Man Slain by Police Had Violent Past : Investigation: The family of Roberto Segovia had complained often to police about threats from the violence-prone alcoholic and heroin addict.

The homicide lieutenant investigating a fatal police shooting of a man armed with a closed 6-inch safety pin said Friday the shooting was appropriate because the man had a violent history and, moments before, ordered a large pit bull to attack the officer.

But one of the victim’s sisters told The Times police had no right to kill her brother.

“He was killed within his own house without a warrant,” said Diane Segovia. “We will be contacting our attorneys and then talking to the press at a later time.”

Roberto Segovia, 34, was shot to death Thursday night after police came to his San Ysidro home in the 4100 block of Enero Street to serve a court order requested by his family to bar him from their house, Lt. Dan Berglund said.

Berglund gave the following account of what led to the shooting:

Segovia was at home when two officers--Steve Riddle and Mark Gain--arrived, but Segovia barricaded himself in his bedroom. Gain waited outside the house while Riddle tried to talk Segovia out of the bedroom. The officers both said they heard Segovia scream that he wouldn’t be taken alive.

The bedroom door opened, and the pit bull charged Riddle, who was standing in the kitchen. The dog missed Riddle, slid on the kitchen linoleum, then turned to make another run at the officer. The officer killed the dog after firing three times.

At that moment, Segovia appeared to Riddle’s left with something “shiny” in his raised hand. Riddle fired one round, hitting Segovia in the chest. He was pronounced dead nearly two hours later at UC San Diego Medical Center.

Berglund’s homicide investigators are examining the case and will then turn the findings over to the district attorney’s office. But he said it looks like police followed proper department guidelines.

“Right now I don’t see any problems with it other than the fact that he had a large safety pin in his hand,” he said. “It would have been better if the pin had been opened. It would have made a cleaner shoot. But (Riddle) visualized a knife.”

The rush of events leading up to the shooting--the officers knowing his violent history, an earlier report from his family that he had threatened them with a steak knife and the dog charging the officer--all “loaded up (Riddle’s) adrenaline real quick,” Berglund said.

Police had been acquainted with the Segovia home because the family had complained many times to San Diego police about Roberto, whom they said was a violence-prone heroin addict and alcoholic.

On Wednesday night, officers visited the home twice. Diane Segovia and Carmine Castellon, Segovia’s sisters, called to say he banged Castellon’s head into a wall, pulled telephone lines out of the wall and was armed with an 8-inch steak knife. Segovia left the house before police arrived, police said.

Later that night, Segovia returned and cut the outside telephone lines. The police were called from a neighbor’s home and the sisters locked themselves in their bedroom. The officers met Segovia and determined he was drunk, but Segovia escaped on a bicycle.

The sisters and their mother, Rosa Maria, spent Wednesday night in a hotel and the next day obtained a court order keeping Segovia from coming back to the house. According to the temporary restraining order, Castellon asserted that Segovia was an alcoholic and heroin addict who had often physically assaulted the family. She described him as “violent, unstable and erratic.”

Riddle and Gain attempted to serve the court order about 5 p.m. Thursday. They saw Segovia outside the house, and he ran inside when he spotted the police.

Berglund said Riddle and Gain were prepared to arrest Segovia on a felony charge for ripping the telephone wires out of the wall. Riddle is 27, with 3 1/2 years in the department. Gain is 25, with two years’ experience.

Neither has been involved in another shooting.

Last year, San Diego police shot and killed 12 people and injured 16 in the line of duty. Segovia is the second person fatally shot by police this year. Last year at this time, police had shot 14 people, five fatally.

According to department guidelines, an officer is justified in shooting if he fears for his life or the life of another. The district attorney’s office has not criminally charged an officer in a shooting for seven years.