Kin Seek Answers in 6-Month-Old Killing by Police : Law Enforcement: Terry and Christene Buck believe that an officer murdered their son in their home. Government investigators have declined to elaborate on the case.

More than six months after seeing their son shot to death by a Long Beach police officer in the foyer of their beach front home, Terry and Christene Buck are waiting for answers.

Instead of answers, only questions remain.

* A police review board decided that the May 6 shooting of James R. Buck, 31, was justified, but officials won’t explain why.

* The Civilian Police Complaint Commission concluded a review earlier this month, but it won’t say what it discovered.

* Officials in the district attorney’s office say they have not determined whether the shooting was proper because there are discrepancies in the testimonies of the Bucks and police, but they won’t discuss the conflicting accounts.

Jim Trott, an attorney for the two officers, said that they behaved properly and that the shooting occurred because one officer believed that his partner’s life was in immediate danger.

The Bucks contend that the officer murdered their son, a manic-depressive who was so weak most days that he could barely get out of bed. They want to know why it has taken so long for anyone to decide whether the officer should be punished.

“It’s been six months,” said Terry Buck, James’ stepfather. “You’d think they’d come to some resolution.”

Officials say the investigations are part of a personnel matter and cannot be discussed.

The incident began with an argument over potbellied pigs. James Buck asked if he could keep his pigs at his parents’ Alamitos Peninsula home because his landlord would not allow them in his Belmont Heights apartment. James Buck and his stepfather argued. As the dispute escalated, Christene Buck said she got nervous and called police.

She said she expected the officers to help resolve the dispute.

When the officers arrived, the younger Buck refused to let police past the door.

In a police report, Officer Edward Tolley wrote that James Buck was a “wild-eyed, incredibly strong” man who appeared intoxicated and “deeply disturbed.”

Tolley said Buck grabbed his flashlight and later his baton, repeatedly striking him and his partner, Richard Austin. The officers wrote that Buck dragged both officers into the foyer and pulled them onto the ground.

At one point, Buck appeared ready to hit Austin on the head with the baton, Tolley said. “I was certain in my mind that the suspect was going to either kill or seriously injure Officer Austin,” Tolley wrote. That’s when Tolley fired. Two rounds struck Buck in the chest, and one bullet passed through Buck’s left forearm, out his palm and into his chest.

Terry and Christene Buck dispute the officers’ story and have filed a lawsuit against Tolley, Austin, the Police Department and the City of Long Beach.

They say that when Tolley pulled out his gun and fired, Austin was holding their son down.

And they insist that their son had nothing in his hands. In fact, Christene Buck said that Tolley repeatedly struck James Buck with “the black stick.” Tolley, on the other hand, wrote in his statement that he hit James Buck “one time with my baton.”

Neither Tolley, 33, nor Austin, 27, was available for comment. Tolley has since transferred to the juvenile division as a detective, and Austin continues to work in patrol.

Tom Beck, an attorney representing the Buck family, said he plans to argue that James Buck could not have been holding anything in his left hand because the coroner’s report says one of the bullets went through his forearm and out the palm of his hand.

Trott said there may be several explanations--among them, Buck may have loosened his grip on the flashlight after the first shot, allowing the bullet to go through without striking the flashlight.

The autopsy results also showed that James Buck’s blood alcohol level was 0.18, more than twice the legal limit for drivers.

After the Bucks filed a grievance with the city’s Civilian Police Complaint Commission, it asked the Police Department to take another look at the shooting, according to Trott.

Joe Rouzan, executive director of the complaint commission, declined to explain why the panel asked for an investigation.

The Police Department recently opened an investigation into the shooting. Two weeks ago, investigators questioned the Bucks for more than four hours.

It was six months after the event and was the first time police had asked such detailed questions about the night her son was killed, Christene Buck said.

“It’s not that it’s not fresh in my mind,” she said. “I can remember exactly (the officer) backing up, pulling out his gun and saying, ‘I’m going to shoot.’ I will never forget my son’s face turning purple. But they wanted to know how long did this and that take, at what angle? How many inches away was the officer? Was it a southeast direction? I’ve never been asked these questions.”

Chief William C. Ellis said the department did not open an in-house investigation until this month because a department review board determined last spring that the shooting was within policy. He would not elaborate.

Meanwhile, the district attorney’s office, which reviews all officer-involved shootings, has not concluded whether the officers acted properly. Deputy Dist. Atty. Eloise Phillips of the special investigations division said she has found discrepancies in testimony from the officers and the Bucks.

And now, a new district attorney has been elected. Until Gil Garcetti takes office Dec. 7, “everything is on hold because of the change of power,” Phillips said.

Since the shooting, the Bucks, who have seven children and stepchildren, said that they have returned to running their aircraft hardware business in Long Beach but that living “a normal life” is not yet within grasp.

The shooting was “the hardest thing a mother could ever witness, could ever go through,” Christene Buck said.