Sep 24, 2007 10:42 pm US/Pacific
Family Of Oakland Man Shot By Cop Wants Charges
OAKLAND (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
About 60 people people marched on Oakland City Hall Monday calling for the prosecution of a police officer who killed a man he was questioning as a murder suspect, but top police officials defended the actions of the officer.
The parents of 20-year-old Gary King Jr. were among the several dozen protesters claiming that Oakland police Sgt. Pat Gonzales used excessive force when he gunned down their son last week near 54th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way.
King's mother, 50-year-old Catherine King, said that her son was shot in the back twice and witnesses told her that Gonzalez fired at him even though he was running away.
"My son was murdered in cold blood without a reason," Catherine King said, adding that her "son probably was rather indignant after he was stopped" because he often was hasseled by police officers looking for young black suspects.
She said King family members plan to file a lawsuit against the Oakland Police Department if authorities don't pursue murder charges against Gonzalez.
Oakland police and the Alameda County District Attorney's Office are investigating the fatal shooting. Gonzales, a 10-year veteran in the department, was involved in two previous shootings in the line of duty -- but was cleared of wrongdoing after investigations found the suspects in both of those incidents were "armed and prepared for violent encounters."
Oakland Police Chief Wayne Tucker acknowleged that "it's not the normal set of circumstances for an officer" to shoot suspects three times in five years and admitted "that's more than most."
But Tucker said people should look at Gonzalez' assignment, which is supervising a crime reduction team, and said it "puts him in harm's way on a continuing and constant basis."
While Tucker said the public's "confidence and trust in us have been impacted" by this latest shooting, he and other police officials defended Gonzalez at a news conference Monday.
Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan told reporters that a preliminary investigation into this shooting indicated Gonzalez didn't engage in any misconduct and acted "in defense of his life" in shooting King.
Police said Gonzales felt a gun when he patted King down on the street and that he feared King was reaching for the weapon when the two got into a scuffle. Police also said Gonzales tried to use a stun gun on King before resulting to deadly force.
Lt. Ersie Joyner, who heads the homicide division, admitted that Gonzalez shot King in the back, but he said Gonzales told investigators that he fired because King "was still attempting to pull his firearm out."
Police said "time, place and circumstance" all factored into Gonzalez' decision Thursday to stop and question King, who fit the "distinctive" description of a suspect in the Aug. 21 shooting death of 29-year old Ronald Jimmey Spears - which occured along that same stretch of MLK near Children's Hospital Oakland.
Joyner said King's hairstyle and complexion were similar to those mentioned in the description of the gunman in the death of Spears, but he declined to go into more detail.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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