Ticket Writer Says Fear of Area Distracted Him From Dead Body

The parking control officer who ticketed a car in Willowbrook with a dead man inside never saw the shooting victim because his attention was drawn to a man on the street whom he feared was a gang member, authorities said Saturday.

In an unusual formal statement about the highly publicized case, the county Sheriff’s Department sought to dispel any notion that the unidentified parking control officer was inattentive or insensitive when he ticketed the late model Cadillac on Piru Street just before 10 a.m. Friday.

Instead, the Sheriff’s Department said, their investigation found that the officer did not see the dead body because he was distracted by a man on the street as he quickly ticketed the car--a practice prompted by numerous threats over the years from angry motorists.

“The parking control officer who issued the ticket had received a number of threats from recipients of tickets in the past. So he issues tickets and immediately moves on,” sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Spear said, reading from the department’s prepared statement on the case.

After writing the ticket Friday morning, Spear said, the traffic officer walked toward the Cadillac and saw that its driver’s window was open, but he never looked inside the car because he was watching a man on the street he believed to be a gang member. That man, also unidentified, was staring intently at the traffic officer, who was concerned about his own safety, Spear said.

At that point, Spear said, the traffic officer “quickly approached the Cadillac, dropped the ticket on the dash and--keeping his eye on the man across the street--quickly turned around and went back to his vehicle.”

“He never looked into the car where the victim, seated in the driver’s seat, was slumped to the passenger’s side,” Spear said.

The victim has been identified as Khumasi Bridges, 46, of Los Angeles. He had been shot once in the head and had been dead for several hours when the ticket was issued.

Spear said the parking enforcement officer has been described by his superiors as “a very conscientious, excellent employee.”

After interviewing the attendant, sheriff’s homicide investigators “are all confident he just didn’t see the body,” Spear said.