Man, 71, Killed by Police Had Vowed New Life

A 71-year-old man shot and killed by police after allegedly robbing a bank Monday had promised a federal judge in 1989 that he would never appear in court again after his conviction in a Buena Park bank holdup.

Joseph Vincent Tittone made the pledge after pleading guilty to robbing a Great Western Savings Bank of $10,400 in December 1988, for which he was sent to prison, federal court records show. Tittone also was charged with two other Orange County holdups, but those charges were dropped in a plea bargain, records show.

“I assure you, regardless of what sentence you impose, I will perform . . . honorably and you, nor any court, will never see me present for committing any crime again,” Tittone wrote in a handwritten, error-filled note to U.S. Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr.

Police have released few details about Tittone’s actions during the confrontation with a trio of Anaheim officers, but witnesses said it appeared Tittone did not heed officer commands and may have pointed his weapon at police.

Tittone was shot four times in the torso and once in the foot by officers who tracked him from the scene of a bank robbery at a Wells Fargo branch back to the covered carport at his trailer in the Del Este mobile home park.

Tittone was armed only with a pellet gun, police said.

A spokesman said the officers, who have not been identified, had to make a “split-second decision” and probably had no way to distinguish Tittone’s pellet gun from a lethal weapon.