Crime Beat (9 page)

Yagman said that if the council pays the $378,000 from city coffers, it will provide him with new ammunition in another lawsuit stemming from the same police shooting.

The second case, filed on behalf of a daughter of one of the dead robbers, names council members as defendants as well as the police. Yagman argued that council members should be held responsible for the officers’ actions on the grounds that their decision to pay the damages in the first case in effect condoned the police misconduct that the jury found.

Yagman has contended that each time the council members vote to shield police officers from personal financial penalties in civil brutality suits they strengthen his argument that they are promoting police brutality and should also be personally liable for damages.

The second case has not yet been scheduled for trial. But Letts last week refused to dismiss the council members as defendants, rejecting the city attorney’s argument that they are automatically immune from civil liability for their official actions.

Deputy City Atty. Annette Keller said council members don’t have a choice over whether to pay such fees.

“It is part of the legal obligation of the city to defend employees sued for action taken in the course and scope of their employment,” Keller said. “We are obligated to pay any judgment for attorney fees. It is not an issue for the council.”

Yagman said his proposed fee was simply a “wish list” and that he was pleased with Letts’ ruling. “This is a lot of money and I am happy to get it,” Yagman said. In a 24-page order outlining his decision on fees, Letts praised Yagman for taking on the case that he characterized as “peculiarly undesirable” because the plaintiffs were a convicted robber and the families of robbers.

A
Times
investigation of the SIS four years ago spawned criticism that members of the unit trailing people with long criminal records often watched violent crimes take place without making a move to stop them so that the criminals could be arrested on the most serious charges possible, carrying more severe sentences.

In the McDonald’s case, members of the unit followed the robbers to the restaurant and watched as they broke in and robbed the lone employee inside. She was left physically unhurt but is also suing the officers, claiming that the incident was handled negligently.

KILLED BY A KID

ROOKIE OFFICER DIES IN STRUGGLE FOR GUN

Suspect, 16, killed.

LOS ANGELES TIMES

June 8, 1988

A
ROOKIE
Los Angeles police officer, on street patrol less than three months, was fatally shot Tuesday during a struggle for his gun with a 16-year-old burglary suspect he confronted on a North Hollywood street, police said.

The teen-age gunman, Robert Steele of North Hollywood, was later tracked by police dogs to the attic of a nearby vacant house, where he was shot to death by four officers after he repeatedly attempted to reach for the revolver he had taken from the slain police officer, Cmdr. William Booth said.

A 19-year-old accomplice in the burglary was captured, police said.

Officer James Beyea, 24, was pronounced dead at 1:28 a.m. at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, less than an hour after he was shot in the head and leg, apparently with his own gun, Booth said.

Beyea and Officer Ignacio Gonzalez, 44, an 18-year veteran who was Beyea’s training officer, had answered a 12:20 a.m. burglary alarm call at an electronics store at 7261 Lankershim Blvd.

Door Open

When the officers arrived at Alpha Electronics, Booth said, they found a door open and went inside to search. They found no one in the store but could not search one storage room that had been locked from the inside.

Shortly after they walked outside to wait for the owner of the business, who had a key to the storage room, the burglar alarm went off again and the officers saw one person running from the rear of the building. They quickly returned to their patrol car and drove around the block in an attempt to cut the suspect off, Booth said.

“Then they split up,” the police spokesman said. “Beyea went on foot and Gonzalez stayed in the car. They thought this would be the best way to go after the suspect.”

Beyea caught up with the suspect on Hinds Avenue, just north of Wyandotte Street—about two blocks from the electronics store—and attempted to arrest him, Booth said. From the car, Gonzalez saw his partner and the suspect struggling for control of a gun.

Heard Gunfire

“Gonzalez was about a block away when he saw the struggle,” Booth said. “As he went toward them, he heard and saw gunfire.”

Beyea fell to the ground, Booth said, and the suspect fired at Gonzalez as he approached. Gonzalez returned the fire, but neither was hit. The suspect then ran off while Gonzalez went to Beyea’s aid.

About 50 officers, assisted by a helicopter and seven police dogs, searched a 16-block area around the shooting site, Booth said. About 4:30 a.m., one of the dogs led officers to a vacant house at 11828 Runnymede St., about three blocks from where Beyea had been shot.

Officers entered the one-story house, located on a wooded lot, and found Steele hiding in a corner of the attic.

