Brett Kelman

TDS

Benjamin Meza was walking his dog across South Camino Real when he spotted the policemen down the street. They circled a car with their guns drawn, demanding that two suspected burglars step out of the vehicle. When the driver refused, an officer zapped him with a stun gun.

That could have been the end of it, but it wasn't. Despite the electric shock, the driver fought back. Officers tried to pull the suspect out of the car, but he clung to the wheel and hit the gas. The car lurched backwards, knocking three officers to the ground, then sped forward, the driver's side door hanging open, the headlights off.

Three officers opened fire despite a department policy that discourages shooting at a moving vehicle. One bullet flew by the car and down the dark neighborhood street. Pain shot through Meza's leg. The car drove off into the night.

Meza, an innocent bystander, was inadvertently shot by the Palm Springs Police Department on Jan. 9, 2013. He survived, but the shooting is just one example of the profound consequences when officers choose to use deadly force.

"If all they were doing was staking out a burglary suspect … I don't know why guns had to be involved at all," said Steve Abraham, 60, who lives on the street corner where Meza was shot. "I don't want people shooting ... down my street. Somebody that you care about might be standing in the way."

Although police officers are trained to use deadly force, gunshots are reserved as the last resort, and most officers go decades without shooting at a suspect and some never fire a weapon during a confrontation.

Over the past month, The Desert Sun studied more than 100 Riverside County police shootings, using public records to identify officers who have pulled the trigger in more than one incident. The Desert Sun conducted this first-ever analysis of regional police records in order to understand the frequency and circumstances of police shootings.

The analysis found that three Coachella Valley officers have fired a gun in the line of duty more than once since 2009.

The Desert Sun's analysis was made possible by a recent ruling from the California Supreme Court, which determined police departments should release the names of officers who fire their guns in the line of duty unless there is a specific threat against those officers. The ruling stemmed from a dispute between the Los Angeles Times and the Long Beach police union, who tried to halt the release of officers names. Many police departments have withheld these identities in the past, but the justices ruled "the public's interest in the conduct of its peace officers is particularly great because such shootings often lead to severe injury or death."

The three desert officers who've fired their guns more than once since 2009 are:

• Chad Nordman, a Palm Springs officer who fatally shot a Marine in November 2012, and then fired on the fleeing car on South Camino Real two months later.

• Alex Franco, an Indio officer who fired at two people after a car chase in September 2010, and then fatally shot a cyclist in the back in February 2013.

• Miguel Preciado, a Desert Hot Springs officer who killed an aggressive dog in October 2012, and then shot and killed a suspected car thief in August 2013.

Five deputies from the Riverside County Sheriff's Department have also fired their weapons twice since 2009, but nearly all of those shootings occurred in the western half of the county, mostly in the cities of Menifee, Lake Elsinore and the area of Highgrove.

Sheriff's deputy Robert Carrasco pulled the trigger the most. Since 2009, Carrasco has fired his gun in three separate shootings — two in the city of Jurupa Valley, once in the unincorporated area of Glen Avon. Two of the shootings were fatal.

The fact that these officers have fired their guns in more than one shooting does not necessarily mean they are prone to excessive force, said Geoffery Alpert, a deadly force expert at the University of South Carolina.

However, multiple shootings by a single officer should be a red flag for police supervisors, who must scrutinize the shootings, both individually and as a whole, to see if more gunfire can be prevented, Alpert said.

"Each time a trigger is pulled, there has to be an objective reason for pulling it," Alpert said. "Because they can be the judge, jury and executioner. You can't take the bullet back once you pull the trigger."

Despite the release of these names, the circumstances of many police shootings remain shrouded in secrecy.

Typically, after a police shooting, authorities disclose that a shooting "occurred" but release little or no detail. Later, after criminal and administrative investigations, the results are rarely publicized. Details must be gleaned from other sources, like witnesses and lawsuits.

Police officers are only supposed to use deadly force if they have a reasonable fear that a suspect presents an imminent threat of death or serious harm. In many shootings, years will pass before authorities reveal what prompted an officer to fire a gun, whether the victims had a weapon, or if they made any aggressive action at all. Sometimes this information is never released at all.

