Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutOIS2012-0007 Officer Garcia interview-Andersen_Redacted S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 1 of 29 CASE NAME: LEON, IGNACIO JR CLASSIFICATION: OFFICER INVOLVED SHOOTING (NON-FATAL) INTERVIEW OF: OFFICER DAVID GARCIA, ID #3231 SANTA ANA POLICE DEPARTMENT PRESENT: DETECTIVE LEO RODROGUEZ, ID #2408 SANTA ANA POLICE DEPARTMENT ATTORNEY ATTORNEY AT LAW DATE AND TIME: JANUARY 7, 2013 1016-1100 HOURS LOCATION: SANTA ANA POLICE DEPARTMENT On the above date and time, I conducted an audio digital recorded interview of Santa Ana Police Officer DAVID GARCIA in reference to the officer involved shooting incident involving IGNACIO LEON JR. Prior to the interview, I ascertained that GARCIA’s statement was free and voluntary. The following is a transcript of the interview: LEGEND: ... Denotes pauses between words or phrases, incomplete sentence, Stammering, etc. (Does not indicate missing words). *** Denotes unintelligible conversation. (Sic)Denotes precisely reproduced word. ANDERSEN: Today’s date is uh Monday, January 7, 2013. The time is approximately 1016 hours. This is an interview with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office regarding Special Assignments case 12-031. My name is Investigator BRETT ANDERSEN, and I’ll go around the room… ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION INTERVIEW REPORT S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 2 of 29 RODRIGUEZ: Detective LEO RODRIGUEZ, badge 2408, CAP Homicide unit. ANDERSEN: Go ahead. GARCIA: Officer DAVID GARCIA, badge number 3231, Patrol. Attorney , no badge number. ANDERSEN: Okay. Um, DAVID, is it DAVE or DAVID, what do you prefer? GARCIA: DAVID. ANDERSEN: DAVID. GARCIA: Yes sir. ANDERSEN: Okay. Um is this a free and voluntary statement? GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: And has anyone from your agency ordered you to give a statement? GARCIA: No. No. ANDERSEN: Okay. He has given a coerced statement to…uh…Internal Affairs or Professional Standards on the night of the incident. ANDERSEN: Okay. But nobody has ordered him to be here today. ANDERSEN: Okay. Great. Thank you for clarifying that. And do you feel compelled to give a statement because the District Attorney’s Office is involved? GARCIA: No. ANDERSEN: Okay. uh, how long have you worked for the Santa Ana Police Department? GARCIA: I’ve worked approximately coming up to three years. ANDERSEN: Okay. Have you worked for another agency before Santa Ana? GARCIA: No. S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 3 of 29 ANDERSEN: And on the night of the incident that we’re talking about…uh, how were you dressed or what were you wearing? GARCIA: I was wearing my patrol uniform, short sleeved shirt, with my duty belt. Um gun, Taser, two magazines, asp and a radio and set of cuffs. : The manner in which you were dressed, was that photographed on the night of the incident by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department? GARCIA: Yes it was. ANDERSEN: And as far as the duty weapon goes what uh, what make and model do you carry? GARCIA: I carry a Glock 22, 40 caliber. ANDERSEN: And uh you obviously there was one magazine in the weapon. How many extras do you carry? GARCIA: Two. ANDERSEN: And do you carry a backup weapon? GARCIA: No, I don’t. ANDERSEN: Okay. And you said you do carry a Taser, right? GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: Okay. Do you know which one it is? Is it the M26 or X26? What do you guys carry? GARCIA: I believe it’s the X26, but don’t quote me on that *** ANDERSEN: All right. That’s good enough. And then on your Glock 22, you know what the magazine capacity is? GARCIA: 15 plus one in the chamber. S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 4 of 29 ANDERSEN: The um…on that night do you remember what unit number you were driving? If you do it’s… GARCIA: No. I don’t recall. ANDERSEN: Okay. Do you remember what your call sign was? GARCIA: 345. ANDERSEN: Were you working alone or did you have a partner? GARCIA: I was working a solo unit. ANDERSEN: Okay. Were there any other vehicle…or any other weapons in the vehicle? GARCIA: Yes, I had my um AR 15, and I believe there was, yeah, the Ruger inside the vehicle. ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: Or shotgun, one of the two. ANDERSEN: And did all those stay in the car that night? GARCIA: I… ANDERSEN: I mean as far as when you deployed to the call. GARCIA: Yes, yes. ANDERSEN: Okay. Do you remember the date and time of the call? GARCIA: Ah yes, ah December 15, I believe it was ah 2345 or 40 hours, something like that. ANDERSEN: Okay. And um, what was the…what was the call at the time? GARCIA: Um, we were dispatched to it’s called a 927, unknown trouble, um to that location, basically dispatched to that, an anonymous female called saying that she heard an argument and things being broken or something like that. Um on this…on Washington approximately at 506 E. Washington. S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 5 of 29 ANDERSEN: Okay. And when you were dispatched to that, were you dispatched alone or did you have an assisting unit assigned? GARCIA: I was assisted by my partner Officer ALCALA. ANDERSEN: Okay. (THROAT CLEARING) Once you were assigned to the call, um