Witness Saw Deputies Kill Man, Discuss Alibi, Statement Claims

A man who purportedly saw sheriff’s deputies kill a 25-year-old Mexican national has said that the man was shot while lying face down in front of his own house and that the deputies afterward discussed an alibi to justify the killing.

In a statement presented by the consul general of Mexico at a news conference on Friday, the unidentified man said he saw a sheriff’s deputy shoot Jesus Vargas while he was lying a few feet from his front door in Rancho Dominguez, near Compton.

The witness was described by Consul General Jose Pescador as an American citizen who is afraid to come forward.

The man’s statement said that after Vargas was mortally wounded, one deputy said: “Don’t worry, we’re gonna say he had a gun.” A small pellet gun was later found nearby in a bag.

The witness’ statement confirmed a description of the shooting given by Vargas’ girlfriend, Alejandra Valencia, who said she watched from the doorway of her home as Vargas was shot. Vargas was not resisting arrest, she said.

The district attorney’s office, which is investigating, said it is anxious to talk to the witness.

According to Sheriff’s Department spokesmen, Deputies Kevin Keef and Marc King stopped to question Vargas and two other men late Sunday because they appeared to match the descriptions of three men involved in a shooting in a Compton bar earlier that evening. Those men were later determined to be African Americans--not Latinos like Vargas, who was born in Michoacan, Mexico, and the two other men.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said Friday that Vargas was wanted in Orange County on a $15,000 warrant in connection with a drug charge. Vargas also had six drug-related arrests under various names, said Deputy George Ducoulombier. He would not give dates or locations of the arrests. Ducoulombier said he had no information on the anonymous witness’s account.

Valencia’s lawyer accused the department of conducting a smear campaign.

Ducoulombier said a pathologist’s report has bolstered the deputies’ account. The officers involved in the shooting have said Vargas was killed in a struggle during which he lunged at a deputy’s gun. Ducoulombier said that a finding of gunshot residue on Vargas’ left hand supported their story.

At Friday’s press conference, Luis A. Carrillo, an attorney representing Valencia, read from a report by an independent pathologist who has examined Vargas’ body. The pathologist, Dr. Richard Siegler of Los Angeles, found that Vargas had been shot in the back, Carrillo said. The angle of the bullet “indicated that it was fired either from a height above or else while he was lying face down,” Carrillo said.

Siegler could not be reached for comment.

Pescador said that Jesus Silva Herzog, Mexican ambassador to the United States, has taken an interest in the case. The ambassador, who was in Los Angeles on Wednesday, has met with Valencia. The Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Relations in Mexico City has also demanded “a prompt and thorough investigation of the incident,” Pescador said.