After the Supreme Court ruling, The Desert Sun filed public records requests with each of the police agencies that operate in the Coachella Valley. Officers' names were released by the sheriff, the California Highway Patrol and police departments in Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs and Indio.

The lone holdout has been the Palm Springs Police Department. Despite the Supreme Court ruling, the Palm Springs police union has taken the city and The Desert Sun to court in an effort to halt the release of these names, hoping to keep the officers' identities secret, much like the Long Beach union did in the California Supreme Court case.

The police union has argued the officers' names should stay secret because any officer who fires his gun is a victim of a crime, and therefore his identity should be protected by the California Victims' Bill of Rights. The union also argues the Supreme Court decision is not retroactive, and that the value of police anonymity outweighs the public's need to know.

Although Palm Springs withheld the names, The Desert Sun was able to identify nearly all of the officers through independent reporting.

Since 2009, the Coachella Valley has had at least 28 police shootings, about a third of which were fatal. Indio police recorded eight shootings, the most.

Elsewhere in the county, sheriff's deputies and highway patrol officers have fired their guns in at least 74 shootings during the same time period.

Some of these shootings involved as many as eight officers firing at once, unloading a hailstorm of bullets during a firefight. Others involved only one officer and few witnesses, prompting lawsuits and claims of excessive force. At least one was an accident, a bullet fired into the ground by an inadvertent trigger squeeze.

This shooting tally excludes 101 incidents in which sheriff's deputies fired at dogs, including 23 in the valley. The sheriff's department contends dog shootings are not subject to public review and declined to identify the officers who shot their guns in these incidents.

Nationwide, hundreds of people a year are killed in confrontations with law enforcement. The number of officers killed in the line of duty is also rising after years of decline. About 400 people are killed each year in "justifiable homicides" by law enforcement, according to FBI statistics. This count only includes people who were shot in the commission of a felony, and excludes victims who were wrongly shot by police.

Thirty-eight police officers have been killed in attacks so far in 2014, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Law enforcement deaths had been dropping over the prior three years: 72 were killed in 2011; 48 were killed in 2012; and 27 were killed in 2013.

Few recent police shootings have drawn the level of criticism as the Aug. 9 killing of an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis. Police have said that Michael Brown, 18, was shot after he attacked an officer, but witnesses have disputed the story, insisting Brown was shot after he raised his arms to surrender. The death spurred protests, riots and an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. Ferguson police identified the officer who shot Brown, Darren Wilson, on Friday.

Shot in the back

In the final moments of Valentine's Day, six gunshots pierced the night air in Indio. A young man screamed, then collapsed on the ground at the base of a chain-link fence. One bullet had struck him in the buttocks, then blasted out his chest. Another tore into his abdomen.

Alejandro Rendon, a 23-year-old farm-worker, was trying to run away.

An unarmed cyclist, Rendon was shot twice by Indio police Officer Alex Franco, one of the three desert police officers to have fired his gun in more than one incident since 2009. Franco shot Rendon about 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 14, 2013. Rendon was declared dead an hour later at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage.

One of the last people to see Rendon alive was his sister, Margarita.

Rendon left her apartment on his bicycle, headed for their mother's house, about an hour before the shooting. "See you tomorrow," she said as he stepped out the door. The next day, as Margarita worked on a farm in Thermal, she got a tearful call from her sister.

"She just said 'Our brother is dead,' " Margarita Rendon told The Desert Sun on Wednesday. "I didn't believe it. It didn't hit me until the day I saw him in his casket. That was the day ... I knew he was gone."

Rendon was shot on Miles Avenue in a residential area of central Indio, after Franco spotted him during a routine patrol. Franco decided to stop the "suspicious" cyclist, who may have been missing a headlight.

Rendon had marijuana and methamphetamine in his system and tried to flee from the officer. He abandoned his bicycle on the sidewalk, then rushed toward the chain-link fence. Franco stopped his car in the roadway, then stepped out of the driver's side door.

What happened next is a matter of dispute.

According to federal court documents, Franco said that at the moment he shot the cyclist, Rendon was facing him, staring him down over the hood of the patrol car. Rendon was unarmed, but Franco said the young man raised his hands together, as if he was holding a pistol.

