Haste in a Murder’s Aftermath

The announcement that a suspect was arrested in Houston Wednesday in last weekend’s fatal shooting of a California Highway Patrol officer in Fullerton followed days of tragic and bizarre developments.

Don J. Burt, the rookie cop slain during a traffic stop, was the first CHP officer killed on duty in Orange County since the 1960s. The shooting underlines the hazards that officers face even on routine assignments.

The murder of an officer always generates a heated investigation. Police naturally want to make a quick arrest. In this case, however, there are questions about the tactics of officers. Some critics are accusing them of being overeager in arresting a man almost solely on the basis of a very general description of the assailant, who was seen by many people but only from a distance.

Horrified diners at a Coco’s restaurant in Fullerton saw the shooting, and there were other witnesses miles away in Anaheim, where the gunman abandoned the officer’s car. However, the descriptions of the killer as an Asian male had the potential to place a very large number of men in the pool of early suspects, and this apparently is what happened.

Over a two-hour period late last Saturday, police drove witnesses past Young Ho Choi, a 32-year-old Korean who was seized by police in the area where the police car was ditched. Officers stood Choi against a wall and shined a police car spotlight on him as the witnesses passed by. Some said they thought Choi was the man who did the shooting. Choi was subsequently placed under arrest by Fullerton police. On Monday he was released without explanation. Meanwhile, as certainty evaporated into doubt, the real killer had more time to escape.

Police must work with the best information available in a developing situation, and they necessarily must rely on witnesses. This case demonstrates how hasty judgment can arise from the professed “certainty” of observers.

The case also illustrates that police need layered procedures and better training so that witnesses do not stereotype suspects when members of a minority are questioned or stopped. Precise identification is the goal. Concerns of this sort have been raised before in Orange County, including when local police stopped and photographed Asian youths and others for gang “mug” files in Fountain Valley, Garden Grove and Westminster.

The Korean American Assn. of Orange County wants to meet with local police to discuss the arrest of Choi and to try to prevent similar occurrences. This kind of dialogue can be helpful for law enforcement agencies throughout Southern California. When a young law enforcement officer is shot dead, no one wants to compound the tragedy.