2 Officers Who Shot Out Light Won’t Be Charged

Two off-duty El Monte police officers who shot out a light in a city maintenance yard will not be charged with any crime, officials said.

The officers, whose names have been withheld by the Police Department, must pay $213.93 for the damage they caused in the incident, but will not face charges for vandalism or firing a gun in a public place, according to Assistant Police Chief Bill Ankeny and a department memo.

Ankeny said the officers told investigators they had been drinking beer but were not drunk the morning of the incident.

Ankeny conceded that a civilian would probably have been charged with a crime for the target practice. But the officers received only written reprimands from their immediate supervisors, according to an internal memo from Police Chief Wayne Clayton.

Ankeny said the department took the matter seriously and was “very embarrassed” about it. He said Clayton decided not to file charges based on the officers’ records and their willingness to comply with an internal investigation.

After work in the early morning of Dec. 13, five officers gathered around some picnic benches in the yard, as they routinely do, to chat about the day, Ankeny said. Two of them took at least five shots at the light, which was backed by a concrete wall.

The three other officers were verbally reprimanded, the memo said.