33 cops fired 600 shots to stop Stockton bank robbers

This Thursday, July 17, 2014 booking photo provided by the Stockton Police Department shows Jaime Ramos, 19, who was booked on suspicion of homicide, kidnapping, robbery and attempted murder in a Stockton, Calif. bank robbery that led to a high speed chase. Two other suspects were killed and two of the hostages were wounded during the ensuing chase. The third hostage, who police believe was used as a human shield, was found dead in the SUV after the shootout.. (AP Photo/Stockton Police Department) less This Thursday, July 17, 2014 booking photo provided by the Stockton Police Department shows Jaime Ramos, 19, who was booked on suspicion of homicide, kidnapping, robbery and attempted murder in a Stockton, ... more Photo: Associated Press Photo: Associated Press Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close 33 cops fired 600 shots to stop Stockton bank robbers 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

Thirty-three Stockton police officers fired more than 600 shots last year at the getaway car used by three bank robbers, who took three women hostage and entered into a rolling gunbattle with cops that killed one of the hostages after she was struck by 10 police bullets, according to a report released Monday.

The review by the Police Foundation, titled “A Heist Gone Bad,” said officers made “a great many smart and courageous decisions.” But it said 600 shots were “excessive and unnecessary,” with some officers firing only because they saw their colleagues firing, and many officers shooting “after the threat had been eliminated.”

The 60-page report came as the husband of Misty Holt-Singh, the 41-year-old hostage killed by police gunfire, planned to file a civil lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Stockton, saying police used excessive force in their response.

The July 16, 2014, episode, in which two of the three suspects were killed by police after a botched robbery at a Bank of the West branch, was one of the most violent and chaotic clashes between cops and criminals in law enforcement history, authors of the report wrote.

The rampage that saw the suspects fleeing at over 100 mph in a hostage’s Ford Explorer while recklessly spraying gunfire from an AK-47 assault rifle was complicated by a bankrupt city’s cash-strapped police force staffed by many rookie officers with limited equipment and resources, the report found.

Jim Bueermann, the head of the Police Foundation and a retired police chief of Redlands (San Bernardino County), said the report was not intended to “criticize or blame the men and women of the Stockton Police Department,” but to “provide lessons learned that can then be applied in the field, increasing the safety of both law enforcement personnel and civilians.”

Among the findings was that after the suspects’ vehicle was disabled, dozens of officers fanned out and many opened fire. “There were no dedicated shooters,” the report said. “There was very little control, just police officers trying to stop a threat.”

Two hostages had escaped, with one jumping from the moving vehicle and another being forced out after one of the suspects accidentally shot her. But in the end, Holt-Singh lay dead, with officers saying a surviving suspect, 20-year-old Jaime Ramos, probably used her as a human shield in the backseat of the sport utility vehicle.

In the front seat, Gilbert Renteria Jr., 30, and Alex Martinez, 27, both documented Norteño gang members from Stockton, were shot dead. Prosecutors have sought the death penalty for Ramos.

Paul Singh, Holt-Singh’s husband, planned to announce a lawsuit against the city of Stockton on Tuesday after filing a legal claim, a precursor to a civil suit, earlier this year.

“The information discovered about the tragedy of that day only confirms that city of Stockton police officers violated numerous standard police protocols in their response,” the family’s attorney, Gregory Bentley, said in a January statement.

The report noted that 100 veteran officers had left the department in the wake of the city’s 2012 bankruptcy, leaving mostly officers with limited training on the force. What’s more, the department, due to cutbacks, had no air support of its own to assist in the chase, the report stated.

“One of the frustrations we repeatedly heard during our interview with Stockton police officers was they were dealing with an event that they had never trained for, let alone truly considered,” Bueermann wrote.

The men fired more than 200 rounds, disabling 14 police vehicles during the hour-long pursuit that Bueermann described as a “law enforcement nightmare.”

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky