Cop Will Not Face Charges in Death

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office will not prosecute a police officer who fatally shot an actor during a Halloween costume party 18 months ago, concluding in a report issued Wednesday that the officer acted in self-defense.

Los Angeles Police Department Officer Tarriel Hopper shot 39-year-old Anthony Dwain Lee after the actor allegedly pointed a replica handgun at him during a party at a Benedict Canyon mansion Oct. 27, 2000. Hopper, a three-year officer at the time of the shooting, fired nine times, hitting Lee once in the back of the head and three times in the back.

“Given the rapidly evolving manner in which this entire incident occurred, coupled with the immediate danger that he perceived, we are convinced that Officer Hopper was justifiably in fear for his life at the time he shot Anthony Lee,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Kenneth Pettersen wrote.

Pettersen said in an interview Wednesday that Hopper reacted the only way he could because he believed the gun was real. The officer was forced to make a split-second decision to draw and fire his weapon, he said.

“To ask him to wait any longer could have put his life and the life of others in the direct vicinity in peril,” Pettersen said.

But Lee’s sister, Tina Lee-Vogt, disagreed, saying that the officer was overly aggressive.

“Even if he thought it was a real gun, there are hundreds of cases of officers who are confronted with people with real guns who don’t kill them,” said Lee-Vogt, a civilian administrator with the Sacramento Police Department.

Lee-Vogt said she was not surprised by the district attorney’s decision, but was frustrated that prosecutors seemed to blame her brother for the shooting by saying his actions were threatening to the officer. She filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Hopper, his partner, the LAPD and the city. The civil case is expected to go to trial this year, Lee-Vogt’s attorney said.

Hopper declined to talk about the night of the shooting because of the pending civil suit. He said he was thankful, however, for the district attorney’s decision not to file charges, saying, “That much is relieving.”

According to the district attorney’s report, Hopper and his partner, Natalie Humpherys, responded shortly after midnight to noise complaints at a house in the 9700 block of Yoakum Drive known as “The Castle.” In an effort to locate the party hosts, the officers walked through the house and out onto a back walkway.

Once outside, Hopper noticed a man staring through glass doors into a dimly lit bedroom, so he shined his flashlight toward the bedroom, and witnessed what he said he believed to be a drug deal. Lee, who was inside the room, then pulled what appeared to Hopper to be a semiautomatic handgun and pointed it at the officer, the report said. Standing about six feet away from Lee, Hopper pulled his handgun from his holster and fired at Lee. Lee died at the scene.

Officers later determined that Lee’s gun was a movie prop replica of a blue steel .357 magnum semiautomatic pistol.

The district attorney’s report said Lee had alcohol and cocaine in his system, a finding originally made by the medical examiner Oct. 29, 2000.

An LAPD internal review board determined in October 2001 that the shooting was justified because the officer believed the fake gun was real. The review board said Hopper should not be disciplined for the shooting but should undergo additional training. The civilian Los Angeles Police Commission voted 4 to 1 that same month that the officer justifiably used deadly force and followed department policy.

Hopper, 28, now works in an administrative position in the department, but not as a result of disciplinary action, said LAPD spokesman Sgt. John Pasquariello.

Pasquariello said he was pleased that the district attorney’s office agreed with the department’s findings. “The reality is that Hopper did nothing wrong and we shouldn’t vilify him for his actions,” he said.

Lee-Vogt’s attorney, Cameron Stewart, said both the LAPD and the district attorney’s office ignored the fact that the officers put themselves in jeopardy by entering the house. Stewart added that Hopper could not have been acting in self-defense, since Lee was shot in the back.

During the district attorney’s investigation, Pettersen reviewed LAPD investigation reports and photographs, listened to audiotapes of witnesses and watched a video reenactment of the shooting. He also consulted with a professor who has studied officer-involved shootings.

Explaining why Lee was hit in the back, Pettersen wrote that the actor was probably hit as he was turning to the left and ducking down.

The key witnesses, Pettersen said, were Hopper and partygoer Eric Schuberg. Hopper told detectives that he shot because he feared for his life.

“During this entire time, it happened very, very quickly, his gun was continually pointing at me,” Hopper said.

Schuberg gave detectives a nearly identical account, saying he saw Lee pull out what appeared to be a gun and point it in the direction of the glass doors.

Schuberg said he believed the gun was real and that he felt threatened by it.

Another partygoer, William Frey, told detectives he saw Lee pull the gun from his waistband and begin to raise it. But he said Lee never pointed the weapon directly at the officer.

In another controversial police shooting, prosecutors decided in August not to file charges against the officer who fatally shot a mentally ill homeless woman.

In that case, the district attorney’s office determined that Officer Edward Larrigan should not be prosecuted for shooting Margaret Laverne Mitchell in the chest in May 1999 after she allegedly lunged at him with a 12-inch screwdriver.

Prosecutors said Larrigan may have acted in self-defense, but that there were too many conflicting witness statements for them to make that concrete determination.

The accounts of Lee’s death were much more consistent, Pettersen said.

“It’s a far different case than the Margaret Mitchell case,” he said. After reviewing the material, Pettersen said, “there was never a question in my mind ... that this was anything less than self-defense.”