Justice for Steven

Finally, a little justice for the family of Steven Washington.

  photo: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times

What has transpired to date:


We now know the names of the Law Enforcemenet Officers involved in Zac's shooting. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Mark Brewster and Drug Enforcement Agent Peter LoPresti simultaneously fired six rounds at Zac with their service weapons, resulting in Zac's death. LAPD Officer Joseph Chavez was also involved.

These officers were part of an undercover narcotics operation including the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), United States Inernal Revenue Service (IRS), Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD).

They were milling about a shopping area parking lot after execution of an undercover narcotics operation search warrant. They saw someone walking through the parking lot looking into cars, including their task force undercover vehicles containing narcotics and money recovered from the search.

The District Attorney's Office has also declined to file charges against these officers. Deputy District Attorney John Mullen (via phone call) advised Zac's mother of their decision and was nice enough to mail a formal declination letter [insert sarcasm. sorry]. He admitted he did not know much about the case himself, as it was originally assigned to Deputy District Attorney Shelly Torrealba, who had to hand off Zac's file to someone else after she was appointed to the bench and is now Judge Shelly Torrealba.

After numerous calls to the Sheriff's department, and after speaking to a Homicide Sargeant, we've been informed a court order will be needed to obtain the official Sheriff's report on Zac's homicide. As it stands now, Zac's family has yet to see a single report from either the Sheriff's department or from the District Attorney's Office.


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Today is another day, a turning point perhaps, as we read in the Los Angeles Times:

The civilian commission that oversees the Los Angeles Police Department has taken the rare step of rejecting a recommendation from the department's chief, ruling that two police officers were wrong when they fatally shot an unarmed autistic man last year.

About midnight on March 20, Officers Allan Corrales and George Diego, who worked in an anti-gang unit, were driving in a marked patrol car along Vermont Avenue in the city's Koreatown neighborhood. Both officers told investigators they heard a loud noise — which one described as a "deep boom" — behind them, according to Beck's report on the incident.

And because of this "deep boom", an unarmed autistic man was fatally shot in the head.

More...

The shooting drew sharp criticism from Washington's family, who said the man was autistic and fearful of strangers. Civil liberties groups questioned the shooting, suggesting that the officers may have overreacted because they had not observed Washington doing anything criminal.

Based on the investigation's findings, (Police Chief Charlie) Beck found Corrales and Diego had violated department policies in how they approached and engaged Washington, but decided it was reasonable for them to believe the man had a gun and intended to shoot them.

In a unanimous decision, however, the civilian commission found differently. The panel said Corrales and Diego violated department policies that govern when an officer can use lethal force.

We are going to go out on a limb here: what we are going to suggest is that the combined efforts of Zac's family and friends, as well as those of police shooting victim Doug Zerby, raised awareness of the spate of recent law enforcement shootings of unarmed civilians, who had not broken any laws.

We are going to suggest that perhaps the Police Commission has heard us and has perhaps looked into these shootings and have taken into consideration the unimaginable pain and grief these families and communities have all suffered.

We, in our infinite desire to think the best of mankind, would like to think that had an LAPD officer discharged his or her weapon fatally against Zac, this Police Commission would have ruled similarly.  In fact, we (would like to) believe they wish there was more they could have done in Zac's case.

There has now been a major shift in the dominant paradigm. It is up to us to continue making noise and being heard.