City to Pay $150,000 in Shooting
The City Council voted Wednesday to pay $150,000 to the family of a man who was shot to death a decade ago by a Los Angeles police officer later implicated in the Rampart scandal.
Jesse Vicencio was shot in 1993 by then-Officer David A. Mack as Mack and his then-partner Rafael Perez were working undercover attempting to buy drugs. Perez later emerged as the officer at the center of the Rampart corruption probe.
The officers said that Vicencio, an alleged drug dealer, pulled a gun on them, and a department review found that the shooting was within policy. But two witnesses later said that Mack shot Vicencio without warning as Vicencio leaned into the undercover officers’ car.
Mack was later sentenced to 14 years in prison for robbing a Bank of America branch of $722,000.
Perez, who is serving time in federal prison, pleaded guilty to stealing cocaine from police evidence facilities and later cooperated with authorities on unearthing corruption in the department.
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