Firing of Officer in Teen’s Death Urged

The president of the Los Angeles Police Commission said Tuesday that the district attorney’s decision not to charge a police officer who fatally shot a 13-year-old boy will have no bearing on the commission’s decision about whether the shooting was within LAPD policy and requires disciplinary action.

“That was in the D.A.’s court,” John Mack said. “Now the ball is in the court of the LAPD.”

More than a dozen community activists addressed the commission Tuesday and called for the firing of Officer Steve Garcia, who shot Devin Brown when the teenager backed a car toward Garcia at the end of a car chase.

“This is a very serious matter,” Mack told the protesters. “Any loss of human life is tragic, especially if it is a 13-year-old young boy.”

The case is the biggest public test yet for the five-member panel since its selection by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa this summer.

Mack, retired president of the Los Angeles Urban League, said the panel would expedite the case. Police Chief William J. Bratton said he would have the issue before the commission by mid-January for a decision on the shooting, which occurred Feb. 6 when Brown backed toward a police cruiser as Garcia stood by the cruiser’s passenger door.

Saying there is growing anger over failures to punish officers who kill African Americans, Nation of Islam Minister Tony Muhammad told the commission to take action against the officer “while it is still in your hands.”

The activists criticized the prosecutors’ conclusion that there was insufficient evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Garcia. They said that the D.A.’s office spent much of its report explaining how the stolen car sped back toward the officer’s cruiser but that prosecutors couldn’t say exactly where Garcia was, despite extensive bullet-track analysis.

“The district attorney said the officer was in imminent danger, but in the same breath, he said we don’t know where he was standing,” said Tommy Walker, one of about 40 protesters attending the meeting.

In their report released Monday, prosecutors said a civilian eyewitness described the officer as sandwiched between his cruiser and the backing car as he opened fire. The administrative inquiry will be able to use statements Garcia made under orders from his superiors. Such statements can’t be used in criminal cases and aren’t seen by prosecutors.

If the commission finds the shooting “out of policy,” Bratton will then decide what discipline to seek. If he seeks a severe penalty, such as a firing, it will be subject to approval by a departmental Board of Rights, made up of two LAPD command officers and a civilian.