Sheriff’s Deputy Shoots Air Force Airman who Obeys his Commands

By Jeremiah Marquez

A deputy appears in a home video to order a man to his feet, then shoot him as he tries to stand. The man, an Air Force security officer just back from Iraq, was hospitalized Tuesday with wounds to his chest, ribs and leg, relatives said.

The FBI was investigating possible civil rights violations in the shooting, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. The San Bernardino County district attorney’s office also assigned investigators to the case, a Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman said.

Senior Airman Elio Carrion, 21, was a passenger in a Corvette that led a deputy on a short, 100 mph chase, authorities said. Carrion, airlifted to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, was in good condition, hospital officials said.

Amateur photographer Jose Luis Valdez told The Associated Press that he shot the video after the car crashed into a wall in front of his home Sunday night. KTLA-TV aired the videotape early Tuesday, then distributed it later in the day.

In the 40-second video, Carrion appears to be on the ground telling the deputy he was in the military and was unarmed.

After the shooting, Carrion asks the deputy, “Why did you shoot me if you told me to stand up?” Valdez said in a telephone interview conducted in Spanish. That exchange cannot be heard on the video.

The FBI was asked to do a forensic analysis of the tape, sheriff’s department spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said, adding the audio is unclear at times and it’s difficult to determine who was speaking.

“I think it’s critical this videotape is reviewed closely. … We want to know the exact dialogue among the parties,” Beavers said. “It would be unfair for us to make any kind of judgment now without knowing the facts.”

Law enforcement agencies generally allow officers to use deadly force when they believe it’s necessary to prevent death or serious injury to themselves or others, said Tom Griffith, a professor at the University of Southern California Law School who specializes in criminal law. Actions such as fleeing from police are not by themselves justification for using deadly force, said Griffith, who had not seen the videotape.

“One thing we know for sure: a person’s wrongful actions … normally don’t justify the use of deadly force,” he said.

The deputy, whose name has not been released, was placed on paid administrative leave, which is routine procedure after officer-involved shootings.

A woman who answered the telephone at the Carrion family home in Montclair said the airman’s parents were headed to the hospital and nobody at the residence wanted to talk. Nobody answered the door later in the day.

The incident began when the deputy saw the Corvette speeding at 100 mph through a residential neighborhood, Beavers said. Following a chase that she said lasted about five minutes, the car skidded and slammed into a block wall in a middle-class neighborhood of large, single-story homes with tile roofs.

The dark and grainy videotape shows Carrion on the ground next to his car, talking to a silhouetted officer who is pointing a gun at him. Carrion is supporting himself on one arm and his face is brightly lit by the officer’s flashlight.

There is some hard-to-hear conversation back and forth, but Carrion appears to be trying to reassure the officer, telling him he is unarmed and in the military. He repeatedly says, “I’m on your side” and adds “we mean you no harm.”

At one point, a voice is heard saying several times, “Get up.”

Carrion says, “I’m gonna get up.” As he rises, the deputy fires at least four shots from close range, and Carrion collapses, crying out in pain.

“Shots fired! Shots fired!” someone shouts.

Witness Joanne Scholten said she saw the deputy yelling obscenities at the airman and ordering him to get out of the car. Shots rang out after he told the man to get up, she said.

“It seemed he lost his cool,” Scholten said of the deputy. “We were confused about why (he) did that.”

No charges have been filed against Carrion. Luis Fernando Escobedo, 21, identified by authorities as the driver of the Corvette, was arrested for investigation of felony evading and was being held at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, Beavers said.

Carrion’s 19-year-old wife, Mariela, told reporters her husband came out of surgery Monday and said: “They shot me for no reason.”

She said Carrion and Escobedo were at a party at the home of Carrion’s parents when they left to go to the store. Carrion was supposed to have returned Wednesday to his unit, the 2nd Security Forces Squadron, at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, La.

Air Force spokesman Lt. Frank Hartnett said Carrion worked as a security officer at the base. Carrion joined the Air Force in January 2003 and recently returned from a six-month tour in Iraq, Hartnett said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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