FBI Investigating Police Slaying of Woman : Violence: Civil rights inquiry will focus on Dec. 16 death of Sonji Danese Taylor, who was shot repeatedly by LAPD officers during a rooftop confrontation.

The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of a woman Dec. 16 by Los Angeles police officers who confronted her on a hospital rooftop, officials said Wednesday.

“We’ve instituted a preliminary investigation into allegations of a civil rights violation in the death of Sonji Danese Taylor,” said Special Agent John L. Hoos, a spokesman for the FBI’s Los Angeles field division. “When it is completed, results of the preliminary investigation will be forwarded to the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.”

The FBI is at least the third agency to become involved in the investigation of the shooting--in which Taylor received 10 bullet wounds, seven of them in the back. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office also is investigating, as is the LAPD’s officer-involved shooting unit.

The vast majority of officer-involved shootings or other uses of force by police officers are investigated without the involvement of the FBI, but federal agents can open a civil rights investigation if they learn of an incident and believe it merits at least a preliminary inquiry. Many investigations are sparked by complaints, but in this case, news reports about the shooting prompted the FBI to open its preliminary probe.

FBI officials would not comment Wednesday on the specifics of the Taylor case.

LAPD officials also have declined comment in detail, except to confirm that they are investigating, as is typical in any shooting involving a police officer.

“The department fully intends to conduct a thorough investigation, which will be forwarded to the chief of police and from him to the Police Commission,” LAPD Cmdr. David J. Gascon said Wednesday. “At the same time, we recognize the authority of other entities to examine such events.”

Gascon, a spokesman for the Police Department, said the LAPD opened its investigation shortly after the shooting. The results of that investigation, he added, will become public once Chief Willie L. Williams transmits them to the Police Commission. Neither Gascon nor other police officials would predict how long the LAPD inquiry might take.

In the incident under review, security guards from the St. Vincent Medical Center called police after discovering Taylor, 27, on the hospital roof. Police say she was holding a butcher knife in her left hand and her 3-year-old son in her right, and that she was shouting “For the blood of Jesus!”

Officers used pepper spray on Taylor, and said later that the gas caused her to drop the child. But, according to police, Taylor continued to threaten them with the knife. When she refused to drop it, LAPD officials say the officers fired nine shots while a number of witnesses looked on.

A coroner’s report found that Taylor had been shot 10 times--though one shot may have passed through her hand and struck her body again. Of the 10 gunshot wounds, seven hit Taylor in the back, a finding that angered Taylor’s family and her lawyer, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., who hinted Tuesday that race may have been a factor in the shooting.

The two police officers involved in the shooting--Sgt. Michael Long and Officer Craig Liedahl--are white. Taylor was black.

Cochran was unavailable for comment Wednesday, but Taylor’s grandmother, Bobbie McDonald, said she was heartened by the FBI’s interest in the case.

“I really don’t think this was right,” McDonald said. “These police officers are supposed to be trained to save people’s lives. They sprayed her, and then they still shot her. How can that be right?”

Although FBI agents will not comment on how they intend to investigate the case, civil rights inquiries typically proceed immediately, regardless of what other agencies are involved. In most cases, the federal government defers to local authorities when it comes to a possible prosecution.

That was what happened, for instance, in the March 3, 1991, beating of Rodney G. King. The district attorney’s office prosecuted its case first in state court.

It was only after the officers were found not guilty there that federal authorities reopened their investigation and eventually prosecuted the same officers in federal court. On April 17, 1993, Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and Officer Laurence M. Powell were convicted of violating King’s civil rights.

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Finding that police officers violated federal civil rights laws does not require that prosecutors prove they acted out of racial malice. In cases such as the Taylor shooting, agents generally focus on the allegation that officers intentionally used more force than was necessary--in violation of the victim’s right to be safe from the intentional use of excessive force by police.

That right is guaranteed by the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.