Two experts have disputed Franco's story, insisting that Rendon was shot in the back as he tried to escape over the fence.

Dr. Michael Baden, a retired medical examiner and forensic pathologist, and Ronald Scott, a retired ballistics expert from the Massachusetts State Police, both said Rendon's bullet wounds reveal he was shot from behind and below as he swung over the fence.

These experts testified on behalf of Rendon's family, who sued the Indio Police Department two months after the shooting. A federal jury awarded the family $1.9 million in July.

For Margarita, this verdict only raised more questions. If the experts had said Franco's story was false, and a jury had found enough evidence to rule against the police department, why was there not enough evidence to arrest Franco? Why does he still work at the department?

"I don't think any money in the world is going to bring my brother back," Margarita Rendon said. "And (Franco) is still out there, happy. He still gets to go to his family to have dinner, have Christmas. But we don't get to see my brother anymore. ... It's not fair that he gets to be happy while we are not. That's not justice. He killed an innocent person. He deserves to be in jail just like anyone else. If it had been me, or you, or anybody else, we would be serving, like, a 25-to-life sentence in prison."

Despite testimony that questions Franco's version of the shooting, the Indio Police Department supported the officer's decision to fire on the cyclist.

The sheriff's department, which conducted a criminal investigation of the shooting, said they did not find probable cause that Franco had committed any crime. The shooting was investigated by the central homicide unit, and their findings "corroborated" Franco's version of the shooting, according to a department statement.

The Rendon shooting was Franco's second shooting in three years. The officer also fired on a two-door sedan in the early morning hours of Sept. 26, 2010.

The 2010 incident began when Franco tried to pull over the sedan while driving south on Calhoun Street about 1:30 a.m. The sedan fled, so Franco chased the car through Coachella, where it crashed into roadside shrubs on La Playa Street.

As two men stepped out of the car, attempting to flee on foot, Franco opened fire. Both suspects ran from the scene. The passenger, a 17-year-old, was found later, unharmed. The driver was never caught, so it is unclear if he was shot.

Following questions from The Desert Sun over the past week, the Indio Police Department and sheriff's department released new details about the 2010 shooting.

Sgt. Daniel Marshall, a department spokesman, said Franco initially tried to pull over the sedan because it was speeding with no headlights. Franco also realized the sedan matched the description of a vehicle involved in a drive-by shooting in Coachella.

After the crash, the driver immediately fled, but the teenaged passenger stayed in the car, suspiciously digging under the seat. Franco shouted for the suspect to stay still, but he jumped out of the sedan with "his hands obscured," according to a statement from the sheriff's department.

"Based on the violent nature of the investigation that led to the pursuit, the passenger's suspicious movements and the refusal to comply with commands not to move, Officer Franco believed his life was in immediate danger and discharged his firearm at the passenger," the sheriff's department said.

Marshall said a .22-caliber rifle was found in the backyard of a house close to where the passenger was caught, and that matching ammunition was found in the passenger's possession.

The sheriff's department investigated this shooting as well. Franco was cleared.

In an emailed statement, Indio Police Chief Richard Twiss said police shootings are tragic incidents that "occur rapidly."

"Split second decisions must be made, which affect many lives and communities. This is why such a thorough multi-agency investigative process is embraced by the Indio Police Department," Twiss said in the statement.

Franco declined an interview. In an email, the officer said both shootings had been investigated, and that his goal was to "move on in (his) career."

Marine killed in Palm Springs parking garage

In Palm Springs, Nordman's shootings involved two suspects who were fleeing, one who died after being shot. Police will not answer questions about either incident.

Nordman was one of two police officers who shot at Twentynine Palms Marine Cpl. Allan DeVillena II on Nov. 10, 2012.

The shooting occurred about 2 a.m., when DeVillena, 22, and another Marine, Pfc. Clinton Harris, entered a downtown parking garage to retrieve their car after an evening in the bars along Palm Canyon Drive. The two Marines climbed into a black Chrysler 300, then drove to the bottom floor of the garage to talk to a group of women who had gathered for a bachelorette party.

