FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Shooting Victim’s Kin Criticize Police

Relatives of a theft suspect shot to death by police as he was fleeing a drugstore criticized the police action Wednesday, saying the man could have been stopped without a fatal confrontation.

Salvador E. Acosta, 29, was not perfect, family members said, but “it does not justify gunning him down like an animal,” said Ramon Vasquez Jr., his older brother.

“They could have just pulled him out of the car,” added Ray Vasquez III, 16, Acosta’s nephew.

Acosta ran from a Thrifty drugstore and across a strip mall parking lot about 6 p.m. Tuesday, clutching aspirin and some other over-the-counter medications he allegedly stole, according to police and witnesses. He jumped into a 1987 Oldsmobile and tried to speed away but a pair of uniformed police officers pulled their unmarked car into his path, police said.

The officers got out of their car, pointed their handguns at Acosta and shouted repeatedly for him to surrender, authorities said. Acosta backed up his car and then quickly accelerated toward them, police said.

One officer had to jump out of the way of the oncoming car and both officers fired several times, killing Acosta at the scene, Sgt. Lee Pepka said, adding that the officers fired in self-defense. The officers, whose names were not released, were not injured.

The drugstore and other businesses in the strip mall at Harbor Boulevard and Edinger Avenue have been the target of several robberies in the last two weeks, police said.

In response to the thefts, Thrifty officials had placed a sketch of a suspect by the store’s front door. Family members said they thought police mistook Acosta for the man portrayed in the sketch.

Police and investigators with the district attorney’s office, who routinely investigate shootings involving police officers, declined to say whether Acosta was armed or whether officers acted within department policy during the shooting.

“I don’t know if we can make that determination yet,” Pepka said.

Family members, meanwhile, mourned Acosta’s death and said the newly hired Southern California Edison employee and father of a 5-year-old girl was nonviolent and did not like trouble.

“Why he took what he took we don’t know,” said Juanita Vasquez, Acosta’s sister-in-law. “It was wrong for him to not stop, but they didn’t have to shoot like they did.”

“This is too little (a matter) to kill my son,” said his mother, Celestina Acosta, 72. “I’m not mad. This just hurts.”

Celestina Acosta said her son was an occasional drug user and had been in trouble with the law once before, when he was arrested last month for not paying traffic tickets for moving violations. Acosta has no further criminal record in Orange County, according to court files. Acosta was released from County Jail on March 8 and shortly afterward began working with the public utility, family members said.

Acosta’s mother, standing in front of a picture of Jesus Christ in her son’s room, said, “I swear to you before Christ that he was never a rebel, he did not have disputes with anyone.”