California Capitol Noon Prayer Vigil ~ "What Really Happened to Lamont Harmon? ~ March 31

Shootings by county deputies already at previous year's high
By: By Kim Minugh

Published: Tue, 02/07

A Sacramento County sheriff's deputy fatally shot a man early Monday morning, the sixth time this year a deputy has felt compelled to fire his gun during a confrontation with a suspect.

Thirty-seven days into 2012, the Sheriff's Department surpassed its total of officer-involved shootings for 2011 – five – and matched its average yearly total.

Authorities say it is likely a statistical anomaly. Still, the spate has not gone unnoticed. "We have a noteworthy spike that is causing alarm," Sheriff Scott Jones said Monday. The year's statistics have been climbing as Jones has sought a new accountability model for the county's law enforcement agencies since District Attorney Jan Scully's decision last summer to stop investigating officer-involved shootings.

In the wake of that decision, Jones proposed convening a panel of regional police chiefs to review each shooting. On Friday, he told The Bee that government attorneys had nixed the idea, citing concerns about liability.

Now, he and colleagues are trying to brainstorm other ways to improve the system of checks and balances – not because he has seen a disturbing pattern of deadly force, Jones said, but because he would "rather build the public trust than erode it."

"Most people would agree that on 99 percent of the shootings it was an appropriate response to an unfortunate set of circumstances … precipitated by the actions of the suspect," he said. However, "I do think … it gives the public a greater degree of comfort that another set of eyes was looking at it."

Early Monday, a deputy searching the area of Stockton Boulevard and Fruitridge Road for a stolen-car suspect saw a man walking across a dark parking lot near where the car was spotted. The deputy called out to the man, later identified as Lamont Harmon, 47, but he walked or ran off, according to Sacramento police, who are investigating the incident because it took place within city limits.

Following behind, the deputy ordered Harmon to stop, and when he did not comply, the deputy deployed his Taser, police said. The Taser did not make contact. The deputy caught up with Harmon and they struggled. The deputy saw Harmon reaching into his waistband and, suspecting the man had a weapon, shot him, according to the police account.

Harmon died at a local hospital. Officer Laura Peck, a police spokeswoman, said no gun was found, and police had no evidence linking him to the stolen car. The deputy, a 10-year veteran, has not been named.

As in all officer-involved shootings, this one will be investigated by homicide detectives, in this case the city's; sheriff's officials also will conduct an administrative investigation to determine whether the shooting violated policies or procedures. In addition, the county's Office of the Inspector General will conduct an independent review.

Before last summer, the District Attorney's Office would conduct the final review of every officer-involved shooting or in-custody death and issue a letter saying whether it was legally justifiable. But Scully said budget cuts forced her to end such reviews, and on Monday, Assistant District Attorney Albert Locher said that position had not changed.

He said a police agency may ask the District Attorney's Office to get involved in potentially controversial cases, as Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel did when a suspected cop-shooter died in Sacramento police custody last fall.

Three officer-involved shootings remain in the district attorney's queue, the last one a California Highway Patrol incident that occurred June 11, 2011. Since then, officers have been involved in 14 shootings across the county.

In the wake of Scully's decision, Jones – who said he goes to every officer-involved shooting scene he can, as he did with Monday's shooting – has asked his homicide team to give his executive staff a detailed briefing within 48 hours of the incident.

He said he plans to review each case personally and write a letter explaining whether he believes the shooting was justifiable. He will begin with a fatal shooting by his deputies July 3.

As for this year's incidents, Jones said he is most concerned that the spike suggests that "the streets and our community are becoming increasingly hostile and dangerous places for my officers to work."

Jones said he has no information to suggest any of his deputies acted inappropriately. Still, he said officials are reviewing each shooting to look for common denominators, opportunities for better training or suggestions for how deputies should respond to calls differently.

That's the best course of action, several law enforcement experts interviewed by The Bee agreed. Until each incident is thoroughly reviewed and carefully compared with the others, officials won't know whether a trend is building, they said.

"You'd have to know more to really look at whether you've got a cause or you've just got a coincidence," said William Vizzard, a criminal justice professor at California State University, Sacramento, and former cop.

Though statistics on the issue are hard to find, criminology expert Geoffrey Alpert said there is anecdotal evidence nationwide that suggests an uptick in violence toward officers. That could be a "plausible explanation" for the recent shootings, said Alpert, a professor at the University of South Carolina and an adjunct professor at the Centre for Excellence in Policing and Security, Griffith University, in Brisbane, Australia.

"Of course, most officers' use of force is response to suspect resistance," he said. Deputy Jason Ramos, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department, said six shootings in roughly one month sounds like a lot, but that they should be viewed in context of the frequent contacts deputies have with the public.

The department responds to as many as 800 calls for service each day, Ramos said.

"Considering the dangerous circumstances officers face on a daily basis, the potential for a violent encounter or the potential for the application of deadly force is almost omnipresent," he said. "All it takes sometimes is a bad decision on the part of a person we encounter to elevate a situation to that level."