it (appeared) at that time he was going for a gun,” Oberlies told district attorney’s investigators. “ . . . It’s my birthday in two hours, and I’m not going to die on my birthday. I don’t want my kids to remember me dying on my birthday . . . .”

Oberlies fired three more times at Kelley, a total of five shots, but the report said only three rounds actually hit their target. The report found no reason to criticize Oberlies’ actions.

Oberlies told district attorney’s investigators that he had no idea why he thought Kelley was reaching for a pistol.

“I’ve thought about this thing. I thought of this thing every day of my life since this happened . . . .”

Police Homicide Lt. Dan Berglund said that Oberlies was transferred from the criminal intelligence unit to a desk assignment for a month after the shooting. He was later reassigned to his old unit.

Although police and district attorney’s investigators said that Oberlies identified himself as an officer when he approached Kelley, a witness, Marie Palmieri, said she never heard Oberlies identify himself. She also said a homicide detective lied in his report when he quoted her as saying she could not see anything because of glare from the lights on the windshield.

Palmieri also said that Kelley’s hands never left the top of the car’s steering wheel, and she never saw him reach under the seat.

The district attorney’s report also quoted Dr. Gary Manchester, a Hillcrest plastic surgeon, as telling police that Kelley was an expert marksman and a bodyguard for a couple of dope dealers. Manchester, who hired Kelley as a chauffeur for three months, denied saying that.

“I never said he was a marksman. I said I knew he served as a bodyguard, but I didn’t say who for. But I had my suspicions,” Manchester said Friday in a telephone interview.

Manchester also disputed a police description of Kelley as a dangerous man. “I never knew John to buck authority,” he said.

Berglund said the shooting will be investigated by the internal affairs unit to see if there were any violations of department policy. The incident will also be reviewed by a police shooting review board and the Citizens’ Review Board, he added.