LAPD Officer Kills Man in Pacoima

A Los Angeles police officer fatally shot a bloodied and naked man early Saturday after he allegedly charged at her and tried to grab her holstered gun.

Authorities did not identify the man Saturday night, but they said he was in his 20s.

About 4:25 a.m., LAPD’s Foothill Division received a call about a blood-covered, naked man at San Fernando Road and Van Nuys Boulevard--a major intersection in a hardscrabble industrial area in Pacoima. A Los Angeles city fire engine company and LAPD officers Karen Thiffault and Daniel Palma arrived simultaneously, according to police. Firefighters said the call was about a possible stabbing.

Thiffault, 38, a 12-year-veteran, suspected the man might be under the influence of PCP, according to a written statement issued by police Saturday afternoon. The statement said Thiffault “verbalized with the suspect in an attempt to calm him.”

But the man “appeared to fixate on her and immediately charged her while screaming unintelligibly,” according to the statement.

The man then allegedly chased Thiffault, who ran toward the fire truck parked nearby. Palma, her partner, was close behind. As Thiffault fled, “the suspect repeatedly reached for and on at least one occasion grabbed Thiffault’s holstered service pistol,” the statement said.

Police did not say whether he came close to disarming her.

“Just because he grabbed the gun doesn’t mean he took it away from her,” said Officer Don Cox, an LAPD spokesman.

Finally, Thiffault turned, faced the man and continued to back away from him as he continued to yell “‘unintelligibly,” according to police.

“Thiffault, in fear that the suspect would disarm her and then shoot her, her partner and the firefighters, fired at the suspect, wounding him,” the statement said.

Firefighters took the man to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, where he was pronounced dead at 4:57 a.m.

Coroner’s officials had not examined the body Saturday afternoon. Coroner’s Lt. Cheryl MacWillie said police did not notify her office of the death until 1 p.m., almost eight hours later.

As is routine for officer-involved shootings, detectives from LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division are investigating the killing.

LAPD spokesman Ed Funes declined to comment on the case, except to say, “It is very unusual.”

The firefighters who were at the scene were off duty Saturday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.

Carla Jacobs, a board member of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, questioned Saturday why nonlethal weapons, such as pepper spray or bean bags fired from a shotgun, were not used in the incident.

“Anyone naked and bloody in the middle of the night has some sort of mental disturbance going on,” said Jacobs, a Long Beach advocate for the mentally ill.

She speculated that perhaps the officer got too close to the man when she was addressing him. But, she said, the officer acted correctly by trying to get away from him when he became upset.

“You can’t invade these people’s space when they’re delusional,” she said. “It sounds like the situation got accelerated by not providing the managing space until other methods could be used to contain him.”

Earlier this month, a Times investigation disclosed that since 1994, Los Angeles police officers have shot at least 37 people acting irrationally due to mental disorders, adverse reactions to drugs or a combination of the two. Twenty-five of those shootings were fatal, including a dozen in which poor tactics and mistakes by officers helped push the confrontations to their deadly conclusions.

Mental health advocates and police use of force experts were especially critical of tactics used by some officers that escalated confrontations, such as getting too close and making the suspects agitated, and shouting commands even when it was clear that the suspects weren’t responding.

Police officials said that LAPD officers receive adequate training in how to properly handle the mentally ill and those acting irrationally.

Surveys by mental health advocates and law enforcement research organizations indicate that as many as 10% of all police calls in the country and 10% of all arrests involve a person with a mental disorder.

LAPD recruits receive about four hours of training on how to deal with the mentally ill. Earlier this month, City Council members ordered the Police Department to review and improve its training for such confrontations.

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Staff writer Josh Meyer contributed to this story.