Former Officer’s Retrial Underway in Traffic Shooting
A retrial began Tuesday for a former Long Beach police officer who shot and injured a Santa Ana carpenter during a traffic dispute in September, 1991.
Jurors in the first trial of Alan B. Ice failed to reach a verdict on felony charges of assault and shooting into an occupied vehicle. Motorist Neil Cramer was shot in the shoulder after exchanging angry words and obscene hand gestures with Ice at a Fountain Valley stoplight.
Ice told jurors in the first trial last October that the shooting was an accident. He admitted he had armed himself because, he said, he feared Cramer was armed. The gun fired, he said, when his Jeep jerked forward--a mechanical problem that Ice claimed he had tried in the past to fix.
Cramer, who has since recovered from his injuries, told jurors that he was not armed at the time of the shooting but had his companion grab a hammer from the back of his truck.
Ice, a 21-year-veteran of the Long Beach police force, was fired for his role in the shooting.
A mistrial was declared Oct. 29, 1992, when jurors could not agree on a verdict.
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