LOS ANGELES COUNTY : Supervisors Advised to Pay $600,000 to Slain Boy’s Kin
The Los Angeles County Claims Board recommended Monday that the Board of Supervisors pay $600,000 to settle a claim by the parents of Daniel Angel Ortiz, an unarmed 15-year-old car theft suspect shot to death by a sheriff’s deputy in 1991.
An autopsy showed that Ortiz was shot in the back after a high-speed chase. Deputy Jose Belmares, now 32, said he fired a first shot at the Montebello teen-ager to prevent him from backing his car into the deputy’ patrol car, then fired four more shots in the mistaken belief that the youth was armed.
The Sheriff’s Department fired Belmares, citing his “deplorable” lack of judgment, but the county’s Civil Service Commission reinstated him. The commission later reversed its decision and Belmares is appealing that reversal, attorneys said.
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