According to a police statement, Sgt. Gary Nanson, 34, and Officer John Hall, 41, climbed into the attic and ordered Steele to raise his hands. The teen-ager complied and told the officers that the man they wanted was hiding downstairs, police said, but then he reached to his side to grab a gun.

Hall fired one time and wounded Steele in the head, police said. Despite several warnings to stay still, Steele twice again attempted to pick the gun up and was fatally shot by Nanson and two other officers, who had also climbed into the attic, the statement said.

The gun retrieved from Steele’s side was Beyea’s service revolver, Booth said. Ballistics tests will be conducted to determine if it was the weapon used to kill the officer, he said.

No other weapon was found, police said, and no one else was found in the house.

But during a search of the area, officers found Alberto Hernandez, 19, hiding in bushes about a block from where Beyea was killed. He admitted taking part in the burglary and was arrested on suspicion of murder, police said.

1st Death This Year

Beyea was the first Los Angeles police officer killed in the line of duty this year. Two were killed last year.

Beyea, a Reseda resident, entered the Police Academy last October and graduated March 25. Capt. Charles (Rick) Dinse, commander of the North Hollywood Division, where the rookie was assigned, said Beyea was routinely paired with a veteran who had training officer qualifications.

“I can only say he was considered by his supervisors and training officer to be one of our best,” Dinse said. “He was a sharp policeman who we expected to have a great career.”

Beyea, who was single, was born in Reseda and graduated from Cleveland High School in 1981. He served in the Air Force and Air Force Reserve.

Beyea’s grandfather was a Los Angeles traffic officer before retiring in 1961, police said.

Funeral arrangements were pending Tuesday. Beyea is survived by his mother, Cathleen Beyea of Northridge. Beyea is the second North Hollywood officer to be killed in three years. Detective Thomas C. Williams, 42, was shot to death Oct. 31, 1985, in what authorities said was an effort to prevent him from testifying in a robbery case.

Times
staff writer Steve Padilla contributed to this report.

DEATH FOR DEATH

Youth had minor scrapes with law but didn’t fit image of a cop killer.

June 9, 1988

Bobby Steele was swinging the bat well, and by Sunday was on a nine-game hitting streak with a city youth league baseball team, the Sun Valley Park Pirates.

On Monday, the 16-year-old was able to parlay a morning dental appointment into a whole day off from school. The grandparents who raised him didn’t mind that he spent the rest of the day around the house.

But by 9 p.m. he was ready to get out of the North Hollywood home where he had lived his entire life. He baked himself a batch of cookies and then left to meet a friend. When he walked out the door, he left behind everything that appeared to be routine about his life.

A few hours later and a few blocks away, Robert Jay Steele killed a cop, Los Angeles police say. A few hours after that, police killed him.

“It doesn’t make sense,” his grandmother, Pauline Steele, said Wednesday as she sat on the dead youth’s bed and looked at the collection of baseball trophies on his bureau.

“It seems like we are talking about two separate people,” said his sister, Lori Lyn Steele. To his family, Steele may have been a mischievous youth, someone who had his troubles in school and with authorities, but he did not fit the picture of a cop killer.

At 12:20 a.m. Tuesday, however, according to police, the teen-ager grappled with a rookie police officer for control of the officer’s gun. Within seconds, Officer James Beyea, 24, fell to the ground, fatally shot in the head.

Cornered and Killed

Steele, suspected of having just burglarized a nearby electronics store, then fired the weapon at the policeman’s approaching partner and ran off. He was later cornered in the attic of a vacant home and shot to death by officers when, according to authorities, he repeatedly tried to pick up the gun.

“He had been in trouble before but never anything like this,” his 23-year-old sister said. “I feel that what happened was that he was scared. He got in with the wrong people, did something wrong and got scared.”

Police declined to say whether Steele had a juvenile record. His family said he had minor scrapes with authorities in the last year, including a fight with a teacher and an arrest when a police officer found a pair of brass knuckles in a car in which he was riding. Details of the incidents were unavailable Wednesday.

Steele was a student at North Hollywood High School, where he frequently missed classes, until May 9, administrators said. Then he was placed in a school program supervised by Los Angeles county juvenile authorities, but officials declined to say what prompted the transfer.

“He liked sports and to goof around. But there was a little bit of a mystery about him,” said Ricardo Davis, recreation leader at Sun Valley Park, who knew Steele for eight years. “He came to the park right before his games and he left right after. I don’t know if the friends he had on the team were his really close friends or just friends while he was here.”

