VENTURA : D.A. Backs Officer in Fatal Shooting

A Ventura police officer’s shooting of an armed man during an April 30 disturbance was “a clear-cut case of justifiable homicide,” according to a district attorney’s report issued Friday.

Ventura Police Cpl. Ken Corney shot and killed Owen E. Spring II when Corney and another officer responded to a disturbance at a boardinghouse on College Drive, according to the report.

The report gives this account:

Two residents of the house began fighting, and the fight moved outside to the front yard. Spring, a friend of one of the combatants, aimed his .357 magnum at the other fighter but went back inside the house without shooting. Another resident called 911 and said he thought a shot had been fired--a report that was relayed to the officers.

The officers subdued the two fighters but they still did not know if any shots had been fired, according to the report. Then Spring appeared at the front door, holding the .357.

Corney identified himself as a police officer and ordered Spring to drop his weapon. Instead of dropping the firearm, the report said, Spring raised his arm as if to shoot, and Corney fired once with a shotgun.

Spring was hit by a single shotgun pellet that lodged in his brain, killing him almost instantly.

“A reasonable man in such circumstances cannot be expected to either fire a warning shot, inquire further or issue duplicate commands,” the report said. “Under California law, Cpl. Corney was fully justified in firing his shotgun at Owen Spring.”

Corney and his partner, Officer Ron Zavala, were placed on administrative leave immediately after the shooting but returned to work a short time later.