Officer Cleared in Valley Man’s Fatal Shooting

A rookie Oxnard police officer who shot and killed a suspected car thief last April acted in self-defense and did not commit any crime, the Ventura County district attorney’s office concluded Wednesday.

After a 2 1/2-month investigation, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard E. Holmes found that Officer Patrick Dolan fired only after 20-year-old Alfonso Bravo--an alleged gang member from Los Angeles--pointed a gun at him.

“One can hardly imagine a more life-threatening situation to a police officer,” Holmes concluded in a 15-page report.

Oxnard police officials said they were satisfied with the decision.

“From the time the shooting occurred, it appeared that it was justifiable,” Assistant Chief Tom Cady said. “I think we’re just very lucky the officer wasn’t injured in the incident. The facts show that he was in great danger.”

Dolan, who had only been on the force nine months at the time of the shooting, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. He was placed on paid leave for about two weeks after the shooting and then returned to duty.

Bravo, a Van Nuys resident, stole a 1988 Mustang GT from a Studio City parking garage on April 18, police said.

A week later, Dolan spotted him driving the car erratically near Silver Strand beach in Oxnard about 1:30 a.m.

After a three-mile high-speed chase, Bravo jumped out of the car on Wooley Road while the vehicle was still running and Dolan went after him. The car jumped a curb and crashed into a concrete wall, police said.

Officers who later searched the Mustang found the car’s ignition had been torn out, the exterior lock on the driver’s side had been removed, and an anti-theft device was lying on the passenger’s seat, according to the report.

Dolan ordered Bravo to stop, but he continued to flee through the residential area. After Bravo climbed a wooden fence in the 3000 block of Taffrail Lane, Dolan attempted to follow suit when he saw Bravo crouched in the side of the yard, pointing a gun at him.

Dolan said he fell back onto the street side of the fence, crouched, and fired three shots through the fence in self-defense, according to the report. Investigators later determined he actually fired four shots.

Shortly after he heard Bravo say, “I’m shot,” and groan, Dolan called the police dispatcher and other officers arrived at the scene.

In the meantime, Bravo apparently tried to scale another fence and escape but was injured too badly. He fell inside the fence, dropping his gun--which was loaded and cocked with the safety removed--on the other side, according to the report.

He was found dead by police shortly afterward. An autopsy found that Bravo died of gunshot wounds to his torso, thigh and forearm.

After interviewing witnesses, including relatives of Bravo, and examining coroners’ and police investigators’ reports during his probe, Holmes concluded that the case was a justifiable homicide.

“Officer Dolan knew that he had cornered a fleeing felon who suddenly produced a firearm and pointed it at him,” the prosecutor said.

In a passage on Bravo’s background, Holmes said the dead man was known to carry guns and had been considered a suspect in a series of armed robberies in the San Fernando Valley.

“The activities attributed to Mr. Bravo on April 25, 1994, are perfectly consistent with his past behavior,” Holmes wrote. “Bravo was a known member of the Valerio Street gang with a nickname of ‘Temper,’ which even he acknowledged was well-deserved.”

Holmes added that when a coroner’s investigator described the circumstances of Bravo’s death to the man’s mother, she responded that “knowing her son, she believed he would have shot the officer.”