Toddler Used as Shield? Who do you blame?

ebony_goddess · (#1 (**permalink**))

Who do you blame for this? The father was wrong, but the police shooting with a baby involved

?

Investigation Follows Death of Toddler Used as Shield

It remains unclear if 17-month-old was killed by shots fired by police. "We tried to do the best we could," LAPD Chief Bratton said.

By Alicia Wittmeyer and Richard Winton
Times Staff Writers

July 11, 2005, 5:17 PM PDT

A man using his young daughter as a shield fired more than 40 rounds at neighbors and police before he was cut down by officers in an incident in which the child also died, Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said this afternoon.

Jose Raul Pena, 34, was embroiled in "a family dispute" that triggered his bizarre behavior Sunday night, police said.

Bratton said the death of Pena and the hostage, his 17-month-old daughter Susie Lopez, was "a tragedy" that Pena brought on himself. No determination has been made about the cause of death as SWAT team members closed in.

Lopez was only the second hostage to die during 4,000 SWAT operations by the LAPD in 38 years.

"We tried to do the best we could," Bratton said.

"This is only the second time in all those years when a hostage was killed," Bratton said. "The first time was back in the 1970s, and the hostage was killed by the hostage taker."

Hostage negotiators tried for two hours to get Pena to surrender. His family had told authorities that Pena was under the influence of alcohol and drugs, Bratton said.

Bratton cited police policy that allows an officer "to protect himself or others from a threat of death or serious bodily injury."

Officers faced "an extraordinarily volatile situation, one that no officer ever hopes that they will have to face," Bratton said at the evening press conference. "The circumstances last night were driven, were in a sense controlled by the suspect. It was his behavior that ultimately lead to the unfortunate tragedy that we're all talking about this evening."

Earlier today, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he would wait for the LAPD investigation before drawing conclusions on police conduct.

He said he "grieved" for the family of the child who was killed, and for the family of the officer who was injured.

"My heart is out to a grieving mother who lost her child," Villaraigosa said.

The wounded officer, Daniel Sanchez, a 15-year SWAT veteran, was shot in the shoulder during the final exchange of gunfire, police said. He was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and released today.

Bratton said early reports indicated that Pena "continuously had that baby in front of him while he was firing at officers."

Bratton said 11 officers engaged in gunfire with the man on three occasions. The officers were "traumatized," he said, by the fact that the child was slain.

Lt. Paul Vernon said Sunday that Pena emerged on a South Los Angeles street three times carrying his daughter in one arm and waving a handgun. The second time, about 5 p.m., police were trying to rescue a 17-year old-girl, Pena's stepdaughter, who had been pinned down by Pena's gunfire, Bratton said today.

One neighbor, Raul Orduna, 35, said he was watching a soccer game with his family and when he left to run to the store and found himself in the middle of the standoff. He said the suspect was waving a gun, with the child in the other arm.

"He was holding the kid with one arm, screaming at the police," Orduna said this morning. "He was holding the kid like right in front of him."

Another resident, Mary Bradford, 35, said she found it hard to believe that the child's death was necessary. She said she had been evacuated when the fatal shootings took place, so she did not see what happened.

"It was really disappointing to me," said Bradford, a mother. "I don't know what the protocol is for situations like this, but I know that child's safety and well-being wasn't first and foremost for the police officers.

"The minute that that child was in plain sight and in plain view, there should have never been fire back at that baby," Bradford said this morning.

Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell said Sunday that officers "used as much restraint as humanly possible. We did our best. It was tremendous stress.... The suspect dictated the outcome.

"Our deepest sympathies go to the family," he said.

The shooting came more than two hours after Pena held up his daughter as a human shield when officers first responded at 3:50 p.m. about a man firing from the intersection of 104th Street and Avalon Boulevard.

Pena appeared "despondent and crazed," Vernon said.

Police said Pena was armed with one weapon and was randomly shooting into the street. Officers said they believed that he was on drugs or intoxicated.

After Pena fired shots in the direction of the first officer on the scene, the officer fired back but did not hit him, police said.

Pena then retreated into a building, where police said he held the girl as a hostage.

Additional officers, including hostage negotiators, soon arrived at the scene, and the LAPD went on tactical alert.

Negotiations with Pena continued for nearly two hours as members of LAPD's SWAT team communicated with him by phone. The department also used psychologists and crisis specialists and gave Pena numerous opportunities to surrender, McDonnell said.

Just after 5 p.m., police exchanged gunfire with Pena as they tried to give cover to a woman trapped in the standoff. She escaped safely.

About 6:20 p.m., Pena emerged from the building with the toddler. He was holding a weapon and again firing erratically, shooting Sanchez in the shoulder.

As other officers moved in to rescue their wounded colleague, police exchanged gunfire with Pena. The girl also was hit.

Police said it was unclear who fired the shot that killed the girl.

Pena's rampage may have been spurred by a custody battle, Vernon said, but declined to give details.

Villaraigosa visited the shooting scene Sunday night and went to the hospital to meet the wounded officer and his family.

LAPD officers have fired on hostage-takers in other instances, including a November standoff at the Mexican Consulate when an officer who had SWAT training fatally wounded Manuel Ortiz Gonzalez, 19, who was holding a pregnant woman hostage at gunpoint. The gun was later discovered to be a starter pistol. Gonzalez died at a hospital. His hostage was unhurt.

Sunday's shooting shocked neighbors.

Robert Cole, 69, said he left his apartment to see what was going on after he saw the street full of LAPD patrol cars and officers.

"If there was one, there was 50," said Cole, who lives two doors down from the scene of the hostage situation.

Cole said officers told him that he had to go back inside. From his window, he said he could not see what was taking place but still listened. About an hour after police told him he couldn't stay outside, Cole said he heard gunfire.

"I said, 'Gee whiz, that was heavy gunfire,' " said Cole, who served five years in the Navy. "It was heavy caliber and it sounded like a 9-millimeter to me."

Cole said he heard several shots and two different types of gunfire. Although he said it was not unusual to hear an occasional shot fired in the neighborhood late at night, the timing -- before dark -- and the number of shots surprised him.

Bantu · (#2 (**permalink**))

Bantu · (#3 (**permalink**))

That poor little baby. I'm going to have to go with the damn trigger happy L.A.P.D ! I don't believe for one minute that they exhausted every possible avenue before deciding to take this route. Hell, even if they did, there is just no excuse for the deplorable way that they handled the situation. I'm not trying to discharge the father of any responsibility, I think he‘s a worthless cowardly S.O.B. for endangering his child's life by using her as a hostage and a human shield. The blame lies ultimately with the police for not being able to get the upper hand of the situation, and then making a stupid decision when they failed to do so. It will be interesting to see how the L.A.P.D extricates itself from this hot mess. The powers that be will probably decide that their actions were justified, since they were firing guns on some brown folks.

neo brown · (#4 (**permalink**))

Blame them both. The only inncoent was the child.

Sooofresh · (#5 (**permalink**))

yes neo

I can't believe the FATHER would use HIS child as a shield.....................my gosh what has this world come to!

LAPD...............no comment

dimoke · (#6 (**permalink**))

Unbelievable....40 rounds with his child in his arms. Some people hey...

**ChloEington** · (#7 (**permalink**))

I blame the father cause he is a heartless coward! Not even slightly a man!

But number one I blamed the police because were they not trained for these hostage type of situations?confused2