D.A. Doubts That Deputies Planted Knife Near Body

As public furor intensified over disclosures that Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shot a Ladera Heights man nine times in the back, the district attorney’s office announced Thursday that it now believes the deputies did not plant a knife near his dead body.

Prosecutors said a witness to the Aug. 13 shooting may have thought rubber gloves worn by some of the deputies was an object--possibly a knife--they had placed next to the body of 33-year-old Keith Hamilton.

“I believe it is sheriff’s procedure, when there is a shooting, for the deputies to put on rubber gloves,” said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. “They went back to their patrol car and put on their rubber gloves. Then, as they were leaning over the body, they could have made a gesture that looked like they were putting something under the body.

“That’s what our belief is at this time, although the investigation is continuing.”

But the man who said he saw an object placed by Hamilton’s body said he stands by his account.

“I don’t find that credible,” said Harry A. Williams Jr., a 44-year-old retired Air Force officer, when told of Gibbons’ remarks.

Williams reiterated that he saw two deputies leave and quickly return with “an object in their hands, which they also appeared to be wiping.” They then placed it “near or under the body,” he said.

On Thursday, Williams said the two deputies “weren’t gone long enough to go to a (patrol) car” to get their gloves, nor did he believe they put them on. “You don’t put on gloves like you’re rubbing your hands together.”

Carl E. Douglas, an attorney who represents Hamilton’s stepfather, charged that his law firm has often come upon instances in which weapons have been “strategically placed” after officer-involved shootings.

“I cannot accept that version” from the prosecutors, Douglas said. “It is not new to me that witnesses have alleged police have planted weapons to justify shooting people.”

An autopsy on Hamilton’s body revealed that the former mental patient was shot nine times in the back, and that several of the bullets apparently struck him as he lay “against the pavement or concrete in a face-down position.”

Deputy Pat Hunter, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman, agreed that the autopsy report “is consistent with that of our homicide investigators.”

But, he added, “of critical importance to this investigation is not only the location of the wounds but the total circumstances surrounding the shooting incident.”

Hamilton’s death is one of four recent controversial shootings by deputies that have prompted Sheriff Sherman Block to conduct an unprecedented review of his department by a citizens panel.

In the wake of the Hamilton autopsy report, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Thursday asked the citizens panel to “take on as its first order of business a thorough investigation of the Keith Hamilton incident.”

But officials in the sheriff’s office strongly suggested that the panel, which has yet to select a chairman or schedule its first meeting, is not properly equipped to conduct such an investigation.

Sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Springs noted that numerous investigations are already under way into the death, including those by the sheriff’s homicide and internal affairs units, the district attorney’s office and the FBI.

With that in mind, Springs suggested that Block’s newly created Citizens Commission on the Sheriff’s Department “did not have the expertise” to conduct a similar criminal investigation.

“We didn’t expect anyone to push them in that direction,” he said. “Nor is that their aim.”

Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, who proposed that the Block committee investigate the shooting, said the deputies should have sent a psychological evaluation team to the scene to deal with Hamilton’s mental problems.

“How did this tragic incident occur with so many sheriff’s deputies present?” Hahn asked in his motion. “Why was deadly force used when seven deputies should have been able to subdue and restrain Mr. Hamilton?”

Hamilton was known to his neighbors as someone who clearly had mental problems but seemed harmless.

He moved out of his mother’s home last Christmas and when he later reappeared, neighbors said he was shabbily dressed like a homeless person. Sometimes he would lurk in the yard, and would make people nervous, they said.

His mother, Clara Maxie, obtained a temporary restraining order in June requiring Hamilton to stay 100 yards from the home.

Shortly after 10 p.m. on Aug. 13, Maxie and her landlord telephoned the Sheriff’s Department because Hamilton was on the property. Two deputies were dispatched from the Marina del Rey station and they called for backup help.

Sheriff’s deputies said that Hamilton was uncooperative and incoherent and that, during a struggle to restrain him, he grabbed one of the deputies’ legs and was reaching for a knife in his waistband. He was shot twice with an electrical stun gun and was then shot nine times in the back by two deputies.

Some nearby residents disputed the deputies’ version and said Hamilton was not going for a knife.

One neighbor who witnessed the entire incident told The Times on Thursday that the shooting was “just short of murder.” The businessman, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, said Hamilton did not fight wildly with the deputies and did not reach for a knife in the moments before he was shot.

He said he heard “this tremendous loud shouting” and looking out his second-floor window he saw Hamilton on the concrete-covered area behind the adjacent apartment building. He said Hamilton was pointing his finger and yelling at two deputies, who were standing 10 to 12 feet away.

“They were just letting him go on,” the man recalled. “He was calling off all kinds of world leaders, talking about (Soviet leader Mikhail) Gorbachev, (former Soviet Foreign Minister) Eduard Shevardnadze. I was surprised he even knew their names. Then at one point, he said ‘Mom, if I’m going to the hospital I demand some representation, and I want it right now, damn it!’ ”

But then more deputies arrived and stood facing Hamilton, and “by this time Keith was very quiet and nervous,” the witness said. “I could see him turn his head from side to side.”

When one officer shot a Taser gun, Hamilton “didn’t fall. He stumbled and swayed a bit,” the witness said. “Immediately after one of the deputies leaped on Keith . . . Keith kind of shook him off.”

Then, the neighbor said, “it appeared to me Keith was kind of coming up out of a crouch. He never made it out of the crouch. Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop. I saw the muzzle flames. . . . Then I saw the blood.”

While sheriff’s information officers reported that Hamilton “fought wildly with the deputies” and reached for a knife, the businessman told The Times: “He did not fight wildly. The closest thing to a fight was initiated by the deputy . . . (who) jumped on Keith.”

The neighbor added: “It didn’t appear to me he was actually shot in the back. It appeared he was more shot from the side.”

He then saw deputies lay Hamilton on his stomach. Asked if he saw deputies place anything near the body, the man said he could not tell exactly what they were doing, but added: “I saw deputies pick up some things and put down some things.”

Meanwhile, Hamilton’s mother declined to discuss Thursday what she saw and heard that night. “I am so outraged,” Clara Maxie said, crying. “Every day is my worst day.”

Times staff writer Amy Pyle contributed to this story.

A Controversial Shooting

Background: On Aug. 13, a mentally disturbed man was slain by Sheriff’s Deputies outside a a Ladera Heights home. There is sharp conflict over the details.

On Wednesday, The Times obtained a copy of an autopsy report indicating that Keith Hamilton was shot nine times in the back (detail, left). The case is one of several Sheriff’s Department shootings being investigated by the FBI. Here are some of the comments:

Sheriff’s Deputies: They say they responded to a call from Hamilton’s mother, struggled with Hamilton as he “fought wildly,” and shot him as he “reached for the knife on his belt.”

Witness 1: Watching from window of house next door. Says that after the shooting, two deputies disappeared from view and returned with an object they placed “near or under” the victim’s body.

Witness 2: Watched from window of house on other side. Says he saw the officers “beat and kick” Hamilton and that “one officer hit him so hard the baton went out of his hand.”

Witness 3: Watching from same side. Says that after a sergeant shot a Taser gun, he saw Hamilton “stagger” and then start to come “up out of a crouch. He never made it. .”

SOURCE: Coroner’s autopsy, Los Angeles Times