Vista to consider call for outside review of fatal shootings

By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer | Friday, August 19, 2005 10:52 PM PDT ∞

VISTA ---- City staff is joining a call by the leader of a citizens law enforcement review board for an independent audit of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department's policies and procedures on the use of force after three fatal deputy-involved shootings in Vista recently.

Meanwhile, residents and activist groups will gather tonight at Townsite Park, in the predominantly Latino Townsite neighborhood where two of the shootings occurred, to discuss the need for an outside review and to organize residents to more effectively deal with such shootings and alleged violence by sheriff's deputies.

Organizers of the two-hour community meeting that starts at 5 p.m. at 900 N. Citrus Ave. and Townsite Drive said that residents will have an opportunity to ask questions as they explore ways to deal with the shootings and "a wave of violence" from the Sheriff's Department.

The staff recommendation for an independent audit will appear as an agenda item that has been added to Tuesday's regular City Council session. Vista pays the Sheriff's Department for law enforcement services.

Assistant Sheriff Bill Gore said Friday afternoon that the department has already contacted one organization in a search for a panel to conduct the review, but that it would be premature to identify the organization.

"We appreciate Vista's support, and we're already looking to organizations that could possibly provide this type of review," Gore said. "We're always open to any type of review that would improve our (use of force) policies and procedures."

He said the recommendation to the City Council came up Thursday as he met with Mayor Morris Vance and city officials about other issues, and it was discussed then. Vance couldn't be reached Friday for comment.

At a tense, sometimes openly hostile Aug. 10 community meeting about the shootings, Sheriff Bill Kolender said that he would consider an outside investigation of the department's policies and procedures after the department completes its own investigations.

Designed to follow up on the Aug. 10 meeting, tonight's meeting will include activists from Los Angeles and south San Diego to help inform and organize the community, said Mario Moreno, of Escondido's Committee de Derechos Humanos de North County.

"We did not really get answers at the (earlier) meeting," Moreno said.

Assistant City Manager Rick Dudley and Sheriff's Capt. Glenn Revell, said the city and Sheriff's Department don't plan to have official representatives at tonight's meeting. Deputies are aware of the meeting, but they won't be "camped out," Dudley said.

Benjamin Prado, coordinator of the San Diego office of the American Friends Service Committee, said information about the county's history of officer-involved shootings and the lack of prosecution will be included in the information presented at the session in the park.

"We want to get the community to organize, because we feel that's the only way to get a solution," said Ricardo Favela, of Mexicanos Unidos en Defensa del Pueblo, based in Fallbrook. "The community really needs to organize if they want to make any change."

Community options include forming a standing Townsite committee that would lobby on behalf of the neighborhood and address issues, petitioning for an outside investigation into the shootings, and keeping Townsite residents better informed, organizers said.

"If we need to run somebody for community office, that's all open," Favela said.

With regard to an outside review, Gore said it isn't possible until the department reaches its own findings months from now, and has the official information needed for subsequent reviews.

"We don't want to limit (an outside review) just to shootings," Gore added.

The review would include all types of force the Sheriff's Department uses, including less-lethal ones such as pepper spray, as well as policies, procedures, training and anything else that might be involved, he said.

Dudley said the recommended review would not be expected until the Sheriff's Department finishes its shooting investigations and the San Diego County district attorney's office reviews them for any criminal liability.

The county's independent Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board, created by voters, also reviews all deputy-involved shootings. John Parker, the board's executive director, recommended an outside review after the third Vista shooting.

Although there will be thorough investigations by all three agencies, the Vista council agenda item says, "an independent review from an agency not associated with San Diego County" will help maintain community confidence in the department and demonstrate its willingness to evaluate its procedures and policies for possible improvement.

Noting that the city has had an outstanding relationship with the Sheriff's Department for more than 42 years, the agenda item says that three shootings in so short a time is "extraordinary," generating considerable community discussion about the department's use of force policy, and "whether there are trends or patterns in the shootings."

"This last issue was raised because all three of the individuals killed were Latino men in their twenties and thirties," the agenda item says.

Race played no part in the shootings, and all of the victims spoke English, sheriff's representatives have said.

The Sheriff's Department has 13 Spanish-speaking employees in Vista, none of whom are deputies, in a city that has a population that is more than 39 percent Latino.

Out of nine deputy-involved shootings countywide this year, five of the seven fatal ones were in Vista.

In the trio of recent shootings, Sergio Garcia Vasquez, 32, was killed July 28 after pepper spray failed to stop him as he allegedly hurled a 10-pound dumbbell at a deputy during a domestic disturbance investigation at a North Citrus Avenue duplex.

The next day, a deputy who thought armed-robbery suspect Jorge Ramirez, 26, was going for a gun while he was being chased after a market holdup fatally shot the parolee, who is named in Vista's gang injunction. Ramirez had a knife, not a gun, sheriff's homicide Lt. Tom Bennett said.

On Aug. 1, a deputy killed Jesus Eduardo Manzo, 23, during a foot chase. Sheriff's Capt. Clay Reynard said deputies wanted to talk to Manzo, a convicted car burglar, about a stolen vehicle, and a patrol dog failed to stop him.

He was shot while reaching for what deputies thought might be a gun, which turned out to be a multipurpose tool with two knife blades, Bennett said.

Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or jmoreland@nctimes.com.