Report Blames Officer’s Death on Mistakes

A series of mistakes led to the accidental shooting death of Oxnard Police SWAT Officer James Rex Jensen by a fellow team member in March, according to a report made public by the Ventura County district attorney’s office Wednesday.

The 48-page report faults the SWAT team for shoddy surveillance and poor planning but ultimately puts responsibility on Sgt. Dan Christian, who shot and killed his friend and colleague in the March 13 raid.

The report concludes that Jensen was shot in the back, contradicting earlier police accounts of the accidental shooting.

But the analysis of the dawn raid by Richard Holmes, who supervises the major crimes division for the district attorney’s office, concludes that not enough evidence exists to prosecute Christian for criminal negligence.

“It’s a nebulous legal definition . . . but for criminal negligence we must show that the act was akin to recklessness, and we cannot make that conclusion here,” Holmes said Wednesday.

The report also states that:

* No one did surveillance of the condominium for five days before the raid.

* The team did not conduct a “walk-through” beforehand.

* The team was told that the individuals in the condominium were armed and dangerous, which may have unnecessarily heightened their sense of danger.

* The team misread the floor plan, leading to confusion during the raid.

The report also revealed that Christian had trace levels of the antispasmodic drug phenobarbital in his blood. However, it concludes that Christian probably took the drug at least a week before the raid and that it had no bearing on the shooting.

The report also faults Jensen, 30, for rushing too quickly ahead of his partner Christian as they stormed the apartment.

Jensen’s widow, Jennifer Jensen, took issue with the latter conclusion at a news conference, saying that the district attorney’s office had altered its findings to appease the Oxnard Police Department.

She said the evidence shows that her husband, a five-year veteran of the force who had been on the SWAT team seven months, worked by the book and that the only mistakes made were those of the SWAT team planners and Christian.

“My husband didn’t do anything wrong,” she said, adding that she saw a draft of the report two weeks ago and that the version released Wednesday was changed after the Oxnard Police Department saw it.

“I feel the earlier report exonerated Jim and this one . . . indicates that somehow Jim did something wrong,” she said.

Jennifer Jensen said the report clearly shows that her husband followed procedure, contrary to what police said after the shooting.

The district attorney’s report contradicts the Police Department’s account of the shooting on several significant points. Police speculated that Jensen made the fatal mistakes that led to his shooting.

But the district attorney’s report also finds mistakes made by the SWAT team planners and Christian.

In the weeks after the shooting, Oxnard police officials said Jensen threw a flash-bang diversionary grenade in the hallway of the condominium, then rushed into the upstairs apartment ahead of his team and into a bedroom.

Then, those officials said, Jensen--going against standard tactics that call for officers to “take and hold” their positions--stepped out of the room into the smoke-filled hallway.

Although only a few feet away, Christian could not identify his partner, who was wearing a helmet and SWAT team uniform, in the smoke and mistook him for an armed suspect, shooting him three times.

The district attorney’s report shows that Jensen was shot in the bedroom--not the hallway--and that he was shot twice in the back before being swung around by one of the blasts. A third shot struck him in the side.

The report also indicates that an officer behind Christian--SWAT team member Ron Whitney--saw and recognized Jensen before Christian fired his shotgun. Whitney watched in bewilderment as Christian looked at Jensen and yelled for him to “get down.”

“I don’t know if it was my mind playing tricks on me after the whole thing was said and done or if I was actually thinking it at the time, I, I don’t know a hundred percent, but I was think--but I think I recall me thinking, ‘Why is Danny um, doing that because that’s Jim?’ ” Whitney told investigators after the shooting.

Oxnard police officials would not comment on the matter because of Jennifer Jensen’s planned lawsuit.

Reached Wednesday morning at the department, where he is working in the property crimes division, Christian said only, “I have no comment for you.”

On the advice of his attorney, Christian did not cooperate with the district attorney’s investigation.