U.S. to Review Man’s Fatal Shooting Near White House : Law enforcement: Death of the former Anaheim resident raises questions of excessive force that may have been used by police to subdue him.

The Justice Department, reflecting government concern about questions of excessive force by U.S. Park Police, said Thursday that it will review the shooting death of a man who brandished a knife in front of the White House.

The criminal section of the department’s civil rights division does not usually get involved in potential brutality cases at such an early stage, but chief department spokesman Carl Stern said that representatives of the division and of U.S. Atty. Eric H. Holder Jr.’s office agreed to review an investigation of the matter conducted by the Metropolitan Police Department.

Former Anaheim resident Marcelino Corniel, 33, the knife-wielding man shot Tuesday in the abdomen and right leg, died Wednesday night after undergoing two lengthy surgical procedures at George Washington University Hospital.

Questions were raised after a videotape of the incident, broadcast repeatedly on television here, showed Corniel standing still in front of a ring of Park Police and Secret Service officers on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. He fell to the sidewalk as he was shot.

However, an affidavit by FBI agent Scott M. Salter, filed in connection with federal charges against Corniel on Wednesday, described him carrying a large knife in his left hand and pursuing a Park Police officer shortly before he was shot.

Milton Grimes, a Newport Beach attorney who said that he would investigate Corniel’s death at the request of Corniel’s family, said: “It appears to me that he was not physically able to pose a threat to a kindergartner, much less a police officer. . . . It looks as though there was excessive force.”

However, Salter’s affidavit, throughout which Corniel’s name is misspelled, said that Park Police Officer Stephen J. O’Neill observed him in Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Corniel was sitting on blankets with four cups of McDonald’s coffee, the affidavit said, and O’Neill, recognizing him as a regular visitor to the park, “acknowledged” him and continued to make his rounds.

About half an hour later, O’Neill assumed his foot patrol assignment on the sidewalk directly in front of the White House and minutes later “observed a sudden movement from Lafayette Park which caught his attention,” Salter’s affidavit said.

O’Neill saw Corniel running toward him, holding “a large knife in his left hand. O’Neill ordered Corniel to stop and then ran to the east, away from Corniel, toward where he knew there were U.S. Secret Service Uniform Division officers stationed. Corniel pursued O’Neill, chasing him at a close distance.”

O’Neill called for help on his radio and, after running 150 feet, was joined by Secret Service officers and another Park Police officer.

“At that point, Corniel stopped and he was confronted by O’Neill and the other officers, who ordered him to drop the knife and then ordered him to lie on the ground,” Salter’s affidavit said. Corniel refused both orders and “was then shot twice by one of the other officers” who had joined O’Neill.

He then was disarmed and taken to the hospital.

White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said: “Obviously we’re saddened by anybody being killed in a random act of violence. It again underscores the nature of violence in our society and that nobody is immune.”