FBI Probes Police Killing of Truck Driver

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a preliminary investigation to determine if tow truck driver John Daniels’ civil rights were violated when he was shot to death by Los Angeles police, officials said Thursday.

Officer Douglas Iversen, 42, a 15-year veteran, shot and killed Daniels on July 1 after he allegedly refused an order to stop his truck and began to pull away from a gas station at Florence Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard.

The officer said he fired because he feared that Daniels was about to run over pedestrians, police said. But witnesses said Daniels did not pose a threat to anyone.

The shooting, less than two miles from a flash point of Los Angeles’ riots, attracted an angry crowd of more than 200 who shouted obscenities at police. Daniels was black; the two motorcycle officers involved in the shooting, Iversen and Patrick Bradshaw, 28, are white. Both officers have histories of misconduct, according to department records.

A police spokesman said that the shooting is under investigation and that Iversen has been assigned to non-field duties.

FBI spokesman John Hoos said the results of the agency’s preliminary investigation will be forwarded to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to determine whether the case will be prosecuted.

“It’s strictly a preliminary investigation to gather the facts,” Hoos said. “The results will go back East for a decision.”

The investigation was announced on the same day that a group of black ministers held a news conference at Florence and Crenshaw to call for an outside investigation of the Daniels case and the police shooting last month of Kenneth Moore, 16. Police said Moore was killed near USC after he tried to flee from officers in a stolen car.

The Rev. Carl Washington, a spokesman for the Ministers Coalition for Peace, said the FBI’s investigation was “a positive sign. We are pleased that they are listening to the concerns of people in the community.”

Washington said the coalition of ministers from six South Los Angeles churches had written a letter to the FBI and made calls to the Justice Department, the district attorney’s office and the LAPD asking for an investigation of the shootings.

“There is a great possibility that civil unrest will start up again, and we can’t afford that,” Washington said. “Police can’t keep doing these kinds of things. People want something to happen. You can only bend so far, and then they react.”