D.A. Finds Police Justified in Shootings

Two San Diego police officers were legally justified in killing one man and wounding two others who were in the midst of a Halloween night robbery in Mira Mesa last year, the district attorney’s office has ruled.

The officers, whose names were deleted by police from the district attorney’s report for their safety, were part of a team who staked out a Mira Mesa house after an informant said the house was going to be robbed and the inhabitants possibly killed.

Police followed four men from a San Diego house to a toy store in Mira Mesa, where one of the men bought a Halloween mask. The four then drove to the Mira Mesa house. Two officers were armed with 9-millimeter carbines and two others had shotguns.

One of the officers shot a round at Chao Tran because Tran had a pistol and was headed to an area where two officers were standing. The second officer fired two shots at Duc Ngoc Huynh because the suspect appeared to be moving toward him with a pistol in his hand.

One of the two officers--the report does not say which--said he heard gunfire and saw Son Van Nguyen holding a pistol. He said he fired once at Nguyen.

Later, officers learned that Tran had a loaded .357 magnum revolver in his waistband. Police found a loaded 9-millimeter pistol near where Nguyen had fallen. Huynh died of a single shot in the abdomen, and it was not clear whether he was armed or not.

A fourth suspect, Hung My Truong, was not injured. Truong, Nguyen and Tran were each charged with attempted robbery, all three have pleaded guilty, and each is serving a three-year state prison term.

An officer is justified in using deadly force if he or she believes it is necessary to “prevent death or great bodily injury to himself or others.”

In a second ruling released Monday by the San Diego Police Department, the district attorney’s office said Reserve Officer George Garvey and Officer Charles Fox could not be held criminally liable for shooting and injuring Clarence Wesley Hancock, who fired several rounds at both officers after a high-speed chase.

The officers said Hancock, a sailor riding in a Thunderbird sedan, zoomed past them on southbound Interstate 5 in December, and that when they caught up, Hancock, the passenger, was firing a revolver out the window.

The car, reaching about 80 m.p.h., exited the freeway and ran several red lights before stopping in a parking lot. Police said Hancock fired on them at least seven times, and that they shot back.

Hancock got out of the passenger side and ran to the driver’s side of the car. The officers said they identified themselves and told him to stop, but that he crouched and faced the officers, reaching toward his waistband.

Garvey fired at Hancock, who got into the car and drove away. He was arrested later that night at a National City hospital after he checked in for a gunshot wound in his left calf.

Garvey said he shot Hancock because he believed his life and his partner’s life “were in grave jeopardy.” Fox said he shot at Hancock while on I-5 in self-defense.

Hancock later told police he had been beaten up in a fight at the Naval Training Center and was pursuing and firing at the men who had hit him before fleeing in a taxi. Hancock has pleaded guilty to two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and admitted use of a firearm. He was sentenced to eight years in state prison.