how long did it take you to arrive? GARCIA: We were…uh…pretty close to call actually, so I would say maybe a minute, maybe two… ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: …at the most. ANDERSEN: And once you arrived um, rather than going question for question, question, once you arrive, if you want to just you know tell me what happened and then if there’s, if there’s questions in the meantime I’ll try to keep the interruptions to a minimum. If in fact at any point you want to refer to these photos… GARCIA: Okay. ANDERSEN: …and if it’s okay with you, I’ll number these number one, two, three, and four? That’s fine. Can we either get copies of the photo, or do you mind if I take a photo of photos. ANDERSEN: Oh, I’ll get you copies, if you want, whichever way you want to… Oh copies would probably be best. ANDERSEN: Yeah. We can run those through the machine real quick. We can do it after the interview. ANDERSEN: Okay. Yeah try to…uh…remind me in case I forget. Okay. So once, (THROAT CLEARING) once you and your partner Officer ALCALA arrive what…uh, what happens? S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 6 of 29 GARCIA: Um, I was the first one on scene. I parked my vehicle, um maybe ten feet from uh photo number one to the west of this. Where I could have eyes on the front door to 506, and I saw there was nobody outside on the street or anything or like that on Washington. Um, when I first got out I obviously locked my vehicle and looked at the front door and I saw a male…not wearing a shirt, um… at the…uh, entrance of the front door to 506. Um, he sees me, I see him and he immediately closes the door. Um, in the back of my head, I’m thinking okay I may have found um you know somebody involved. My partner shows up behind me shortly. I tell him hey let’s go check out this house, this male just saw me, no shirt um saw me goes back inside so, let’s go check it out and make sure they’re okay. He gets out…we start walking east. I approach the house walking through the carport clearing these veh…this, uh…rear vehicle and the SUV in the driveway. ANDERSEN: Do you mean the black one in the photo right, photo number one? GARCIA: Yes, photo number one the black SUV. Um so I clear this area as he approaches the door through the actual entrance and we both make our way south towards the entrance. I start walking towards the porch and meet up with my partner, who is already there. We knock on the door, this same male that I saw opens the door, we tell him hey, um you know we got called out, do you hear anything, did you see anything? He says you know what I’m here with my wife, my kids, um I actually did hear something…uh, people fighting, um it either came from the street or the apartment above. Um, I told my partner hey let’s check it out and make sure he’s not lying to us. Um, we asked permission from the male, he says yeah come on in. My partner um goes immediately in as I’m about to break the threshold to house, my attention is drawn to…back to the S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 7 of 29 driveway, where I hear a sound of um somebody crashing or hitting or something against a vehicle. It’s a distinct sound. I mean we all do it. We hit at the car and you know it makes that distinct sound so immediately my attention…um I turn my head around and I’m still standing by the threshold of the door and I look this way and I see a male…uh, wearing…all shaved head, or buzzed haircut, um wearing all dark clothing. Um, he’s…uh running, um…through the driveway south from um…from the uh…black SUV, he’s running south. I look and I’m able to see he’s grabbing onto his waistband, so um, in the back of my head I’m thinking, okay, um we may found the actual person involved, he’s running. Um, it was, it was one of those where I…I, thought I had an idea of that he might be involved because our patrol cars were standing outside. No normal person sees a car and you know… ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: …takes off, just because. ANDERSEN: Right. GARCIA: Um, so I tell my partner, hey DANNY, we got a runner, um, he goes okay, let’s go. Um…we give chase south. ANDERSEN: Mind if I turn this a little bit so I can see, I’m completely upside down here. Okay. GARCIA: So we run south through the carport. We make it…uh, all the way towards to the detached garage. As uh… as I break the corner I lose sight of the male, um break the corner to the garage, I’m sorry. ANDERSEN: Now we’re look…I’m sorry now we’re looking at photo number two, and this is the garage you’re referring to, right, the big white structure on the right side of the photo. S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 8 of 29 GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: Um, I lose sight of this male. Um, clearly wearing all dark clothing. Um, at the same time I see unknown male at the time, I never got a chance to speak with this male walking south or actually, I’m sorry, walking west from I believe there was a staircase here. Um, he’s walking calmly and immediately he sees me and he goes hey, you know, I, nothing…I, in, in the head…in the back of my head I say, that guy’s not involved, let’s keep on looking for this guy. Um… ANDERSEN: Are these the stairs you’re referencing? ‘Cause this is…is this the garage you’re talking