Authorities Defend Officer in Shooting

Authorities on Wednesday defended an El Monte police officer who fatally shot an unarmed passenger in a car.

Initially, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the officer believed the man and the driver of the car may have been involved in the fatal shooting Sunday night of a 6-year-old girl at a 7-Eleven during an outing to get ice cream.

But Sheriff’s Homicide Capt. Ray Peavy said Wednesday that the shooting had nothing to do with the investigation into the death of Bryesha Limbrick.

Peavy said two El Monte detectives were on their way Tuesday to check out a tip related to Bryesha’s death and noticed “suspicious activity” near Valley Boulevard and Garvey Avenue.

The detectives saw a man in his 20s holding something as he ran toward a parked car. The detectives asked a squad car to investigate.

Two El Monte officers arrived and ordered the men to get out of the car. The driver cooperated but the passenger did not, Peavy said. When the passenger reached under his seat to grab something, an officer shot him, Peavy said.

“The men were not at any point considered suspects, but the shooting was justified for other reasons,” Peavy said.

The police officer “felt his life was threatened,” and may have thought the man was pulling out an assault rifle similar to the one that killed Bryesha, according to Peavy.

After the Tuesday shooting, authorities said they found a bag of narcotics on the street a few blocks from the car. They said they were trying to determine if there was a link between the drugs and the man who was shot.

A witness to the shooting was quoted in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune as saying the driver and passenger appeared not to speak English or to understand what the officers were saying.

Peavy said that language barriers do not come into consideration if a police officer believes his life is threatened. “When you think someone’s going to shoot you, you don’t stop to think about that,” he said.

Authorities also released more details Wednesday about the suspects wanted in connection with Bryesha’s killing.

Bryesha, her uncle and his friend were walking out of the 7-Eleven on Sunday night when she was shot in the head with a rifle.

Peavy said that before the shooting the girl’s uncle and friend pointed at a 1957 Thunderbird parked next to the gunman’s car. That motion in the gunman’s direction may have been enough to prompt him to fire the shots, Peavy said.

The Sheriff’s Department also released video surveillance tapes from the 7-Eleven where the shots were fired. Frames show a man in his 20s with a goatee wearing a white hat and a T-shirt. He is not believed to be the gunman, but may be his accomplice.

“The hope is that someone will recognize the car or this guy and then give us some information so we can arrest these guys,” Peavy said.