Jury Awards $2 Million in Police Shooting

A Los Angeles jury Friday awarded $2.3 million to the family of a 16-year-old boy who was shot three times--once in the back of the head--by Compton police after a high-speed car chase through the city.

Eleven years after Luis Velasquez was killed, Superior Court jurors awarded his mother, Irma, two sisters and a brother what may be among the largest civil judgments in the state against a police department for the wrongful death of a minor, said their attorney, John C. Taylor.

“I am very grateful to the jury,” said Irma Velasquez. “I just wanted justice for my son.”

City officials could not be reached for comment.

Luis Velasquez, a junior at Dominguez High School, was killed Jan. 8, 1981, after Compton Police Officers Jasper Jackson Jr. and Brett Garland heard gunfire near Kelly Park and saw a young man carrying a rifle run to a waiting Cadillac, which then sped off. The officers gave chase and after a few blocks, the Cadillac suddenly ran out of gas and sputtered to a stop.

Garland and Jackson ordered the three people inside the car to freeze, but Velasquez got out of the back seat and took a few steps backward.

What happened next is unclear. The officers reported that Velasquez turned to face them, made a move toward his waistband and acted as though he were going to use the open car door as cover.

The officers said they fired in self-defense. However, an autopsy report later showed that Velasquez had been shot three times, once in the back of his head, once in the back of his leg and once in his forearm.

“So there was no way he could have been facing them,” attorney Taylor said. “He was doing exactly what he told witnesses he was going to do, running away.”

Velasquez was unarmed. The driver of the car was convicted in connection with the park shooting in which a youth was wounded.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office later concluded that Officers Jackson and Garland had acted in self-defense.

The officers originally were named as defendants in the civil suit, but were later dropped, Taylor said.

Jackson and Garland remain on the Compton police force.