about. GARCIA: Yes. Yes. ANDERSEN: Are these the stairs? GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: Did he come down off the stairs? GARCIA: He was, he was somewhere around this area. ANDERSEN: Okay. And when you say this area you’re talking about the ground at end of the stairs. GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: And we’ll make this… Six. ANDERSEN: Is it six, yeah we’ll make it six. Or five, five. ANDERSEN: I’m sorry didn’t mean to interrupt you there. GARCIA: Um, so I see him, he sees me, he says hey, you know, immediately shows his hands. I go not involved. I continue my way south at the same time as I’m S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 9 of 29 continuing south I’m able to hear sounds that are distinct to somebody throwing things or evading you know, because they’re hitting objects or something as they’re running along. Um I see male standing in photo number two, standing right outside the, the entrance door to ah I want to say entrance door to the garage. ANDERSEN: And you’re talking about that side door right there. GARCIA: Yes, the side door, and he’s out there smoking a cigarette. He’s ah, he does the same thing, he goes hey, “nothing.” I go okay, that’s doesn’t match the description, doesn’t have the dark clothing. Um, as I clearing that in the back of my head, my partner is behind me and I make it all the way down to, ah over here photo number three. I make it down here to this brick area. As I’m standing there, I able to hear to my west, across this, I want to say wooden fence. ANDERSEN: And west meaning to the right in the photo, right. GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: To the right. Um, I’m gonna go to hear the same thing, um somebody kicking off *** which distinct I mean based on my training, somebody’s running away. ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: Trying to evade capture or something for some unknown reason. Um, I told my partner, hey I think he’s running. The same time I look back and the male smoking the cigarette outside. He signals me. He doesn’t say anything. He signals with his finger. He doesn’t point, he does the ah, from down, up, kinda like telling me he jumped over type of thing. ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 10 of 29 GARCIA: I tell him that and I’m still hearing the smell, ah I, I mean the, the noises. I tell my partner he’s running west, he’s running west. Um, I’ll check this area you go catch him on Lacey, it’s the residents down… ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: My partner takes off and he, he eventually ends up on Lacey. Um, at the same time that my partner takes off, I stop hearing the noises. Um, in the back of my head I’m thinking he either jumped over the wall, and you know I, that’s my area I know that there’s an empty parking lot, so if I am able to see over the wall, I could see if he ended up runing, or I could check the backyard. Um, I started looking for things where or the area where I last heard him. I saw that there was a, I believe it was not the first table, but the second table, the squared ovalish (SIC) table back here. Photo number two,three. ANDERSEN: Oh, okay, I see it. Um, I think we had a better picture of that table. One of yours? RODRIGUEZ: *** PAUSE RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, I think it was this one… ANDERSEN: You think that one…okay. So that would be number six. Okay. GARCIA: Um, so I started…stopped hearing the noises. I immediately walked to this table right here. ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: Photo number six. Um, I’m holding my gun in my right hand and my flashlight in my left hand. Um, I use a tree as support and climb over the, the table. Um… ANDERSEN: So you climbed up, on top, on top of the table? Like standing on top of the table? S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 11 of 29 GARCIA: I climbed up on top of the table, yes. ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: Um, and I cleared this area, the back area real quick on photo number four. ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: And knowing that it was an empty parking lot and immediately started searching um from…I cleared this area and then started searching back here, clearing from the bottom. ANDERSEN: ***Okay. So you *** This is another…you’re on the other side of this wall, right? GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: And so this, this spot here you’re talking about it, is that… GARCIA: This here. ANDERSEN: …that’s this right in here, on the other side of this wall right? GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: Okay. Do you want to mark this one in too? So we’re up to number seven. So on number seven we pointed out the wall ah, if you’re in the parking lot, looking towards where there’s uh…uh…a detached garage or some structure, and then in the right or most part of it, at the corner of the structure, is the other backyards with the trees, that’s where you identified being. ANDERSEN: Correct. And then this, in number four… RODRIGUEZ: Yes. ANDERSEN: …this area right here, this ah not the plastic side of the wooden fence, the…looks like a sheet of plastic, but the other side that’s the side that runs parallel to this garage in number seven is that correct? GARCIA: Yes. S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 12 of 29 ANDERSEN: Okay. It’s becoming a puzzle here. (LAUGHTER) Okay. I’m sorry go ahead. GARCIA: Um, so I want to say I got on top of the…I believe these are washers, ‘cause I was pretty close to this wall. ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: Um… ANDERSEN: Yeah…look at *** GARCIA: So… ANDERSEN: I was going to say…I think we have a photo of that too. ANDERSEN: Does that look familiar? GARCIA: Yeah, but it was pretty much closer to than***I don’t know if that’s… ANDERSEN: Yeah, that’s um, well you know this is actually… (SIMULTANEOUSLY SPEAKING) ANDERSEN: …this is a couple days later. That one would be right after... GARCIA: Okay. ANDERSEN: Okay. Again, sorry to interrupt you. GARCIA: Um, so I stepped up here and…on the washer… ANDERSEN: That’s gonna be number eight, are we up to? Yeah. (SIMULTANEOUSLY SPEAKING) ANDERSEN: Okay. So you get up on the washer, okay. GARCIA: I started clearing from ah the very eastern most part of the opposite side of the wall, up, up, up, and upward to see if I, if I could, if he ducked down or something like that. Within second…I don’t even want to say seconds, milliseconds, um as I was clearing, I see the same male, male subject that matched the description that ran, that initially ran south in the carport. I see S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 13 of 29 him now squatting down…um, right here, I want to say maybe four feet, I don’t know the distance from there, but I want to say four feet from where I was. I was on this side and he was four feet here, on the photo number four. ANDERSEN: Okay. So photo number four the bottom, say bottom right corner of it, where there’s a plastic sheet is roughly the area in photo number eight… GARCIA: *** ANDERSEN: …of the washing machine, correct? GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: And you were, you said you were standing on top of the washing machine? GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: So from, from that position on the washing machine, you said you were able to look over the fence in photo number four, the wooden fence, on the right hand side, and you could see a guy matching the description of the guy that ran from you down in that alcove type area? GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: Okay. And, and, did you give a distance roughly how far he was in there? GARCIA: Yeah, I want, want to say approximately four feet, it wasn’t, it wasn’t far enough. I mean it wasn’t, there wasn’t quite a great distance away from both of us. ANDERSEN: And when you say four feet, are you talking from you or from like the edge of this fence into the alcove? GARCIA: I want to say the edge of the fence. ANDERSEN: Okay. Okay. So go on… GARCIA: Um…so I immediately see him and he’s holding on to ***. It’s not…he had a jacket… S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 14 of 29 ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: …dark jacket over him. He wasn’t holding onto his jacket, the pocket, the pants or anything like that, he actually had his hand tucked in, um underneath the jacket. And when I first initially saw him, he had a blank stare, uh like deer in the headlight type of thing stare. Um, he wasn’t looking at me, he was looking straight at that, at that wall, that fence wall. Um immediately said let me see your hands, Santa Ana Police, don’t move, um he, he didn’t give me a stare. I told him again show me your hands, show me your hands. At this time it clicks I guess it clicked on him that I was there, he looks up at me and he goes “fuck you, I’m going to kill you!” Now I’ve had many people in my career tell me the same thing, fuck you, I’m going to kill you, and you know, we’re pretty much feet apart, where I have used tasers to disable these guys, or used hands on to take them into custody or anything like that so. I’m like okay. Um, show me your hands, show me your hands. At the same time I seen my partner um now running on the west side of…uh…Lacey, on the sidewalk thinking, I don’t know what he’s thinking, obviously…but I’m thinking he thinks the guy made it way across. I scream out louder, so my partner could hear me…where I was at. I go hey let me see your, your hands and this guy…um tugged on his waistband, he’s all, he’s like “no fuck you, I’m going to fucking kill you”, and I go dude, let me see your hands. And he continues to tug on the waistband and as he starts to say “fuck you I’m going to kill you…I’m going to do it now!”, he starts climbing up. There was debris…I don’t know what the other side had, but he started climbing not…not like running towards the wall but actually escalating up. ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 15 of 29 GARCIA: Um, somehow, I don’t know what he was standing on, um, the whole time he was grabbing onto his waistband as he’s saying “fuck you, I’m going to kill you, I’m going to do it now!” And he kept on tugging. Now he’s not pulling his pants, he’s not grabbing on his jacket, he’s actually like tugging on something, like in my mind I…I either believed he might have had a gun, a knife or obviously using it as intimidation. Um, at the same time as all this is going…I’m thinking to myself he has two options, one…actually three… one, continue running west, my partner DANNY ALCALA would have caught him there. Two, he would have easily jumped over, taken off on foot, it’s an empty parking lot. ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: And I mean we could have called units, you know get him on that. But he chose option 3. Um, he committed to wanted to take, take me down. Um, there’s no doubt in my mind that the threats that he was screaming out at that time, “fuck you, I’m going kill you!”, there’s no doubt in my mind that he didn’t mean what he was actually saying. ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: You know based on that he could have easily jumped over or he could have easily began to run back. Um, so I’m holding, I’m holding and I’m waiting to the last second maybe he’s gonna change his mind, maybe he’s gonna start running the other way, maybe he’s gonna jump over. And he’s still tugging on the waistband, and as he is climbing up, and the last thing I hear is um, actually no before that, um as he’s climbing up there’s a light on, you can’t really see it but somewhere around here… ANDERSEN: Yeah, I don’t know if he ***covered that over there. S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 16 of 29 ANDERSEN: Look at this, there’s currently a light out here on the far west end of this parking lot. RODRIGUEZ: Oh*** GARCIA: You don’t see it here. RODRIGUEZ: One of these? GARCIA: No. I don’t, didn’t remember seeing a photo*** GARCIA: Yeah, but… ANDERSEN: Like a street light type light or just… GARCIA: I think it’s a like, there’s a…I believe you have one but it shows the opposite, this back one. ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: But it’s not on this side, it’s the, it’s back here, somewhere. ANDERSEN: Like a parking lot… GARCIA: Yeah. ANDERSEN: …straight up light type of thing. Kinda like a street light but in a parking lot? GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: Um, so when he’s climbing up his, his body actually becomes a silhouette to me, he’s ah blackened out by the light, the back drop of the light. ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: Um, so the last image I have of him is saying “fuck you I’m going to kill you!”, pulling on his waistband. Um, that image is immediately broken by his left hand…now he’s, he’s up here by his left and reaching out for my gun. My gun is, I want to say a foot, foot and a half from his hand. Um, once I see that I know S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 17 of 29 that he’s, he’s committed. He’s ready to take me down, it’s either I commit to it, or I let him, I let him take my back and now I could be dead… ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: …in seconds. Um, so once that image is broken I tell him again don’t move, don’t move, and he’s continuing. I shoot him once, I see the light, ah…the muzzle, it hits him straight in the chest. He doesn’t jump over, he doesn’t step back, he continues. Um… ANDERSEN: Continues coming towards you? GARCIA: Continues to come at me at that time I immediately do two more rounds, but it was within seconds, it was… ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: …a bam, bam, and it hits him. He screams out, “you got me” and jumps over now. Um, I ah got off…got on the radio 31-345… 998, 1033, and when I jumped over the wall, my partner ALCALA was already on the opposite side. (CLEARING THROAT) Now, um, it’s…based on my training experience the way this male… his demeanor, his actions uh, when I was in training I had this, this one guy holding onto his waistband as he ran and he dumped two guns. Um, I like I said I’ve had suicide, suicidal guys with a knife, even with a taser, um still stick themselves in the chest. This guy was within feet of me. Um, if he had a gun, he could have easily shot me right there and then. If he had a knife he could have easily stabbed me up here. Um, if you asked me if I feared for my life, yeah, I believed his threats were there, and I believed he had the capacity and the…uh…he was fully committed to wanting to kill somebody that night. ANDERSEN: Okay. Now when you say he came up, came up from in here, did he come over this plastic, I mean I’m sorry, not plastic this wooden fence here? S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 18 of 29 GARCIA: No, his foot ended up here. It was like a leap. You know how when try to leap off a wall… ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: …you step on, you don’t step over it, you step on one side and then jump across diagonally, that’s what he did. He stepped right here with his right foot and he was leaping over this way. ANDERSEN: Okay. So he… GARCIA: So I mean he, he did come across, but he, the way he didn’t step here, he stepped here… ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: …and started going this way. ANDERSEN: But he, but he did come over the fence? GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: Okay. And then…but he came over via the block wall? GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: And then, then advanced towards you, kind of at an angle you’re saying? GARCIA: Ah, diagonal angle. ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: Um, not, not that south, or north, but like in a northeastern direction, ‘cause I was standing here. ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: Um, so he came at me this way. ANDERSEN: Okay. And you said he reached for your gun. GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: How, how close did he get actually to it? S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 19 of 29 GARCIA: I want to say I was here, “don’t move, don’t move”… ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: …maybe what is that a foot, a foot and a half? ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: Um, yeah from there…*** GLAVE: And that’s based on what you see from his silhouette and his body *** GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: Where’s that of our many photos here. Where’s the ones of the washing machine. UNKNOWN: *** ANDERSEN: Here we go. Now when you’re standing on the washing machine, was this chair up there too? GARCIA: I, I don’t recall. ANDERSEN: Okay. Were you standing about where on the washing machine, would you say you were standing? GARCIA: I want to say here, maybe. ANDERSEN: Like to the, to the eastern end of the…’cause there’s two, there’s two units here. GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: I don’t know which one was a washer or dryer or if they both were one or the other. GARCIA: Yeah I want to say the eastern most unit. ANDERSEN: The eastern most. Okay. (THROAT CLEARING) Now from there you really don’t have many options for backing away from this guy right. You’re kinda, you’re kinda stuck where you’re at. S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 20 of 29 GARCIA: No, in the back of my head I’m, I’m stuck if I take a step back I might have ended up over here. Um, if the table not sturdy enough and I end up on this crack I go this way. ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: And worst case scenario he takes my back, grabs my gun and shoots me. ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: Um, if he kills me for sure I know my partner is going to start running this way. Now he has cover, he has you know concealment and he has a gun. And my partner would have been victim number two if you ask me. ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: Um, one thing I’ve been taught is the worst thing you want to do is give the man, your back…or…fight from the ground. ANDERSEN: Right. GARCIA: Um, I obviously wasn’t, that wasn’t my plan I wasn’t going to fight on the ground. ANDERSEN: Okay. And, and it’s pretty, I mean you look at this thing, you probably a good four feet off the ground, right? So… GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: …to take any step in any direction you’re going to step backwards and your next step down is four feet roughly. GARCIA: Yes sir. ANDERSEN: Right. With a guy advancing on you, correct? GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: Okay. And your gun is out, so you really don’t have any way of breaking your fall anyways, right? S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 21 of 29 GARCIA: No. ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: No way. ANDERSEN: Um, ***…so many photos here. This in photo number four, this alcove next to the, next to the garage, was there any light in there? Was that lit up at all? GARCIA: No, um just like it’s showing in the shadow… ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: Um, the same light hits and causes that ***there’s no light in here, it’s basically this thing slid up and the only image I have of him is me lighting him up with my flashlight. Um, and that’s how I was able to see it. There, there was a couple things here that he climbed up but as far as the lighting there I, I don’t recall it, other than my light. ANDERSEN: Okay. When you, when you’re up on top of the washing machine, and you were looking down in there, did you say he wasn’t even looking at you, like he was just hiding, maybe hoping nobody was gonna know he was in there. GARCIA: I wouldn’t say no, oh yeah he was hiding but it wasn’t like he made a, like he actually tried to hide. I mean he was, he was there, he wasn’t hiding underneath anything on the bottom of anything. He was just there. Ah squatted down, staring at with a blank stare, staring at the wall. ANDERSEN: Did it appear that your light surprised him, when you, when you saw the light in there? GARCIA: No. I don’t think he was surprised. ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: I, I, I, no it is my strong feeling that he knew that I was coming behind him… ANDERSEN: Okay. S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 22 of 29 GARCIA: …and um it was just waiting on his reaction. ANDERSEN: Okay. Ask *** RODRIGUEZ: Yes, some questions. Um, when you were telling him not to move, um ***the alcove coming towards him, he’s advancing towards you, he’s obvi-…he obviously has his hands and they’re in his waistband, tugging on something. And you believe it’s a possibly to be a gun obviously. Um, are you telling him um please don’t move, police officer, are you identifying yourself as a police officer? I know he saw your uniform and but you remember saying uh “Police, don’t move”, or… GARCIA: Yeah, the, the whole time I’m telling as he’s climbing up I, I say police, don’t move, don’t move, police don’t move, and he’s just… RODRIGUEZ: Okay. GARCIA: …he’s climbing