Officer Is Exonerated in Homeless Man’s Death : Oxnard: The policeman shot the unarmed victim, believing the man was trying to run him down with a car, D.A. concludes.

The Ventura County district attorney on Friday cleared an Oxnard police officer in the close-range fatal shooting of an unarmed homeless man who led police on a brief car chase through an Oxnard residential neighborhood.

Officer Jim O’Brien was justified in firing seven rounds from his 9-millimeter handgun at James Kevin Graham on Aug. 3 because Graham was trying to run him down with his car, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Holmes said.

Graham, who had a history of mental illness and narcotics arrests, was killed behind the wheel when O’Brien fired the three final shots from about five feet away.

The car was stopped at that moment, but Holmes said the autopsy showed that the 38-year-old man was leaning to the right when O’Brien fired the fatal shots.

“If you ask a police officer, they’ll tell you it could be an indication that they’re reaching for a weapon,” Holmes said.

O’Brien, who returned to patrol duty Aug. 16, refused to comment Friday.

Holmes said O’Brien, a police officer for eight years, has also declined to cooperate with the district attorney’s office. O’Brien was the only one to see the chase from start to finish, Holmes said, so district attorney’s investigators had to reconstruct the incident with physical evidence and witnesses who saw only part of the chase, he said.

Joe Graham, the victim’s brother, said he was not surprised that the report exonerated O’Brien.

“The D.A.’s office works daily with police agencies to prosecute criminals,” he said.

Graham, a lawyer in Camarillo, said he would almost certainly sue the city of Oxnard, its Police Department and O’Brien. He said he is consulting with other lawyers and has not decided whether to pursue a case in state or federal courts.

Graham questioned the tone of the district attorney’s report, which was highly critical of his brother’s mental state and criminal record.

“I know they tried to paint a terrible picture of my brother, but I think the bottom line is that there are thousands of homeless people who are mentally ill on the streets.

“At what point in time is the Oxnard Police Department or any law enforcement agency going to recognize that they have to deal with mentally ill people differently than common criminals?”

Holmes said initially that he too believed the fatal shooting appeared unjustified.

“It seemed to me that this case presented more shooting difficulties,” he said, than any other one in his 20 years as a Ventura County prosecutor.

According to Holmes’ 30-page report, the shooting escalated from a car chase that began on Tulsa Drive in Oxnard. Officers Martin Ennis and O’Brien went to Tulsa Drive, responding to complaints that Graham was allegedly smoking cocaine and exposing himself in the neighborhood.

Confronted by the police, Graham drove away with the officers in pursuit. When O’Brien’s patrol car cornered Graham in a cul-de-sac, O’Brien got out of his car.

Two people who were across the street told investigators that they saw Graham drive his car straight at the officer.

Investigators said O’Brien fired four shots at the car, one of which penetrated the driver’s door and hit Graham in the upper left thigh. The last three shots were fired at close range, and Graham died in the driver’s seat, the report said.

According to the report, Ennis arrived at the scene just as O’Brien finished shooting and O’Brien told him, “The guy tried to run me over! Did you see it?”

Holmes said O’Brien’s statement was crucial to establishing that O’Brien thought he was in great danger.

“The officer acted in self-defense in arresting a dangerous, fleeing felon, and in such circumstances you are allowed to use deadly force,” he said.

Oxnard Police Chief Harold Hurtt said: “We feel a certain amount of relief that we can bring some finality to this situation. It’s very stressful for everyone involved.”

O’Brien was placed on administrative leave on the night of the shooting and has returned to patrol duty after visiting a psychiatrist, police said.

“It was a regrettable incident,” Hurtt said. “The last thing we want to do is to take another life, but it is our business and the officer was reacting to what he saw as a threat.”

The department is conducting an internal investigation of the shooting, which is almost completed, Hurtt said.

Last year, O’Brien, 33, received the county’s highest award for police valor. He had pulled a woman from the line of fire during a police shootout in October, 1990.

But during the 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.

Times staff writer Ron Soble contributed to this story.