Deputy Who Killed Man Is Cleared : Inquiry: Sheriff’s Department internal probe finds he acted within guidelines in shooting gang member during confrontation at Ramona Gardens housing project.

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed a teen-ager at the Ramona Gardens housing project last summer acted within department guidelines for the use of deadly force, an internal investigation has determined.

Deputy Jason Mann, who fired the fatal shot, and his partner, Deputy Dana Ellison, had been cleared of any “criminal culpability” in earlier investigations by the sheriff’s homicide bureau, the district attorney’s office and the county grand jury.

Mann’s shooting of Arturo (Smokey) Jimenez on Aug. 3 led to a tense, five-hour standoff between housing project residents and law enforcement officers.

Jimenez, a gang member, became involved in an argument with Mann as they stood face to face in a commons near the housing project’s eastern edge.

Gang members who had surrounded Mann and Ellison insisted later that Mann fired for no reason and without warning, hitting Jimenez, 19, in the chest three times. A sheriff’s spokesman maintained that Mann was protecting himself from Jimenez, who allegedly had grabbed another deputy’s flashlight and was about to assault them.

In the first few minutes after the shooting, gang members pelted the deputies with rocks and bottles. Several youths drove a fence post through a squad car window, one witness said.

“Ellison was knocked down with a beer bottle,” department spokesman Sgt. Bob Stoneman said Tuesday. “His flashlight was taken from him and Jimenez was about to strike him with it when Mann fired.”

Stoneman said the deputies were alone and a large crowd had gathered. The deputies had entered the project, which is in the Los Angeles Police Department’s jurisdiction, chasing a speeding auto.

The Sheriff’s Department’s internal investigation did not begin until after the other investigations concluded, Stoneman said. The Jimenez family and their attorneys could not be reached for comment.