‘95 Slaying by FBI Agents Is Ruled Justifiable

FBI agents were justified in killing a former Fountain Valley police officer wanted for a string of bank robberies, a federal judge has decided.

Ruling for the government in a $14-million wrongful death case, U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson said the agents showed great restraint during their face-off with Kevin Duane Arnold, 34, at the Portola Plaza Shopping Center in Mission Viejo.

At the time of the shooting, he was a suspect in a dozen bank robberies in Orange and San Diego counties. Six months earlier, he had been convicted of embezzling $36,000 from the Fountain Valley police officers union and sentenced to six months of home detention.

Arnold appeared to have been bent on “suicide by cop,” according to testimony in the non-jury trial.

After a warrant was issued for his arrest, FBI agents Joseph T. White and Anthony M. Caruso were sent to watch Arnold’s house on July 24, 1995. They broke off the surveillance when Arnold spotted them.

The agents drove away, but Arnold jumped into his car and pursued them to Portola Plaza, where he confronted them in front of a busy fast-food restaurant.

Ignoring a command to drop to the ground, Arnold charged the agents and tried to seize Caruso’s handgun, Pregerson said. The agent stiff-armed him and fought him off.

Arnold, who was unarmed, then withdrew to his car and twice gestured as if drawing a gun, once from his trousers and again from inside the car. On each occasion, the agents held their fire.

Arnold then got into his car and tried to drive off. White reached through the open driver’s window and attempted to remove the keys from the ignition.

“Shoot me! Just shoot me!” the former police officer screamed, according to witnesses in the parking lot.

As Arnold accelerated, White was unable to free his arm from inside the car and, fearing that he was about to be dragged under the car’s tires, he fired one bullet into Arnold’s chest, killing him.

“Other law enforcement officers may have put an end to the confrontation by using deadly force at an earlier point,” Pregerson wrote in a 39-page ruling made public Thursday.

He said that Arnold died because of “his unlawful resistance to arrest, disobedience of lawful commands, assaulting federal agents attempting to lawfully arrest him pursuant to a warrant and ultimately placing the life of White in danger.”

James R. Traut, the Santa Ana attorney who filed the suit on behalf of Arnold’s widow and children, said Pregerson’s verdict was “appropriate.”

He said the lawsuit was based largely on the testimony of a civilian witness who insisted that the FBI agent was clear of the car when he shot Arnold.

On cross-examination, however, the witness changed his story.

“At that point, I knew our case was lost,” Traut said.

Arnold’s family also contended that the agents should have used chemical spray or batons to subdue Arnold and should have positioned their cars to block Arnold from leaving.

But Pregerson dismissed that argument, saying the agents had no time to return to their cars and retrieve those items during a “rapidly evolving, volatile and highly dangerous situation.”

Timothy P. McNally, head of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said he was pleased by the judge’s decision. He said the two agents involved in the case had been through a long ordeal.