Officers’ Shooting of Driver Called ‘Justifiable Homicide’

The Orange County district attorney’s office announced Friday that it will not file charges against four officers involved in the Valentine’s Day chase and fatal shooting of Korean national Hong Il Kim.

A four-month investigation by the office concluded that the officers--two plainclothes detectives from Orange and one officer each from Westminster and the California Highway Patrol--were justified in firing “some 30 shots” at Kim after a 32-mile chase that ended in the city of Orange.

The fatal shot struck Kim, 27, above the left eye, the investigation found.

“In legal terms, it was a justifiable homicide,” Assistant Dist. Atty. John Conley said. “It’s basically self-defense.”

Angela Oh, a Los Angeles attorney representing Kim’s family, said she expected the finding.

“While the result is disappointing, it is not surprising,” she said. “It is consistent with what we know is this district attorney’s decision involving almost all of these cases.”

Rodney Chai, Kim’s brother-in-law, said the family had been prepared for the decision.

“The Orange County district attorney has never prosecuted any police officers in any wrongful death,” he said. “This shooting was improper. This shooting wasn’t right. The D.A.’s office decision is just out of line.”

The district attorney’s office, which investigates all officer-involved shootings in Orange County, has not filed charges in any of the last 56 homicides attributed to police.

The televised pursuit drew international attention after police were shown firing at Kim, whose Toyota 4-Runner appeared to be boxed in with cars on each side, two police cruisers behind, a concrete wall in front, and officers with guns drawn surrounding him.

The 32-minute chase began when a Westminster patrol officer spotted Kim driving recklessly. Kim refused to pull over and led up to a dozen police officers on a chase that reached speeds of 95 mph.

The caravan of police cruisers followed Kim into the parking lot of an Orange mini-mall, where they eventually cornered his 4-Runner, ramming it into a parking space with their patrol cars. With no way for Kim to escape, the four officers circled the truck on foot with guns drawn. Two plainclothes Orange detectives stood in front, with a CHP officer to the side and a Westminster officer behind.

When Kim put his vehicle in gear and began moving forward, one of the officers in front opened fire, followed by the officers at the side and rear.

Conley said a video of the incident shows that the two Orange detectives were clearly in fear for their lives when they fired at Kim.

Five experts on the use of deadly force who reviewed a videotape of the shooting at the request of The Times in March said the shooting was avoidable and that the officers committed a series of tactical errors that cost Kim his life.

Orange Police Chief John R. Robertson said the district attorney’s decision came as no surprise.

“We were very confident that the D.A. would find no criminal wrongdoing. We’ve looked at this over and over and over again,” Robertson said. “If you look at the evidence and you look at it with your head rather than your heart, I think you’d reach the same conclusion.”

The video of the shooting is easy to “misjudge” if viewed emotionally, but “if you can look at it from the perspective of the officers, you can see that they had no choice,” Robertson said.

But deadly force experts who reviewed the tape said the officers clearly had a choice: They could have moved out of the way.

“In terms of the officers’ need to shoot this person, there was none,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a University of South Carolina criminal justice professor. “They never should have been in front of the car in the first place. . . . You take cover and wait for him to come out.”

Chai and Oh said Friday that the family still intends to file a civil lawsuit and the FBI is investigating the shooting to see if Kim’s civil rights were violated.

“Hopefully, the U.S. attorney can prosecute these officers,” Chai said. “No matter what, we will go all the way. This is just outrageous.”

Times staff writer Lee Romney contributed to this story.