Coroner Releases Youth’s Autopsy

A coroner’s report released Friday confirmed that the LAPD officer who killed 13-year-old Devin Brown was standing to the side of the teenager’s car when the fatal shots were fired.

The report also found that Devin, who had been using marijuana and was driving a stolen Toyota, was killed by one of two shots to the neck. The finding casts further doubt on a central justification for the shooting: that Officer Steve Garcia was standing in the path of the teenager’s car when he opened fire.

Police said last week that Garcia was no longer in the car’s path when he fired, based on an elaborate reconstruction of the Feb. 6 shooting. A coroner’s investigator came to the same conclusion Feb. 7. But the coroner’s report was withheld at the request of the LAPD, which placed a security hold on the document.

The hold was lifted Friday after the department sent its criminal investigation of the shooting to the district attorney’s office for a decision on whether to prosecute Garcia.

“This report shows the officer wasn’t endangered for his life and there was no need for him to kill this child,” said Najee Ali, a community activist and director of Project of Islamic Hope. “He was shot from the side. This officer wasn’t behind the car.”

Deputy Chief Michael Berkow said the department “was trying to be very precise and certain about the officer’s position.” He said the reconstruction of the incident made public last week used information from the autopsy as well as a study of bullet trajectories to determine the officer’s position.

The autopsy showed Devin was struck by six or seven rounds, two of which hit him in the right side of the neck and were rapidly fatal. Another round hit the teenager in his right temple and another in the mouth. A shot hit his left hand and another round entered his right arm, went through his chest and possibly through his left arm. Byproducts of marijuana use were found in Devin’s blood and heart, the report noted.

The Feb. 6 shooting occurred at the end of a brief police chase after Brown ran a red light, and officers discovered he was driving a stolen car. The speeding teenager failed to make a turn, drove onto a sidewalk, then backed his stolen car toward officers at 83rd Street and Western Avenue in South Los Angeles.

Garcia told investigators that he felt endangered as Devin’s car came at him, leaving him no choice but to shoot, sources said. LAPD rules allow an officer to fire at a moving vehicle if he believes his life or the lives of bystanders are in jeopardy.