Oxnard Officer Shoots, Kills Man After Chase

An Oxnard man with a history of narcotics arrests and mental illness was fatally shot by an Oxnard policeman Monday night after a wild car chase that ended when he rammed a patrol car, police reported Tuesday.

According to the Oxnard Police Department, Officer Jim O’Brien fired seven rounds from his 9-millimeter Beretta at James Kevin Graham, 38, of Oxnard, killing him almost instantly.

O’Brien, 33, an eight-year veteran of the Oxnard police force who last year received the county’s highest award for police valor, was immediately placed on administrative leave while the district attorney investigates the fatal shooting.

Graham’s body was found slumped in the driver’s seat of his car, a coroner’s investigator said Tuesday. And a police reconstruction of the shooting Tuesday morning placed O’Brien just a few feet from the victim.

Most police officials would not comment Tuesday when asked if any weapon was found near Graham’s body. But Oxnard Assistant Police Chief Bill Cady indicated that Graham may not have had a weapon. When asked if Graham had one, Cady answered: “Not to my knowledge.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Holmes, in charge of the investigation for the prosecutor’s office, declined to comment on the shooting. It was the first officer-involved fatal shooting in the county this year, a coroner’s spokesman said.

A police statement said that “Officer O’Brien fired approximately seven shots” from his handgun and that “several . . . rounds struck Graham in the upper body.” Authorities would not disclose how many bullets hit the victim.

Oxnard Police Lt. Jeff Young said there are no specific guidelines telling an officer when to use a weapon in potentially violent situations.

“You draw your weapon when you feel your life or the life of others is threatened,” Young said. “It’s an individual call on each officer’s part.”

Three neighbors who witnessed the shooting on Tulsa Drive said O’Brien opened fire as Graham was attempting to exit his brown 1978 Oldsmobile--and only then yelled at Graham to get out of his car.

“That’s what I was tripping over,” said Steve Colvin, 17. “They shot him and then they told him to get out of the car.”

“After they shot him, one of the police yelled ‘get . . . out of the car,’ ” said Jaime Calderon, 11, who said he also witnessed the incident.

Ray Carmel, 12, said he heard one of the officers shout after the shooting, “Put down your gun.”

All three witnesses, who live nearby, said they saw the shooting from a distance of about half a block.

Craig Stevens, an investigator for the Ventura County coroner’s office, said Graham was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:10 p.m., about 21 minutes after the shooting.

Stevens said the body was found slumped in the driver’s seat still in a sitting position. An autopsy was scheduled to be performed today.

Investigators were still at the shooting scene Tuesday morning attempting to re-enact the incident. One clasped his hands together around a make-believe handgun, pointing it at the victim’s car as if to show where O’Brien was standing when the shooting occurred.

Last year, O’Brien was given the county Peace Officers Assn.’s highest honor, the Medal of Valor, for pulling a woman from the line of fire during an October, 1990, police shootout in Oxnard.

But in that same year, O’Brien was cited by eight men as one of several officers who allegedly beat them up when police attempted to shut down a private party in Oxnard.

When O’Brien worked in the agency’s K-9 unit two years ago, his dog, Max, was the subject of controversy. In 1990, a family was awarded almost $60,000 when Max bit their boy while they were visiting O’Brien’s house. Also in 1990, a $100,000 damage claim was levied against the city when Max allegedly jumped out of a K-9 unit car and bit both a police officer and a crime suspect.

Cady described O’Brien Tuesday as “a conscientious officer, real involved in some innovative programs.”

A veteran Oxnard police official who requested anonymity said O’Brien “is not seen as a hothead or anything like that. I don’t see him as a brutal officer.”

O’Brien could not be reached for comment.

Police said the fatal sequence of events began when they responded to a call of a suspicious vehicle parked for more than half an hour in the 4700 block of Tulsa Drive, a neighborhood of neat homes not far from farm fields.

Moana Pele, 15, said a tall, husky man--Graham stood 6 feet 2 inches and weighed 235 pounds, according to the coroner’s office--had parked his car in front of her cousin’s house and appeared to be smoking a crack cocaine pipe.

“He had a scruffy beard and was wearing a short-sleeve blue shirt,” she said.

What was startling, said Moana’s cousin, Meghan, 12, was that Graham was not wearing any pants and was sneaking glances into the house and acting erratically. She said that when her uncle couldn’t chase him away, they called for police help.

Responding to the call were Officers O’Brien and Martin Ennis in separate cars. According to Meghan Pele, Graham had thrown his crack pipe onto their lawn and was putting on his jeans in his car when the police arrived.

When O’Brien and Ennis approached the vehicle, she said, Graham suddenly drove away, sideswiping Ennis’ car.

The two police cars then sped after Graham’s auto, which eventually raced west on Sanford Street, then south on Tulsa Drive, until Graham was cornered in a cul-de-sac in the 5000 block of Tulsa Drive, which backs up to a farm field.

According to witnesses, Graham then made an abrupt U-turn and slammed head-on into Ennis’ car. Police said Ennis did not fire any rounds at the victim.

“Department records indicate that Graham had a history of mental illness and narcotic violations,” a police statement said. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Motor Vehicles said Graham had been driving on an expired driver’s license since 1987.

In a recent interview with The Times, O’Brien, who moved to Oxnard in 1968, said he considered himself an expert on Oxnard’s street gangs. He said the life of the street cop was much more dangerous today than in past years.

“Everybody has a weapon,” he said. “I’m a lot more cautious than when I started. It has to do with knowing danger.”