Riverside Police Chief Announces His Retirement

The chief of the Riverside Police Department, embroiled in controversy over his officers’ fatal 1998 shooting of a teenager found passed out in her car, announced Friday that he is retiring.

In making the surprise announcement to his command staff, Jerry Carroll said he was quitting as chief immediately but would remain with the department until the end of the year to help his successor with the transition.

Deputy Chief Mike Smith was named interim chief.

Carroll, 50, was not available for comment after the late afternoon announcement.

“I think Jerry has been through a tough year and he’s a man that has held his head real high and has done a great job,” said City Councilwoman Laura Pearson. “I support his decision.”

Carroll has weathered a storm of criticism since the Dec. 28, 1998, shooting of Tyisha Miller, who was hit by a dozen bullets as she sat in her car in a gas station parking lot.

Officers responding to a call about an unconscious woman in a car said Miller had a gun in her lap when they arrived.

Four officers opened fire when she allegedly moved for the weapon after an officer smashed a window of the locked vehicle in an effort to disarm her.

The four officers and their sergeant were fired, and Carroll issued a memo saying they had carried out an “unreasonably dangerous plan” in handling the incident.

The Riverside County district attorney found that the officers might have used faulty tactics but were not criminally liable.

The killing drew the attention of national activists, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and has prompted regular protests in Riverside, 60 miles east of Los Angeles. Some protesters and community members say it was racially motivated, noting that Miller was black and the officers were not.

The shooting also prompted the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles to open an investigation into the Police Department to see if it has engaged in civil rights violations.

The firing of the officers, meanwhile, prompted some in the department to shave their heads in a show of solidarity with the dismissed men. The Riverside Police Officers Assn. defended the four, saying they were trying to protect Miller.

“It was a surprise to everybody that he retired today,” former union President Jeffrey Joseph said of Carroll. “We would hope that the individual who assumes the chief’s office is someone that officers can trust and can lead the department back on top of the ladder in terms of law enforcement.”