Split decision on LAPD officers in deadly shooting
LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Police Commission found Tuesday that one officer acted within policy but the other was in violation in the fatal close-range shooting of a 25-year-old black man last year.
The commission's vote Tuesday was unanimous involving both officers, finding that the senior officer was not justified in the August shooting death of Ezell Ford, but that his junior partner was justified.
The panel's report with details on its findings was to be released later in the day.
In their recommendations to the commission, the police chief and the department's independent watchdog found that both officers were justified in the shooting.
Steve Soboroff, the commission's president, announced the unanimous decision Tuesday afternoon after listening to hours of public comment in a closed-door session, CBS Los Angeles reported.
"Our analysis has been deliberate, thoughtful and compassionate based on our best understanding of the facts," Soboroff said before issuing the commission's decision. "We also appreciated the public comments."
The findings were issued in three specific areas: tactics of the involved officers, drawing of the firearm, and use of deadly force.
The commission did not specify what the second officer did to violate policy, but it found that the officer violated policy in every aspect they examined, from the initial contact with Ford through the use of both lethal and nonlethal force. The second officer was found in violation in only one area -- an earlier drawing of a gun prior to the final use of deadly force.
"The determination as to criminal culpability for the involved officers is the responsibility of the Los Angeles County D.A. and not within the authority of the chief of police or this commission," Soboroff said.
The decision took into account a recommendation by LAPD Chief Charlie Beck that found that both officers acted within policy in all three categories, while independent Inspector General Alex Bustamante found that one of the officers acted out of policy as it relates to tactics.
In emotional testimony given before the Police Commission, Ford's mother, Tritobia Ford, called on commissioners to punish the two officers involved. She said her son was mentally ill and questioned how bad tactics prior to the shooting made it justified.
"Because he walked away... they killed him," she said. "They got mad, they got angry. Ezell did not understand. Ezell had the thought process of an eight- or a ten-year-old. He was a baby, he was my baby."
Tritobia Ford told the commissioners, "Please, think about it. Ezell was mentally ill. He wasn't a lunatic. He wasn't suicidal, he wanted to live. Ezell has been stopped many times by police before and he lived. The officers did the right thing. These officers did wrong. They did wrong."
Commission members were surrounded by questioning protesters after the meeting. One commissioner, Paula Madison, told them, "What you were looking for, you got."
Attorney Steven Lerman, who represents Ford's family, said after the commission decision that he believed both officers acted outside policy. For the officer who initiated the contact, the decision was a "no-brainer," he said.
He said he believes both officers were complicit and that the other officer could have stopped his partner any time.
"It is a pitiful example of police gone wrong," Lerman said. "They never should have stopped the guy."
Mayor Eric Garcetti met with the Ford family after the decision.
"Ezell's life mattered. Black lives matter. All lives matter," Garcetti said at a news conference after the meeting.
He said Tuesday's decision shows that "we have a system that can work. Every life matters, but due process matters as well."
Chief Beck and Bustamante, the independent watchdog, found that evidence supported the officers' contention that Ford was shot after trying to grab an officer's gun. That evidence included Ford's DNA on the gun. A previously released autopsy report appeared to support the officers' account.
According to the LAPD, Ford was acting suspiciously when he caught officers' attention in August. He was accused of knocking one officer to the ground and grappling for the officer's holstered weapon when the second officer fired two shots.
The fallen officer pulled out a backup gun and shot Ford in the back, Beck said last year.
Ford was killed two days after Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. A grand jury later declined to charge officer Darren Wilson in the case, which sparked nationwide protests over race relations and the use of force by police.