Investigator Backs Deputy in Fatal Off-Duty Shooting : Courts: A jury in a civil suit is told that Joe Mario Grasso was justified in killing a man who broke down his door.

An off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was justified five years ago when he killed a man who had broken into his Simi Valley condominium, a police officer who investigated the shooting testified Thursday.

The testimony came during the defense case in a civil trial over whether Deputy Joe Mario Grasso, 31, and his employer, Los Angeles County, should pay more than $5 million to the family of Jonathan Little, who was 26 at the time of his death.

The Ventura County district attorney’s office investigated the shooting, which occurred Jan. 20, 1987, and decided that Grasso acted in self-defense.

Little’s family contends that the shooting was an unnecessary and excessive use of force by Grasso, a three-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department at the time.

In the suit, the family contends that Little simply banged on the wrong apartment door while trying to find friends who would take him home.

Grasso told investigators that Little and another man knocked on the front door of his second-story condominium about 1:30 a.m. and demanded to speak with two men named Rick and Dave.

The pair began banging and kicking on the door, Grasso said, but left when informed that neither Rick nor Dave lived there.

Little soon returned, Grasso told investigators, and began threatening the off-duty deputy, who said he had by this time armed himself with his standard service revolver, a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson.

Amid a string of profanities, Little yelled that he would break down the door if Rick or Dave did not open up, Grasso said.

When Little broke through the door, Grasso shouted, “Police! Freeze!” according to Grasso’s account to investigators. Grasso said that when Little continued coming toward him, he opened fire, wounding the man and causing him to retreat toward a stairwell.

Grasso told investigators that he opened fire a second time out of fear that Little was going to return the fire when he stopped at the stairwell.

Little, who was struck four times, turned out to be unarmed. He died shortly afterward.

Investigators said they later learned that Rick and Dave were drug traffickers residing in the same Cochran Street condominium complex. Little apparently confused Grasso’s home with that of the traffickers, to whom he had reportedly given money to purchase cocaine, investigators said.

In their lawsuit, Little’s family alleges that Grasso should have defended himself in other ways and that Grasso’s weapon should not have been loaded with hollow-tipped bullets, which are known to be deadly.

But Simi Valley Police Sgt. Patricia Hopkins, who directed the investigation, testified that after interviewing Grasso, his wife, Robin, ballistics experts and others, she determined that Grasso’s actions were warranted.

Hopkins also testified that evidence gathered at the scene--such as the pieces of the broken door, which had apparently been bolted shut when Little smashed through--corroborated Grasso’s version of events.

The 12-person jury heard Grasso’s account on the first day of testimony Wednesday, when interviews taken after the shooting were played in court.

Testimony resumes today.