According to a police news release, which did not name the officers, Nordman and another officer, Mike Heron, were drawn to the garage by the sounds of shouting. Inside, they saw the two Marines — recognizing them from a public intoxication call earlier that night — about to drive away. The officers shouted for the Marines to stop, but the Marines ignored orders and the Chrysler kept moving.

"One of the officers (Nordman) climbed partially through the passenger side window, attempting to stop the vehicle," the release said. "The suspect accelerated directly toward the second officer (Heron), striking him and continued on with the initial officer suspended from the passenger side window. ... In the course of these events, fearing for their safety and the safety of others, both officers discharged their weapons."

DeVillena was shot six times and died at the scene. Harris was unhurt.

Although the Palm Springs Police Department has insisted the shooting was an act of self-defense, a witness has disputed this story, insisting that the shooting was "malicious" and the officers are "murderers."

Lesley Lynn Diggins, 42, the designated driver for the bachelorette party, said in a sworn deposition that DeVillena never struck a police officer with his car, nor was he driving at an officer when police opened fire.

"There was no need for self-defense. There was nothing they needed to defend themselves from," Diggins told The Desert Sun in June.

The DeVillena shooting is currently under examination by the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, where it has been for about a year. DA spokesman John Hall said earlier this month the office had received "new information" about the shooting, but he refused to provide any more details.

DeVillena's family has filed a lawsuit in federal court, but the suit is stuck in a holding pattern, waiting for a decision from the DA's office.

Nordman and Heron were put on administrative leave after the shooting, but both officers were back on duty by the start of January. Less than two weeks later, Nordman fired at the fleeing car on South Camino Real.

In that shooting, police had set up a stakeout outside an apartment complex, watching a parked car, hoping to catch suspects from a recent home burglary. Police officers descended on the car as two men climbed inside. Although the passenger was captured, the driver sped off, prompting three officers to fire down the street, inadvertently hitting Meza, the bystander.

According to the Palm Springs Police Department, officers at the scene shot at the car because the driver backed the vehicle into three officers — seriously injuring them — before he drove off.

It is not clear which officer fired the bullet that struck Meza, but public records confirm that Nordman was one of the officers who fired.

Palm Springs Police Department policy discourages officers from shooting at a moving vehicle, which the policy manual says is "rarely effective." Officers are only supposed to fire at a vehicle if it is heading toward them and there is no way to get out of the way, or if there is another threat of deadly force — like a gun pointed out the window — directed at the officers or others.

Despite this policy, officers fired on the fleeing car. Abraham, a nearby resident, was watching the news at home when he heard echoes from down the street: Pop, pop, pop.

Abraham's partner said someone must have been lighting firecrackers, but Abraham — who had been raised in a house with firearms — recognized the unmistakable crack of gunshots.

He stepped out of his front door to investigate. A man's voice came from the street.

"I've been shot!" the man shouted.

Abraham peered over the wooden gate at the edge of his yard. Meza sat on the curb, a police officer tending to his wound, a yellow Labrador by his side. Blood pooled on the asphalt.

During an interview on Monday, Abraham questioned why police fired their guns at all. Even if a burglary suspect had backed into the officers with his vehicle, he was no longer a threat once he started to drive away. Abraham asked: Why would police risk a shootout on a residential street?

"I can't put myself in their place, I don't understand the fears they face, and I know it would be a terrible world without them," Abraham said. "But on the other side of it, it seems like every time we turn around … I hear about somebody — who probably shouldn't have been shot — being shot by a police revolver."

Meza, who has filed a lawsuit against the police department, could not be reached for comment. A settlement is under discussion in the lawsuit.

The fleeing driver was Juan Lopez Villanueva, 18, who had gotten out of jail only eight days before.

After escaping from the police on South Camino Real, Villanueva drove to Cathedral City, where he was spotted again by police, then hid in his house in a standoff with officers. Eleven hours later, Villanueva surrendered to officers, no longer able to withstand the pain of a single bullet wound, according to the police department. Officers found a loaded gun in his car.

Villanueva has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges.

