Officer Shot Kneeling Men, Brother Says : Courts: Testimony on two deaths disputes Compton policeman’s report that he fired in self-defense.

Right before two brothers were killed by a Compton police officer, one of them asked the officer to “handcuff him and take him to the station so he could talk to him,” a third brother testified Wednesday.

Ieti Tualaulelei, who testified that he watched the Feb. 12 incident from the kitchen window of the family home, said Officer Alfred Skiles Jr. did not handcuff Pouvi Tualaulelei.

Instead, he said, the officer ordered Tualaulelei, 34, and his brother Itali, 22, to kneel, and then fired a barrage of gunfire at them.

Ieti Tualaulelei’s testimony came as the officer’s preliminary hearing started in Municipal Court. Skiles, who has been charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter, is the first law enforcement officer in Los Angeles County in nearly a decade to be charged in a killing. He is free on $35,000 bail.

In his testimony, Ieti Tualaulelei said that after Skiles fired the first shots, he walked closer to the brothers and let loose another barrage, at one point reloading his 9-millimeter pistol.

The brothers were hit a total of 20 times.

“He started shooting when they were kneeling,” Ieti Tualaulelei said during cross-examination by Skiles’ lawyer, George Franscell. “Nobody was threatening him.”

The shootings sparked protests in the Samoan-American community.

Skiles, 44, did not take the stand at the hearing before Municipal Judge Elva R. Soper. But another officer testified that Skiles told him on the night of the shootings that he fired in self-defense after one of the brothers tried to take his weapon.

Under questioning by Franscell, Dr. Eugene Carpenter, a county medical examiner, testified that gunpowder residue had been found on both of Pouvi Tualaulelei’s hands. Franscell contended that the only explanation is that the dead man had been trying to take the gun or was very near it.

Carpenter testified that he did not know where the gunpowder came from or how it got on the victim’s hands.

After the hearing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Healey said that when numerous bullets are fired in rapid succession, gunpowder residue is “found on the ground, in the air and everywhere.”

Officer Frederick Reynolds also testified Wednesday.

Reynolds said that when he answered a call for assistance at the Tualauleleis’ address, he found Skiles walking away from the bodies with his hair “sticking up in the air” and his shirt uncustomarily open.

“I grabbed his arm and asked him what happened,” Reynolds said. “He said: ‘One of them tried to take my gun. They tried to kill me. I think I killed them.’ ”

Skiles had been on patrol alone and had responded to a call of a domestic dispute from Julie Tualaulelei, Pouvi Tualaulelei’s wife.

In his testimony, Ieti Tualaulelei said an argument between Skiles and his brothers began after Pouvi Tualaulelei ordered Skiles off his property and Skiles swore at him.

After the hearing, which will resume Dec. 13, Soper must determine if there is enough evidence for Skiles to stand trial.

The Tualaulelei family has also filed a civil lawsuit against Skiles and Compton Police Chief Terry Ebert, seeking $100 million in punitive damages.