Central : SANTA ANA : City to Pay Families in 2 Police Shootings

The city has agreed to pay $240,000 to the families of two teen-agers who were shot and killed by police in 1992.

The settlements were announced by City Atty. Edward J. Cooper after a closed session Monday during the regular City Council meeting.

The city agreed to pay $190,000 to the family of Jose Javier Muniz, an 18-year-old who was fatally shot by an officer as the two struggled in a Santa Ana back yard on May 17, 1992.

According to Cooper, Muniz grabbed the officer’s flashlight and threatened him with it before the officer shot him. The officer has since retired from the police force with a stress disability, Cooper said.

“The fact that the officer has a stress disability made it very hard for us to proceed with the case,” Cooper said.

At the time, witnesses at the house where the shooting occurred said they could not tell who started the altercation, but that the officer fired too many times, too quickly.

In the other case, the city agreed to pay $50,000 to the family of a 15-year-old who was fatally wounded by police.

Jose DeJesus Jimenez was shot twice in the back by Officer Steven Serrano after the teen-ager fled a gang fight near 1st and Flower streets.

At the time of the September, 1992, shooting, police said Jimenez was affiliated with a gang that had signed a peace pact, but rival gang members he encountered were not part of the pact. Jimenez fled from rival gang members, ending up crouched behind a parked car.

Police alleged that Jimenez spun around and pointed a gun at police before Serrano shot him.

But the family’s attorney, Rudolfo Ginez, said there was no forensic evidence to connect the teen-ager with the gun found near Jimenez.

Cooper said the city opted to settle the lawsuit in part because some witnesses had refused to testify, in fear of gang retaliation.