Irvine Police Cleared in Cow’s Shooting

An internal Police Department investigation has concluded that two officers acted properly when they fired 43 shots at a cow that had wandered onto the San Diego Freeway over the weekend, a city official said Thursday.

“I am satisfied that the two officers acted responsibly,” City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr. said. “It appears all department procedures were followed, and that the officers acted in the full scope of their duties.”

Brady called for the Police Department investigation earlier this week, calling the shooting “unusual.”

But after reviewing the results of the internal probe, Brady said the officers were justified in firing 43 shots from their .45-caliber semiautomatic handguns, because the cow was jolting back and forth and posed a danger to freeway drivers.

The cow’s unruly behavior made it impossible for the officers to get close enough to fire a fatal shot at the animal’s head, Brady said.

“The fact that 43 shots” were fired “under these circumstances using service revolvers doesn’t seem extraordinary,” he said.

City Councilman Barry J. Hammond stood by Brady’s conclusions, although he remained puzzled at the number of bullets fired.

“It is beyond me why it took 43 shots to do that,” Hammond said. “But those who know better than I concluded that we acted properly.”

Hammond said he was amused at the amount of attention the shooting has received. Dozens of people have called City Hall over the last few days seeking information or to state their views on the shooting.

“We’ve had calls from everyone,” he said. “There have been calls from your animal rights activists and from people with jokes to tell.”

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Both Hammond and some animal rights activists have questioned why animal control officers were not called to the scene Sunday at 2 a.m. to help get the cow off the freeway.

Brady said the officers didn’t think there was enough time to call animal control officers. Yet, he conceded, the incident might have concluded differently if officers had more powerful weapons or a tranquilizer gun.

“Maybe it could have ended differently if we had a cowboy or (animal control officers) there,” he said. “If they had used some sort of a higher-caliber weapon, it might not have necessitated 43 shots. . . . Under the circumstances, the officers acted appropriately.”

Brady stressed that the officers responded out of concern that the cow could endanger motorists on the freeway.

Although California Highway Patrol officers closed the northbound lanes of the San Diego Freeway after the cow entered traffic near Sand Canyon Avenue, southbound traffic continued to flow. The officers began firing only after the cow began moving toward the southbound lanes, Brady said. The officers only fired from certain angles so that if the bullets missed the cow, they would lodge into a dirt embankment and not hit cars or homes, he said.

Just before the shooting, a second cow had entered the freeway near Laguna Canyon Road, causing a minor accident when a car swerved to get out of the bovine’s way and hit another car, Brady said. Officers were able to lead the animal back onto grazing land.

Both cows somehow strayed from an Irvine Co.-owned ranch near Laguna Canyon Road. An Irvine Co. spokeswoman declined to release the name of the rancher who leases the land.