The Palm Springs Police Department declined to answer any questions about the DeVillena shooting in 2012 or the Meza shooting in 2013. Because the police union has taken the city to court in an effort to halt the release of officers' names, the police department is the subject of a temporary court order that forbids them from releasing any information about any police shootings.

Nordman could not be reached for comment.

Gunfire in Desert Hot Springs

In Desert Hot Springs, Officer Miguel Preciado fired his gun in two shootings in less than a year.

The first shooting occurred on Oct. 27, 2012, when Preciado and other officers encountered an aggressive dog. According to the police department, the "vicious pitbull" had trapped a man inside of his car, prompting him to call police for help. Police tried to control the animal, but when it charged at officers, Preciado and another officer opened fire, killing the dog.

The officers followed the policy of the police department, the agency said.

Although the shooting occurred nearly two years ago, it has never been previously reported by The Desert Sun or other local media, suggesting the Desert Hot Springs Police Department withheld information about the shooting after it occurred.

Ten months later, during a short car chase on Aug. 22, 2013, Preciado fired his gun again.

The chase began when Desert Hot Springs police spotted a stolen car on Hacienda Avenue. After a brief chase, two suspects jumped out of the vehicle at El Cajon Drive, then fled on foot toward La Mesa Drive. Preciado confronted one of the suspects, Eulizez Rodriguez, 24, then shot him to death. Rodriguez was a previously convicted gang member with a pending warrant for drug and gun crimes.

Neither the Desert Hot Springs Police Department nor the Riverside County Sheriff's Department would say what prompted Preciado to open fire or if Rodriguez had a weapon when he was shot.

The sheriff's department, which was called in to conduct a criminal investigation, said it could not comment on the shooting because the Riverside County District Attorney's Office is still reviewing their findings.

Preciado could not be reached for comment.

Steve Quintanilla, an attorney for the Desert Hot Springs Police Department, said privacy laws forbid him from disclosing whether Preciado followed department policy when he shot Rodriguez.

"I have a duty to both the public and to police officers who risk their lives to protect the community," Quintanilla wrote in an email to The Desert Sun. "And believe it or not, protecting their privacy does in many cases protect their safety."

Sheriff's shootings

Robert Carrasco, a sheriff's deputy at the Jurupa Valley Station, is the only officer among the desert police departments or the sheriff's department to have fired his gun in three shootings since 2009.

Carrasco fired his weapon while responding to two shootings and a report of a stolen car. The sheriff's department said Friday that all three shootings were in accordance with the law and department policy.

• On Sept. 24, 2010, deputies responded to a report of a shooting on Hastings Boulevard in Glen Avon, where they found an injured woman. When a man at the scene refused to drop a handgun, Carrasco and five other deputies opened fire. Francisco Ortega, 34, of Glen Avon, died at the scene. Although the shooting happened nearly four years ago, his name was not released until Friday.

• On Jan. 23, 2013, Carrasco shot at a stolen sedan after a short car chase on Wagon Train Lane in Jurupa Valley. A 17-year-old boy received a non-threatening bullet wound. The sheriff's department said Friday that Carrasco shot the teen because the suspect ignored orders to stay in the sedan and keep his hands in view. When the teen opened the car door, Carrasco shot him. The teen had a knife, the department said.

• Five months later, on June 25, 2013, Carrasco was one of several deputies who responded to a reportof a shooting on 45th Street in Jurupa Valley. At the scene, a man in a vehicle accelerated at a group of officers, prompting Carrasco and four other deputies to fire at the oncoming car. The driver, Anthony Thompson, 34, was killed.

In a statement, the sheriff's department said it has a strict policy about use of force, and all shootings are closely evaluated to ensure they are "necessary and consistent with the public trust."

Desert Sun Reporters Reza Gostar and Colin Atagi contributed to this report. Brett Kelman can be reached by phone at (760) 778-4642.

BY THE NUMBERS

• At least 28 police shootings in the Coachella Valley since 2009

• About 30 percent were fatal

• Three desert police officers have fired their guns in more than one incident

• 74 more shootings by sheriff's deputies and California Highway Patrol officers in the rest of Riverside County

• Five deputies have been in two shootings, one was in three

Source: Public law enforcement records