out but like breaking the ground fast. RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. GARCIA: Um, but I, I mentioned it when I first caught him um not caught him, but when I first saw him squatting, I said police, don’t move, let me see your hands. RODRIGUEZ: Okay. GARCIA: Police, let me see your hands, nothing, and the whole time as he’s climbing up and when he says “fuck you, I’m going to kill you!”, don’t move, don’t move, and… RODRIGUEZ: Okay. And then ah based on your training and experience, you’re aware that um that when somebody is trying to take your gun away, what does it usually mean? If a bad guy or suspect out there in the field, and we’re the police officers, we have basically the same training experience or different experience, S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 23 of 29 same training. When a guy is going to go for your gun, what is the usual end result, based on what you know as a police officer? GARCIA: As a police officer, it’s either him or me. If he’s going for my gun, he’s committed to killing me. RODRIGUEZ: To killing you exactly. GARCIA: And that, that was my number one fear, he’s going to kill me. RODRIGUEZ: Okay. And…you covered most of it BRETT, but do you have any other questions for now, while I look at my notes?… ANDERSEN: Yeah, I just want to know, ask this, when, when he went, when he ended up on this side of the wall, the hospital parking lot side of thewall, did he jump or fall? Did it look like he was trying to get away, like further get away, like still trying to run from you or did he like fall over? GARCIA: I think, I think he, it’s not clear in the back of my head but I think he jumped over to try to get a quick escape. Like I said I didn’t see him land so I don’t if he landed on his feet and tried to take off, by the time I jumped over my partner was already there. ANDERSEN: Okay. And when…oh I’m sorry do you want to ask him Not knowing where he was hit, cause we haven’t seen those reports. Is it possible because the way he stepped that you make it, that both making contact push him over this, this side, do you think, or do you know…can you describe the movement he made to go over the fence at all? GARCIA: No, I’m not so clear on that…on his movement. It’s just when he’s running at me I see the first one impact his chest, and I’m thinking, you know, you just got shot in the chest, and I’m still holding my gun why are you still coming at me. ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 24 of 29 GARCIA: And he’s still coming at me, so when I shot the other two it was (SNAPS FINGERS) just, my mind just went like okay you just shot again. Um, are you okay? And then put out the radio code and jumped over so I, as far as whether he, he fell…I don’t think…, by the time I jumped over he was further over here I believe. So if he would have fallen he would have fallen closer to the wall. Um, which is my experience when you jump over some things… ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: You just land closer and then land farther apart if you’re jumping, so. RODRIGUEZ: Then based on your training experience, uh…you know that when a person gets shot that…are you aware that they can still…uh…kill you or still assault you. That sometimes they may be shot maybe with a non-lethal wound or even a lethal one, but it takes time for them to uh, to succumb to their injuries. GARCIA: Yes. RODRIGUEZ: Have you been trained that even though you shoot somebody ah they can still advance and still harm you or kill you? GARCIA: Yeah, and that’s, that’s what I have been trained on. You shoot and you…if the person is coming at you, you move off to the side, um so I, I, I…there’s a little bit of seconds, that I don’t recall after I shot, but I may have moved to the table afterwards, I, I don’t know, but that’s what they teach you is they’re going to keep on coming at you, no matter what. ANDERSEN: How sturdy is this table, do you remember? GARCIA: Um, I don’t recall. I got me up there, so I ***. ANDERSEN: Okay. But, but is it, is it correct to assume that your footing on top of this washer isn’t, the…the most secure. S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 25 of 29 GARCIA: No, it’s, it’s not secure at all. It’s ah what…two by two and my shoulder width apart is maybe a foot in length, so any, any awkward movement would have caused me to fall. ANDERSEN: Right, and even, even the option of stepping back if you want to consider it an option, onto this table, would that have been a secure step either? GARCIA: No, I believe the table is plastic…I want to say… ANDERSEN: It kinda looks, it kinda looks like it, like a patio table or something, so yeah those often are… GARCIA: So with my weight…yeah. ANDERSEN: And then the surface out there, what was the surface like, the ground surface? GARCIA: It was actually muddy, um I remember having mud on my feet, um… ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: As you can see there’s like mud prints…. ANDERSEN: Right. GARCIA: Um, so who’s slippery? Mud is slippery. Um… ANDERSEN: Okay. So again even, even the ground surface wasn’t steady, wasn’t steady. GARCIA: No, wasn’t steady at all. Say I would have made it down I would have slipped. There’s no doubt. ANDERSEN: Okay. Okay. And the commands (CLEARS THROAT) he never