FBI to Investigate Fatal Police Shooting

Federal officials said Thursday that they have launched a separate criminal investigation into last month’s fatal police shooting of an 18-year-old allegedly holding a toy gun in Huntington Beach.

FBI agents contacted Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigators Wednesday as they sought to determine whether police violated Antonio Saldivar’s civil rights by shooting and killing him on a darkened street in the city’s Oakview area.

The announcement of the FBI’s probe comes amid revelations this week that contradict the original police version of the May 5 shooting, which has ignited anti-police protests in the predominantly Latino neighborhood.

At first, police said a Huntington Beach officer saw Saldivar peering into a car, began chasing him and finally shot him when the teen pointed a toy rifle at him. But now investigators believe the officer was chasing another man, lost him briefly and then came across Saldivar holding the toy.

In another development, sheriff’s officials said Thursday that investigators were unable to find any fingerprints on the toy rifle.

Forensic experts said examinations of weapons often fail to detect fingerprints. But the announcement led relatives of Saldivar and others to again question the police account of the teen’s death.

“As the Huntington Beach Police Department’s version of events evolves, it seems less and less likely that Mr. Saldivar at any time had a toy gun, much less pointed it at an officer,” said Timothy Black, an attorney for Saldivar’s mother.

Huntington Beach police acknowledge that their original account of the shooting was wrong. But a department spokesman also cautioned against jumping to conclusions that officers acted improperly.

“The fact that there are no fingerprints on the gun is not indicative of any kind of conspiracy,” Huntington Beach Police Lt. Chuck Thomas said. “We need to wait until the conclusion of the investigation.”

Meanwhile, sheriff’s officials said the lack of fingerprints on the toy rifle was hardly a surprise. The surface of the child’s weapon is rough, making it less likely to have prints than one with a smooth surface, they said. And, they added, there is no evidence that the toy was ever cleaned off to erase any prints. Such a wipe-down would most likely be detected by forensic tests, officials said.

“It’s a porous, weathered surface,” sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said. “Not even the kid who the gun belonged to had prints on it.”

Fingerprint experts said it is a common fallacy that simply touching a gun will leave a fingerprint on it. Even using the most cutting-edge technology, scientists said they often fail to find prints.

“It’s not fully understood out there that the percentage of developing latent [prints] on weapons is not very high,” said Michael Murphy, who supervises the state Department of Justice’s latent fingerprint lab.

At his Sacramento lab, as few as 10% of guns reveal identifiable prints, Murphy said. The chances are even lower if the weapon’s surface is rough, he said.

Sheriff’s investigators are expected to pass on the results of their shooting probe to county prosecutors in the next few weeks. Prosecutors will then determine whether the shooting was a justified homicide. To make such a finding, they must conclude that the officer was in fear of his life when he fired the shots.

The federal investigators, meanwhile, will probably spend much more time reviewing the case. They will try to determine if Saldivar’s federal civil rights were violated, and--if so--whether police officers should be held criminally responsible.

The FBI launched its probe after U.S. attorney’s officials asked them last month to examine what happened in Huntington Beach, said U.S. attorney spokesman Thom Mrozek.

“We don’t have any particular evidence that there are any civil rights violations in this incident,” Mrozek said. “However, we do think that there is enough to warrant federal scrutiny.”

According to the latest police account of the shooting, Officer Mark Wersching and his patrol partner were driving along Ash Street about 1:39 a.m. May 5 when they saw Brigido Mendez, an alleged gang member, peering into a parked car.

Without recognizing Mendez, Wersching jumped out of his police cruiser, called for Mendez to stop and then chased after him, police said. The pursuit took the pair through nearby backyards and over fences until the officer eventually lost sight of Mendez.

It was while Wersching was walking back to where the chase began, police now say, that the officer spotted Saldivar crouching with what appeared to be a rifle and fired.

After the shooting, relations between police and residents in the Oakview neighborhood--one of the city’s poorest areas--have grown tense.

Some residents have complained that police are heavy-handed. Others question why police shot Saldivar, a farm worker from Mexico who had no criminal record.

The Orange County Human Relations Commission has formed a task force devoted to soothing community relations between residents and police. But commission officials acknowledge lingering distrust.

“There is a certain level of fear” among residents, said the commission’s executive director, Rusty Kennedy.

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Times staff writer Jason Song contributed to this report.