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Cops Who Fired 100 Rounds At Delivery Women Mistaken For Dorner Will Be Sent Back Into Field
Eight LAPD officers who mistook two delivery women for Christopher Dorner and fired over 100 rounds into their truck will be sent back into the field after being retrained.
This comes after Chief Charlie Beck made the most obvious announcement ever in saying that the officers were in the wrong when they opened fire on Margie Carranza and her mother, Emma Hernandez. In a department memo, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Beck expressed his utmost confidence in the officers.
"I have confidence in their abilities as LAPD officers to continue to do their jobs in the same capacity they had been assigned," Beck said in the department message. "In the end, we as an organization can learn from this incident and from the individuals involved."
Beck's decision doesn't necessarily mean they won't be disciplined, but sources are telling the Times that if he were to discipline them, it would be minimal.
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Carranza and Hernandez were delivering newspapers in Torrance early in the morning on Feb. 7, 2013 when the officers, believing that the women's blue Toyota Tacoma was Dorner's grey Nissan Titan, fired into their truck. Hernandez was shot twice in the back and Carranza has a graze wound on her hand. The women received $4.2 million to stave off a lawsuit, plus an extra $40,000 for a new truck.
The head of the citizen-run Los Angeles Police Commission, Steve Soboroff, expressed disappointment in Beck's decision. The police commission and Beck initially agreed on the fact that the officers violated protocol after a separate panel of high-ranking cops urged Beck to clear them of wrongdoing.
"I trust that the training will be extensive and the Department and officers will move forward from this tragic incident." Soboroff said.
Meanwhile, the attorney for Carranza and Hernandez, Glen Jonas, blasted the ruling by Beck.
"If either of the women had been killed, you can bet your bottom dollar somebody would be fired and maybe prosecuted," Jonas told The Associated Press "A stroke of luck, firing more than 100 rounds and missing, should not mean the discipline is lighter."
Related:
LAPD Chief: Cops Who Mistook Delivery Women For Christopher Dorner Were Wrong To Shoot Them
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