asked you any questions about do you want me to stay in here, let me just get up to where you’re at, in other words he wasn’t making any statements indicating to you what he was planning on doing other than assaulting you right? GARCIA: No other statements. ANDERSEN: Nothing that made it sound like you know you said you know show me your hands, he wasn’t showing you his hands correct? S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 26 of 29 GARCIA: Yeah. ANDERSEN: And you said don’t move, but he still kept advancing on you right? GARCIA: Yes. RODRIGUEZ: Okay. At any point in time did he put hands up ever put his hands up above his head, up to his shoulder, any point did he show his right hand? GARCIA: No. There…he never showed me his right hand and the only image I have of his left hand is him breaking the silhouette and trying to go for my gun. Never up in the motion, never okay in my head or in the back or anything like…it was just that quick motion to grab my gun. : If I could… ANDERSEN: Yes. : Based on the lighting and we know that when he comes up over the fence he becomes a silhouette so he’s blocking the light. Do you believe that that lighting would clearly light up your uniform and let him know that you’re a police officer? GARCIA: Yeah. So in other words that light is actually coming at the front of your uniform. GARCIA: Yes. And so when he sends up the silhouette is broken because…or the silhouette ***he breaks the lighting. GARCIA: Yes. RODRIGUEZ: Alright. *** ANDERSEN: Um, about how far was he from you do you think when you fired the shots at him? GARCIA: Close. Um… S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 27 of 29 ANDERSEN: Like within arm’s reach? GARCIA: With definitely with arms reach. Exact footing I don’t know that. ANDERSEN: No, I was just trying to get a rough idea. GARCIA: Yeah, he was within arm’s reach, I mean if his hand came maybe a foot and a half from my gun. Um, then his body was here and I was at the… ANDERSEN: Now in photo number four, you see this white edge here about down on the bottom of the picture about I guess that’s about center… GARCIA: Uh-huh. ANDERSEN: …picture. Is that part of this washing machine combo or washing machine right there? GARCIA: Yes. ANDERSEN: Was he up on the wall or was he standing there when you shot him or was it both? GARCIA: He was, he was, it was a quick motion as far as putting his foot and leaning over. So he was already, he had already broken this, this ledge here… ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: …when he was um kinda like wanting to tackle me. One of those, you squat down, you take over like… ANDERSEN: …Kind of like rushing you. GARCIA: Yes! ANDERSEN: Okay. When ah you, you made mention about him stepping off at an angle off this wall, if he’s facing you I’m assuming that would have been right foot on there. GARCIA: Yes. S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 28 of 29 ANDERSEN: Do you remember was his left foot, was his left foot then on the same structure that you were on? GARCIA: I, I don’t recall that… ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: …um it was just the silhouette… ANDERSEN: Okay. GARCIA: …and I was facing, or focusing my last images on *** and on his waistband and his hand trying to go for my… ANDERSEN: Okay. Okay. GARCIA: …my weapon. ANDERSEN: Anything else? Were you injured at all? GARCIA: No. ANDERSEN: Okay. I think that’s about all I have too. Is there anything you wanted to add that you think we might have forgot that’s, that’s important? GARCIA: I think the most important part is he had the option of fight or flight. Um, he obviously ducked down there for a reason. Um, he continued to that…have that option up until he rushed at me. He…like I said before he could have easily gone west and towards the street. Um or jumped over and it could have been a different ball play. ANDERSEN: Uh-huh. GARCIA: But he, he, committed and he chose fight and there’s no doubt in my mind, like I said that this guy was on a mission and his mission was to try, to try kill me. Um, it’s just that um based on how I shot him he obviously it shows he was trying to come at me. Um, I didn’t shoot on the side or on the back or anything like that S.A. 12-031 Investigator: BRETT ANDERSEN Approved By: Date of Report: 01/22/2013 Date:01/23/13 Page 29 of 29 when he was trying to jump over. It was…he was coming at me and that…I think that shows that he had his demeanor and he committed to it. ANDERSEN: Okay. When ah, when ah he did go over on the other side of the wall, into the parking lot, were you still up on the washing machine? GARCIA: Yeah for about right when I put out the call and then I jumped over and that’s, ***, I don’t want to say I had a communication with this guy. ANDERSEN: Right. GARCIA: I just, he just kept on saying you shot me, you shot me and I said relax, just calm down we got paramedics on the way. And I was taken off the scene. ANDERSEN: Okay. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Then that will be the conclusion of this interview. The time is..uh, 1100 hours. [END OF INTERVIEW] TRANSCRIBED BY: MARY CARBONE ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE JANUARY 17, 2013 REVISED BY: (NAME) / (TITLE) OCDA – Special Assignments Unit / 01-22-2013 (DEPARTMENT) / (DATE)