Officer Fired for Getting in Shooting Situation : Discipline: San Diego policeman George C. Kathan is stunned by action. He had been cleared by department and D.A. in gun use.

In what local law enforcement attorneys are calling an unprecedented punishment, the San Diego Police Department has fired an officer for placing himself in a dangerous situation that led to his shooting a suspect.

Both the Police Department and the district attorney already had ruled that the shooting was justified. But police officials decided that Officer George C. Kathan acted rashly by standing directly in front of a car, gun drawn, and ordering a suspect to stop.

At a press conference Wednesday, Kathan, an 11-year patrol officer, said he was stunned by his firing. More than two weeks after he was formally notified of the decision, Kathan said he could only guess as to why he was punished so severely.

“Maybe it was bad timing, maybe they thought too many shootings were being ruled justified, maybe I’m a scapegoat, I don’t know,” said the former patrol officer who worked out of the department’s northern division. “But I was totally, unjustly treated.”

Kathan, 35, was fired earlier this month when his disciplinary file reached Police Chief Bob Burgreen. Kathan’s immediate superiors had recommended that he receive a formal reprimand; commanders in the department determined that Kathan should be given an eight-day suspension.

Citing confidentiality laws, Police Cmdr. Larry Gore said he could not specifically discuss Kathan’s case.

But, in general, he said, “one of our expectations of our officers is that, given other options, you don’t place yourself in front of a car that you expect is going to flee because it’s an inappropriate action.”

Any punishment is reviewed with an officer’s past disciplinary history in mind, Gore said.

Kathan and his attorneys said he has been disciplined only once before--when he searched a suspect and didn’t find the man’s knife.

Leroy T. Brady, the department’s director of human resources, said he could not remember a similar punishment within the police agency.

In February, 1990, Kathan and another officer chased a car they believed was stolen. At a red light, they pulled alongside the stolen car, and the officers jumped out.

Kathan stood in front of the car, his .38-caliber pistol drawn, and his partner stood near the driver’s side with a shotgun aimed at the driver. Kathan yelled: “Stop, police! Stop!” and hit the hood of the car twice when the driver didn’t react.

The driver, Jerry Dean Drumel, revved the engine and the car moved forward. Kathan took two or three steps back and tried to move out of the way, while firing at Drumel and hitting him in the left temple. The car jumped a curb and stopped on a grass median.

Drumel suffered major brain damage in the shooting, lost his speech, and is expected to face a long period of rehabilitation.

Nevertheless, the district attorney’s office declared the shooting to be legally justified, saying Drumel “posed a very real and immediate deadly threat when he caused the car to accelerate forward.”

In the report, Kathan said he stood in front of the car because he didn’t want his partner in his line of fire.

During Kathan’s disciplinary proceedings, police administrators said the department has never punished an officer for similar actions, according to James M. Gattey, Kathan’s attorney.

The attorney, and police union president Harry O. Eastus, speculated that the beating by Los Angeles police of Rodney King on March 3 may have had something to do with the department’s “knee-jerk reaction.” Kathan said he was first notified that he was to be punished March 15.

“We are getting flooded with disciplinary packages for petty stuff that never would have happened before,” said Everett Bobbitt, another union attorney. “The department knows full well we can’t get hearings at civil service for more than a year. They’ll fire anyone who could have possibly violated a policy and let the Civil Service Commission decide to reinstate them. That way, they avoid blame.”

Gore said administrators continue to decide punishments as they did before the King beating and said there have been no unwarranted disciplines.

Kathan’s firing will have officers thinking about losing their jobs when they are placed in life-threatening situations, Gattey said.

Gattey and Bobbitt also have filed a lawsuit against the city’s Civil Service Commission on behalf of 17 officers who have been disciplined but have waited an average of one year to 18 months for a hearing.

“The cases set out the situations of officers who have lost their homes, are unable to obtain employment or anything else because they can’t get hearings before the Civil Service Commission to resolve the charges against them,” Gattey said.