Were Bullets the Only Way?

The Los Angeles Police Department says that its preliminary look into the police killing early Saturday of Van Nuys actor Anthony Dwain Lee, 39, suggests no tactical errors by the officer who fired the fatal shots. While we make no judgment on any criminality in this tragic event, it’s clear it shows at least a shocking lack of training in how to avoid the circumstances that led to the death. Once again, as in the LAPD’s fatal shooting of the homeless Margaret Laverne Mitchell last year, the department seems to have put itself in the position of defending the indefensible.

Officers Tarriel Hopper and Natalie Humphreys were responding to a complaint about a loud Halloween party in Benedict Canyon. Lee, a guest, was apparently standing near a bedroom window. Hopper has told the department that Lee pointed what appeared to be a semiautomatic handgun in his direction. Hopper said he feared for his life; police said Lee was shot nine times.

Police Chief Bernard C. Parks said Hopper did not have time to shout a warning to Lee to drop what the officer thought was a weapon. He also said the two officers had gone to the front door to seek out the party host and then, at the request of guests, had gone toward the rear of the structure by way of the yard.

Among the many things that are still unclear about the incident is whether Lee was even able to see the police officer through the window, much less intentionally point what turned out to be a realistic rubber replica of a gun at him. Neither is it clear whether Lee knew that Hopper was a real LAPD officer; he might have taken him for another guest, in police costume.

The LAPD’s own 1999 police officers’ manual states that “police should use only the reasonable amount of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective.” The costume party may have been confusing, but it is hard to regard this shooting--into a house full of party-goers--as minimal force.

The LAPD has been quick to blame the horrific mistake on the availability of realistic replicas of guns and on dangers faced by police in previous calls to party disturbances. Of course those are serious problems, but not the fundamental ones. The basic question is, unfortunately, familiar: Are officers appropriately trained and prepared in the use of lethal force?

The city’s Police Commission, the department’s inspector general, the county district attorney and the LAPD itself must delve far deeper to fully explain the awful shooting that cost the actor his life and devastated many, including Officer Hopper.