Slaying of Man During Standoff Investigated

Authorities are investigating whether a sheriff’s marksman was justified in killing a 25-year-old Los Angeles man who robbed a Bell Gardens bank and then staged a tense standoff on the Pomona Freeway.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials said Armando Rodriguez was fatally shot about 5 p.m. Wednesday after pointing a semiautomatic handgun at a SWAT team crouched behind a freeway barrier about 20 yards away.

Homicide investigators are now trying to determine whether the shooting was justified--a standard procedure whenever officers use deadly force.

Wednesday’s ordeal began in the morning when Rodriguez allegedly stole a taxicab in Los Angeles and held up a Cal Fed bank in Bell Gardens. Authorities said he led police on a 20-mile chase that ended on the eastbound Pomona Freeway in the Whittier Narrows area.

Over the next five hours, deputies said, Rodriguez hunkered down inside the taxicab, which contained an M-16-style assault rifle, a handgun, a large hunting knife and four pipe bombs. Deputies also said they found clips of ammunition, as well as bulletproof vests and a helmet.

Sheriff’s officials said Thursday that it appeared the deputies were in danger of being shot when Rodriguez raised a handgun after the taxicab was hit with tear gas shortly before 5 p.m.

A small robot carried a video camera up to the taxicab and later captured the last moments of Rodriguez’s life.

The robot device--with a remote-controlled arm--was first used to take a cellular telephone to Rodriguez to talk with negotiators.

Deputies declined to show the videotape to reporters Thursday. Deputy Richard McClelland, who monitored the camera during the standoff, said Rodriguez threw the telephone out of the window shortly before deputies fired tear gas at the taxicab.

“He was just sitting in there. The tear gas hit, and he tried to clear his face with both hands,” McClelland said. “His right hand disappeared and he came up with a handgun. Then he was hit by a shot.”

Sheriff’s deputies reported for several hours Wednesday that Rodriguez might have committed suicide. Late Wednesday, they disclosed that a sheriff’s sharpshooter killed him with one shot.

The department could refer the case to the U.S. attorney’s office or the district attorney’s office for criminal prosecution.

Was Rodriguez really a threat to the officers? asked Gigi Gordon, a civil rights attorney who has studied similar shootings in Los Angeles County. On Thursday, she said she doubted whether the question will be fully answered because it is difficult for the Sheriff’s Department to conduct an impartial investigation of its own officers.

“I have reviewed all of the investigations of police shootings submitted to the district attorney over the last three years,” Gordon said. “They are meaningless, and equally meaningless is an agency, like the Sheriff’s Department, investigating itself.”