LA County District Attorney Findings

The Justice System Integrity Division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has completed its review of the July 10, 2005, fatal shooting of Jose Raul Lemus Pena and Suzie Marie Pena by Los Angeles Police Officers Matthew Valencia, Jeff Ennis, Samuel Marullo, Gina Holstrom, John Rusth, Dennis O'Sullivan, Benjamin Santero, Dan Sanchez, William Casey, Robert Gallegos, Jr. and Eduardo Perez. We have concluded that the officers acted lawfully in self‑defense and in defense of others.

The following analysis is based upon reports prepared by the Los Angeles Police Department submitted...

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Comments

[Cicero Lite]

As I sat yesterday listing to the nattering nay-bobs (myopic reporters and so-called community activist) I wished I could have been the person answering some of the inane, often rhetorical, questions. Allow me to outline my fantasy interview:

Reporter (R): Why couldn't the investigation determine the bullet that killed Lil Susie Pena?

Fantasy answer (FA): No bullet was recovered from the child's body. More than one SWAT officer fired that type of weapon.

BUT WHY DOES IT MATTER!!! Identifying the officer would change nothing. Had Raul Pena survived that day, it would have been HE, not any officer, who would have stood trial for Susie's death.

R: How does this affect the officers? (Here's a question never pondered nor asked all day)

Not knowing whose bullet killed Susie is a two edged sword: each officer shares a sense of doubt that perhaps it was not his bullet that killed the child; and yet, each officer will forever live with the thought that he may have fired the bullet that killed a child.

R: Why didn't the police negotiate longer?

FA: Negotiating is a two-way street. Pena hung up on the officers and refused to talk. Five minutes before the final shootout, he had said he and the child would be dead before he'd let his wife have the baby.

Then he referred to himself as Tony Montana, "Scarface."

Remember what waiting got the police at Columbine HS? A dead teacher. There was never negotiating at all. The suspects always intended to kill and die. Yet, the police held out for hope. Well, hope lies next to hopeless in the dictionary. Lessons learned from Columbine was the PD has to be ready to enter at any moment, and sometimes that moment includes that reality that a hostage is a risk, gets shot, or dies, in the trade off that more are saved.

R: Given the Pena’s threats, wouldn't it have been better to pull back and wait?

FA: Damned if you do, damned if you don't!

Can you imagine the criticism the PD would be hearing had the police NOT confronted Pena, and he had shot the child, as he threatened? It would be Columbine criticism all over again!

Pena's threats were NOT the impetus for the final assault on Pena, but it sure must have had an effect on the officers' state of mind when they decided to follow Pena into the office.

When the officer in the armored car saw a chance to shoot Pena, he took the shot. He thought he got him. The assault team reacted immediately, but when they got to the place they expected to find Pena, he was not there. Apparently, only winged, Pena ran back into the interior office, from which he was monitoring the officers on 8 surveillance cameras.

The SWAT officers had to make a split-second decision: back off or go after him. With Pena's threats in their mind, they must have figured...."crap, he’s wounded; he’s going to be even more pissed; he threatened to kill her; he’s going to do it now for sure."

They had an instant to decide, and once they chose, they had to be committed, as a team.

Then, just think, as they approached the room, Pena was shooting at them through the wall...
“Shoot or no shoot…NO, wait.”
“Distract him with a flash bang…enter…”
“Officer down…pull him out of the way…and keep going.”

My God! They must have wanted to change their minds a hundred times in those seconds, but desperation is the mother of courage!

Had the officer in the armored car killed Pena with that one shot, he’d be called a hero today. If the officers’ entry resulted in rescuing Susie, they would have been regarded as heroes today. Well, I think they are heroes!!!

I recall the LAPD sergeant who killed a deranged man holding a hostage at the Mexican consult a few years ago. How many of us can or have to make decisions like that?

Damned if they do; damned if they don’t!

R: So the DA says the officers were justified in shooting in self defense. How can officers shoot when an innocent is at risk?

FA: Well, first those officers, all the eleven officers, fired in self defense of other, NOT themselves. People forget that three other captives (the 17-year-old step daughter and two employees) were rescued by LAPD officers. Unfortunately, Susie could not be rescued. The officers’ first intent was never to kill anyone, even Pena, but to rescue Susie and the others. When they had to shoot Pena, it was to save Susie.

Before the final SWAT shootout with Pena, patrol officers had put themselves in harms way to rescue those three other people. And now the step-daughter joins her mother and lawyer today condemning the officers. That is just madness!

R: But those patrol officers were shooting at Pena while he was holding the baby.

FA: According to the DA, the police shot a total of 90 bullets in the 2+ hour incident. Pena was not injured in those initial shots, while he was holding Susie, in spite of officers using rifles. I would venture a guess that many of those initial shots by police were covering fire to keep Pena at bay while they broke open the security gates and pulled the 17 year old to safety. With all those officers shooting, and some using rifles, I would think a bullet would have hit Pena if they were really trying.

One important consideration the officers must have had was to keep Pena contained within the car lot. What danger would he have posed had he been allowed to leave the car lot? Every person in that neighborhood was at risk. No officer could know this deranged man’s drug-influenced mind.

R: Was Susie’s death inevitable that day?

FA: No! Raul Pena could have surrendered at any time! He could have squirreled her away in a place of safety or given her over to police.

The officers would never let themselves think that way.

But looking back now, being able to read Raul’s intentions and knowing his level of intoxication, it is not unrealistic to consider that Susie’s death was nearly inevitable that day? Raul’s actions and threats certainly speak to that.

While the police must adjust to the suspect’s actions, they do have to be smarter and better.

R: Is it asking too much for the officers to be perfect?

FA: All the cops I know, they will be their own harshest critics. They’re going to learn as much from this tragedy as they can.

I was amazed to learn that prior to this incident, LAPD SWAT had been involved in 3000 barricaded suspect incidents and 200 hostage situations, and they had never lost a hostage! What other PD in the nation can boast such a record?

End of news conference

As a father, I find it amazing that these men, most fathers with children of their own, would risk their lives to rescue another man’s child…the child of a man who is shooting at them all the while. And one of those officers (a father) took a bullet for Susie!

Given that, I don’t see how others can stand in judgment and criticism of these officers.

What amazed me most about yesterday was that in all the questions asked, it was as if Raul Pena was never there, not responsible for any thing that happened.

Tragically, parents kill their children everyday. Raul Pena found a way to do it that turned the light and society’s focus off him and put it on to the one part of society that made a valiant effort to spoil Raul’s murderous plan.

Given the drugs found in the child’s system, it looks like Raul had a back up plan to kill Susie in a slower way, just in case his first plan did not work.

May God rest your soul Susie, and bring solace to your mother and family. And to the officers, you did your best, and vast, silent majority thanks you for your sacrifice. I little bit of all right-thinking people died with Susie Pena that day, but the responsibility and blame lies only with one person, Raul Pena.

[Centurion]

I'm glad DA Cooley's Office conducted an objective investigation and didn't cave into public opinion.