Police Identify Man Fatally Shot in Chase

A man who was shot and killed by Los Angeles police after striking an officer with his truck as he tried to ram his way through rush-hour congestion was identified Tuesday as Jose Luis Mendoza, 26, of West Hills, but why he fled so determinedly from a traffic stop remains a mystery, authorities said.

Mendoza was on probation for a felony drug trafficking charge and had $600 in small bills in his possession when he was shot Monday, according to police. However, LAPD spokesman Lt. Anthony Alba said there was no evidence that Mendoza, who worked in a Mexican restaurant owned by his family, had broken any laws apart from running a stop sign--the traffic violation that initiated a chase.

According to police, Mendoza was aiming his pickup truck at another officer when he was shot.

“The officer feared for his safety and the safety of others,” said LAPD spokesman Lt. Anthony Alba. “It appears he was justified in using deadly force.”

About 4:40 p.m., Mendoza’s pickup truck was stopped by Officer Jeff Callado for failing to yield at a stop sign. But as Callado approached the vehicle, Mendoza backed into the officer, nearly running him over, Alba said.

Mendoza then led police on a 20-minute slow-speed chase through surface streets on the western edge of the San Fernando Valley, driving in the wrong lane and hitting a parking sign along the way. About 5 p.m., Mendoza, traveling north on Canoga Avenue, got stuck in rush-hour traffic.

That is when, according to police and at least one witness, Mendoza began ramming cars out of his way to get through the gridlock.

“I was the very first car to get hit,” said one witness who asked not to be named. “I heard sirens, but I couldn’t tell where they were coming from. Then he hit me in my back-rear.”

The pickup passed the witness’ car and continued to barrel through traffic, sideswiping several cars, driving on a sidewalk and ramming another car until Mendoza reached a tunnel under the Ventura Freeway, the witness said. There the truck drove straight toward Officer Timothy Olsen, who fired one round through the driver’s side window, striking Mendoza in the upper body, Alba said.

The witness said she did not see the shot fired, but heard its report echo in the tunnel.

“That’s when he crashed,” she said. “He was going full speed--as much speed as he could gather from one side of the road to the other. He looked like a crash dummy when he hit the wall.”

Brian Thompson, 25, a close family friend who had lived with Mendoza for 10 years, said he could not believe his eyes when he saw the car chase on television.

“Jose’s a good guy,” said Thompson, speaking of his dead friend. “This whole thing kind of puzzled me because he’d never done anything like this before.”

Thompson, a self-professed former gang member, said he has an inherent distrust of the police and was reserving judgment until all the facts are known. Thompson said he was disturbed by the remarks of an LAPD officer who came to his house shortly after the shooting.

Senior Lead Officer George Aguilar said he and Officer Dino Campondonico had traced the truck’s license plate to the house and suspected it had been stolen. In order to determine the ownership of the vehicle, the officers questioned Thompson and Mendoza’s sister-in-law about the truck shortly after the shooting.

Thompson and Mendoza’s sister-in-law, unaware of Mendoza’s death at the time, asked: “Is Jose in any trouble?”

At that point, Thompson said, the officers looked at each other and Campondonico smirked.

“Yeah, he’s in trouble,” said Aguilar in a sarcastic manner, according to Thompson.

“The cops who come to your door are not supposed to be regular patrol officers,” Thompson said. “They’re supposed to be trained to deal with the public and to have some tact. He was smirking like it was some kind of inside joke. They need to show a little more professionalism.”

But Aguilar denied he had exhibited any sarcasm or made the remark attributed to him. He also denied that Campondonico smirked.

It was later discovered that Mendoza owned the truck.

Robbery-homicide detectives were still conducting a routine officer-involved shooting investigation, and Los Angeles County coroner’s spokesman Scott Carrier said an autopsy has not been performed to determine whether Mendoza had any drugs in his system at the time of his death. Alba said investigators found no controlled substances in the truck.