LAPD Officer Kills Man Who Allegedly Tried to Get Her Gun

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 but described him as a Latino in his 20s.

At 4:26 a.m., the LAPD’s Foothill Division received a call about a blood-covered, naked man in the intersection of San Fernando Road and Van Nuys Boulevard--a hardscrabble industrial area about four blocks from Whiteman Airport.

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 LAPD veteran, suspected the man might be under the influence of PCP, according to a written statement issued by police Saturday afternoon. Thiffault talked to the man, attempting to calm him, but he “appeared to fixate on her and immediately charged her while screaming unintelligibly.”

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

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

Los Angeles firefighters who were at the scene said they did not witness the shooting, Fire Capt. Mike Sauber said. Those firefighters were off duty Saturday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.

The man’s death comes at a time when the Los Angeles Police Department is under intense scrutiny for its handling of officer-involved shootings of the homeless and mentally ill.

A Nov. 7 article in The Times reported that Los Angeles police had shot and killed a dozen mentally ill people over the past six years in confrontations involving questionable tactics and the use of deadly force. The story, which Police Chief Bernard C. Parks characterized as unfair, found that officers sometimes exacerbated already tense situations by screaming orders at mentally disturbed people.

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In several cases, police fired their weapons before trying nonlethal tactics like negotiations or stun devices, or before the person being confronted posed an immediate threat. The Times undertook its inquiry shortly after the May 21 shooting of Margaret Mitchell, a diminutive, 55-year-old mentally ill homeless woman. One officer said he fired at Mitchell after she lunged at him with a screwdriver on La Brea Avenue.

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

“Anyone naked and bloody in the middle of the night has some sort of mental disturbance going on,” she said. Jacobs, a Long Beach advocate for the mentally ill, said perhaps the officer got too close to the man when she was talking to 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.

“I can only question why they didn’t [use] nonlethal weapons, considering it was so apparent it was a case of mental disturbance,” she said.

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

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