D.A. Expresses Concern for Man Shot by Deputy

In a rare step, San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Michael A. Ramos on Friday provided an update of his office’s review of the videotaped shooting of Air Force security officer Elio Carrion by a sheriff’s deputy in Chino.

Ramos began his comments by expressing concern for Carrion, 21, of Montclair and his family. He then said that, while prosecutors had analyzed several pieces of evidence, including the videotape, they were still awaiting an extensive interview with Carrion and the FBI’s forensic analysis of the tape to definitively understand the exchange between Deputy Ivory John Webb Jr. and Carrion.

The video, described by lead shooting reviewer Lewis Cope as “grainy with sound issues,” appears to show Webb ordering Carrion to “get up, get up,” at the end of a high-speed pursuit through a residential area.

As Carrion, who was a passenger, begins to rise from a sprawled position outside his friend’s Corvette, Webb is shown shooting the Iraq war veteran three times.

Webb, 45, an eight-year deputy based at the sheriff’s Chino Hills station, is on paid administrative leave. Carrion is recovering at an undisclosed medical facility. His family and their attorney have called for Webb’s arrest.

Ramos said he expected to receive the FBI-enhanced video within two weeks, and expected the Carrion interview to be done “very shortly.” But he and Cope stopped short of setting a date by which they would decide whether to take the office’s unprecedented step of criminally charging an officer involved in an on-duty shooting. Possible counts facing Webb range from accidental discharge of a firearm to attempted murder.

Although the district attorney has declined to file charges against officers in 130 shootings and in-custody deaths since 2000 in the county, the video has brought intense public focus on Ramos and Sheriff Gary Penrod. Both said their investigation and review of the shooting were their offices’ “highest priority.”

“Our thoughts are with Mr. Carrion,” Ramos said, later adding: “Everybody that’s seen that video ... it’s shocking. I’m not going to mince words.”

The extra attention and sympathy being paid to the victim is clearly unusual, but so are the presence of a video and the stature of Carrion, a senior airman who recently completed a tour of duty in Iraq.

Webb’s father, former Compton Police Chief Ivory John Webb, told The Times that his son felt “threatened” by Carrion’s rising motion and that his son doesn’t believe he instructed Carrion to “get up.”

The younger Webb has been interviewed by sheriff’s homicide investigators, but Ramos declined to disclose what he said. Ramos said a deputy’s feeling of being threatened does not automatically result in a justified shooting, nor does it leave the deputy free of being charged with a crime.

“[Officers] are trained to handle threats,” Ramos said. “Still, that [feeling] will be analyzed. That’s just one factor.”