State Probes Fatal Shooting by Oxnard Officer

As Police Chief Art Lopez acknowledged that Oxnard officers need more training in dealing with mentally ill people, officials confirmed Wednesday that the state attorney general’s office is investigating an Oxnard officer’s fatal shooting of a distraught man on Friday.

The NAACP and the family of Robert Lee Jones also have asked federal officials to consider opening a civil rights inquiry into the death of Jones, 23, who was shot and killed after his mother called police to their north Oxnard home.

The civil rights group and Jones’ family are alleging that not only was Jones killed unnecessarily, but that he was the victim of racial profiling by Oxnard police earlier this year. He was arrested in March while walking near his home, but he was cleared in court on a charge of resisting arrest.

About a month before Jones’ death, a coalition of community groups met with lawyers from the state attorney general’s office to complain about racial profiling in Ventura County, and they cited Jones’ case as an example of harassment by Oxnard police, coalition members said.

“Here’s a kid who came out from New York in March to visit his mother,” said attorney Gregory Ramirez, who represents Jones’ family and the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. “He was walking down the wrong street at the wrong time.”

Lopez denied that racial profiling is a problem in his department. He said he is unaware of a list of half a dozen cases of alleged profiling compiled by John Hatcher, president of the Ventura County chapter of the NAACP.

“What I need to do is call Mr. Hatcher and discuss this with him,” Lopez said.

The chief said he welcomes state and federal inquiries.

“The Oxnard Police Department is open to those investigations,” he said. “We are open to that kind of scrutiny. We have nothing to hide.”

Friday’s fatal shooting was the fifth by an Oxnard officer this year. A sixth crime suspect survived a shooting by Oxnard police.

Police have said the Jones shooting was justified because the unemployed artist, brandishing a 13-inch knife, advanced toward officers who had entered his bedroom. Police already had shot the man three times with a beanbag weapon meant to disable him before Officer George Tamayo, an eight-year veteran, fired the fatal shot.

While supporting his officers, Lopez said Wednesday that he now thinks his department needs more training in how to handle mentally disturbed people.

“Absolutely, we need more [training],” the police chief said. “It’s a burgeoning problem not only in Ventura County but in other counties throughout the state.”

Oxnard Councilman Bedford Pinkard said he supports a new training regimen because of what Pinkard described as an excessive number of police shootings involving mentally disturbed people. Four of the six police shootings this year involved mentally disturbed people, Lopez said.

“I’m concerned,” Pinkard said. “I’m sure there is justification for some [shootings] and some that can’t be justified.”

Oxnard officers receive only a few hours of training on arresting disturbed suspects, including their original classes as police academy cadets, Lopez said.

But critics say Oxnard police only needed common sense in dealing with Jones.

Attorney Ramirez said officers should have called a special county mental health negotiating unit that responds when police need help with disturbed suspects who pose no immediate threat.

“The police were called by a mother to help her son,” Ramirez said. “She was afraid he was going to hurt himself. And when it became apparent the son wouldn’t come out of the bedroom, they should have stepped outside and called the mental health unit.”

“Time was on their side,” Ramirez added. “The worst-case scenario here should have been that they wait a few hours and then use tear gas to get him out safely. Anybody on the street could tell you what should have happened.”

Lopez said he does not know why officers did not turn to the crisis team for help.

“We are in the preliminary stages of this investigation, and I can’t make any conclusions at this time. We still have a number of unanswered questions.”

The state attorney general began an inquiry into the Jones shooting this week at the request of Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury. It is rare for Bradbury to request such an investigation, said Greg Totten, chief assistant district attorney.

But during a meeting Monday at an Oxnard church, Totten said that community members told prosecutors and police that they want a far-reaching investigation.

“Essentially, we were looking at this and looking at the concern on the part of the community,” Totten said. “And we think it’s likely the [attorney general] might be asked to review our work and our opinions anyway.”

In addition, Ramirez said he has asked staff members of Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) to talk with lawyers in the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles about a possible federal inquiry into the shooting and alleged profiling.

Gallegly spokesman Tom Pfeifer said Gallegly’s representatives need to talk more with Ramirez about the allegations before deciding whether to forward the case to federal lawyers.

“There will be follow-up discussions I’m sure about what he wants us to do, the facts behind his request,” Pfeifer said.

The racial profiling allegations against Oxnard police were first raised months ago, when Hatcher told the Ventura County Grand Jury that on several occasions young blacks had been allegedly stopped without good reason by officers in Oxnard and the Sheriff’s Department.

The grand jury found no wrongdoing in a case involving a Ventura newspaper reporter stopped by deputies in Moorpark.

Jurors came to no conclusions on the other cases because of a lack of documentation.

But local minority community representatives, including Ramirez, said they met with Louis Verdugo of the state attorney general’s civil rights division about a month ago to reinforce their belief that profiling is going on in Oxnard and elsewhere in the county.

A civil rights coalition spokesman is set to make a presentation on racial profiling to the new county grand jury, said David Rodriguez, district director for the League of United Latin American Citizens.

“We are in the process of getting to the bottom of this and recommending changes in public policy before it gets further out of hand,” Rodriguez said.

Times staff writer Margaret Talev contributed to this story.