Police said a friend away from the park was Alberto Hernandez, 19, of North Hollywood. After Steele left his home Monday night, investigators said, he and Hernandez broke into Alpha Electronics, about six blocks from Steele’s home.

A burglar alarm touched off at 12:20 a.m. Tuesday brought Officer Beyea and his partner, Officer Ignacio Gonzalez, to the shop. After searching the premises, they saw someone running away and gave chase.

The officers split up, Beyea on foot and Gonzalez in the car. Soon after, Gonzalez saw Beyea struggling with someone in the street, police said. From a block away, he heard two gunshots and saw his partner fall.

Steele then exchanged gunfire with Gonzalez, police said, and ran through the neighborhood to an abandoned house. A police dog tracked him there at 4:30 a.m.

Police said the K-9 officer, Jon Hall, and Sgt. Gary Nanson, one of dozens of policemen who by then were searching for the suspect, took a ladder from the garage of the vacant home, propped it in the attic entrance in the hallway ceiling and climbed up.

Using flashlights, they spotted Steele between two rafters near a corner of the attic. Steele began to comply with an order to surrender and told the officers that another suspect was in the house, police said, but then suddenly attempted to grab a gun that was by his side. Hall fired once, hitting Steele in the face.

According to police, Hall and Nanson crawled over to Steele and, after examining him, believed that he was dead. They left the gun next to him and backed away so the scene would be undisturbed for investigators.

Police said Hall then climbed out of the attic to search the house. About three minutes after the first shot, police said, Steele stirred and reached for the weapon again despite a warning from Nanson.

Nanson fired his gun, hitting Steele in the face again, police said. Two other officers heard the second shot and quickly climbed into the attic, police said, and both fired their guns when they saw Steele still grabbing for the gun. One shot hit Steele in the face for the third time and the other shot missed.

The officers found Beyea’s service revolver at the dead youth’s side.

Hernandez, who was found hiding in some bushes nearby, is scheduled to be arraigned today on a murder charge.

A funeral with full police honors is scheduled at 11 a.m. Friday for Beyea, the grandson of a traffic officer, at the Praiswater Funeral Home in Van Nuys, with interment to follow at Oakwood Memorial Park.

1,000 ATTEND RITES FOR SLAIN ROOKIE OFFICER

June 11, 1988

The first police funeral attended by March graduates of the Los Angeles Police Academy was for one of their own.

Two dozen members of the class, tears streaking many of their faces, stood at attention in a line of blue uniforms Friday and snapped crisp salutes as taps was played for Officer James Clark Beyea at Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth.

Beyea, 24, who graduated with them on March 25, was fatally shot about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday in North Hollywood during a struggle for control of his service revolver with a burglary suspect.

His funeral drew about 1,000 mourners, most from law enforcement agencies throughout Southern California. Also in attendance were Beyea’s family, Mayor Tom Bradley, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and representatives of the Air National Guard unit to which Beyea belonged.

‘Hurts to Lose Him’

“It hurts to lose him,” said Officer William Casey, one of Beyea’s academy classmates. “It hurts when anyone in this profession is killed, but when it is someone that you feel is like a member of your family, it is harder.”

Officer Dave Porras said Beyea, the grandson of a Los Angeles traffic officer, was quick to share action stories from his new job.

“He would tell me about the foot pursuits and the narcotics arrests and the fun he was having,” a tearful Porras said to the overflow crowd at Praiswater Funeral Home in Van Nuys.

“Jim once told me that he couldn’t believe he was actually paid to do police work. But you can’t put a price on what happened this week. Jim was out there because he wanted to be out there.”

Beyea was shot when he confronted a 16-year-old youth suspected of burglarizing an electronics store.

Authorities said Beyea’s killer was Robert Jay Steele, a suspected gang member who was later cornered in the attic of a nearby house and shot to death by other officers when he attempted to reach for a gun. An accused accomplice in the burglary, Alberto B. Hernandez, 19, was captured and has been charged with murder and burglary.

The two teen-agers “were both active members” of a street gang that often gathers in East San Fernando Valley parks, including Sun Valley Park, where Steele was also known as a talented member of a youth baseball team, Sgt. Ray Davies said.

Beyea was the first Los Angeles police officer to die in the line of duty in a year and the 175th killed since 1907.