Police Slaying Re-Creation Stirs Doubt

[Judi Lynn]

July 27, 2005

Police Slaying Re-Creation Stirs Doubt
Reenactment shows an officer wasn't in path of a moving car when he shot the driver, 13.

By Richard Winton and Andrew Blankstein, Times Staff Writers

An elaborate re-creation of the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Devin Brown, staged on a vacant lot in Granada Hills by the LAPD with help from Hollywood experts, casts doubts on a central justification for the shooting: that the officer was standing in the path of the teenager's oncoming car when he opened fire.

The Feb. 6 shooting unfolded at the end of a brief chase in which Devin drove onto a sidewalk, then backed the stolen car toward officers at 83rd Street and Western Avenue in South Los Angeles.
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Police Chief William J. Bratton said Tuesday that by painstakingly reenacting the shooting, detectives had concluded that Officer Steve Garcia was standing to the side of Devin's red Toyota Camry when he fired 10 rounds into the vehicle, hitting Devin seven times.

The finding is potentially crucial, because Garcia has told investigators that he felt in danger as Devin backed the car toward him, leaving him no choice but to shoot, law enforcement sources say. LAPD rules allow an officer to fire at a moving vehicle if he believes his life or the lives of bystanders are in jeopardy.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd27jul27,0,6058003.story?coll=la-home-headlines
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[Spider Jerusalem]

1. The LAPD, again.

From Rodney King to the Ramparts scandal and now this. Talk about trigger-happy cops.