Officials Confirm State Is Probing Killing by Officer

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

The NAACP and the family of Robert Lee Jones have asked federal officials to consider opening a civil rights inquiry into the death of Jones, 23, who was killed after his mother called police to their home about 10:40 a.m.

The civil rights group and Jones’ family allege that the shooting was unnecessary and that Jones had been a victim of racial profiling by Oxnard police earlier this year. He was arrested in March while walking near his home, but cleared in court on a charge of resisting arrest.

About a month before Jones died, a coalition of community groups had met with lawyers from the state attorney general’s office to complain about racial profiling in Ventura County and had cited his 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.”

Police Chief Art Lopez denied that racial profiling is a problem in his department. He said he is unaware of a half-dozen alleged cases 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.”

Oxnard police have fatally shot four others this year. A fifth person survived.

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 shot him three times with beanbags before Officer George Tamayo, an eight-year veteran, fired the fatal shot.

Though 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,” he said. “It’s a burgeoning problem not only in Ventura County but in other counties throughout the state.”

Because four of the people killed by police this year were mentally disturbed, Oxnard Councilman Bedford Pinkard said, he supports a new training regimen.

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

Attorney Ramirez said officers should have called a special Ventura 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. The worst-case scenario here should have been that they wait a few hours and then use tear gas to get him out safely.”

The state attorney general began an inquiry into the shooting this week at the request of Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury.

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Times staff writer Margaret Talev contributed to this story.