One man with mental problems wielded a knife at San Jose police officers. One grabbed an officer's gun. Two flashed weapons, and two more suspects in cars tried to run down police while racing away.
Police fired back in each of these six encounters this year -- five of them in the past month alone. Three suspects were killed, the most recent on Sunday. In what is turning out to be an alarming year for police-involved shootings, some are questioning whether cuts to the city's police force have made the streets more dangerous, or whether police or criminals are becoming more aggressive.
"A lot of officers are coming up with theories as to why. We go into the street every night; you don't know what dangers you are going to face," San Jose Police Chief Chris Moore said Monday. "These are not things being generated by the officers. They are generated by calls from the public for help."
The spate of San Jose police-involved shootings is the worst since 2004, when five out of six suspects shot by police ended up dead. And this year's San Jose numbers don't include another recent police shooting in a different jurisdiction that made headlines -- the death in a Sunnyvale driveway of Shareef Allman, who had gunned down his co-workers at a Cupertino cement plant.
It's worse in Oakland, where the city has eight police-involved shootings so far this year, including five fatalities.
Layoffs and cuts
Terry Bowman, a lawyer whose firm represents San Jose and other Bay Area police involved in shootings, said recent police department layoffs and budget cuts are partially responsible.
"I believe cuts in resources, the cuts in the number of officers, has emboldened criminals," said Bowman. "Officers are responding appropriately to deadly threats. The issue is not the officer. The issue is how is it they are being placed in this situation."
Julie Pulliam, a lawyer representing the family of mentally ill Qazi Do, who was shot in January by San Jose police in a ravine in the eastern foothills, disagrees.
"It's getting out of control in San Jose," Pulliam said. "The rest of the community is starting to feel what the Vietnamese community has felt for a few years now. A lot of people are afraid of the San Jose police. It doesn't feel like 'protect and serve' to a huge segment of the population. It feels like, 'Oh my God, don't call the police.' "
Police have released little information about the latest police shooting on Sunday, other than to say that one officer shot the unidentified suspect and two other officers fired Tasers. And other than the family of Qazi Do, there has been little public outrage expressed over the other five shootings.
Retired Judge LaDoris Cordell, who serves as San Jose's independent police auditor, pointed out that although the police department is required to convene a panel to review police involved shootings, and invite her office and others to sit in, none have taken place for at least a year. The purpose is to determine whether policies were followed, not whether the shooting was justified. That is up to the District Attorney's Office.
"I don't know what the holdup is," Cordell said.
Police Chief Moore gave little explanation for the delay except to say police are close to being ready to hold a number of them.
Auditor's role
Cordell said her office doesn't get involved in the internal investigations by the San Jose Police Department unless a member of the public complains about the shooting to her office or the Police Department's internal affairs unit. Of the six shootings, the only complaint her office has received so far is from the family of Qazi Do. That investigation is under way.
"My whole issue is, why aren't people yelling about gun control?" Cordell asked.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen has taken a position on only one of the six cases, finding that the Do shooting was justified. Because the other five cases have occurred over the past month, he said, investigations are not yet complete.
"While I don't think that the shortage of police officers has led to more officer-involved shootings," Rosen said, "I do think that more police officers would make us all feel safer."
Police Sgt. Jim Unland, vice president of the officers union, said he doesn't believe there's a single reason for the shootings.
Still, he said, "I know the criminals are aware of our staffing shortfalls, and they may think they can take advantage of that. I would argue that the outcome of those encounters demonstrates that assumption is wrong."
There have been six officer-involved shootings in San Jose so far this year. Three of the six suspects were killed in the confrontations:
Jan. 15: Qazi Do, called a "mild-mannered" schizophrenic by the family lawyer, was killed by police in a ravine in the east foothills after wielding his knife. Lawyer Julie Pulliam contends that police "escalated" the confrontation. District Attorney Jeff Rosen determined the shooting was justified.
Sept. 16: Filogonio Orozco, 31, was shot and wounded in the back after he accelerated his stolen car toward police, who were on foot.
Sept. 16: Police shot and wounded Paul Ray Castillo, who eluded capture for three days after he killed Vietnamese radio host Cindy Nguyen.
Oct. 8: Police shot at, but missed, Jason Eric Evans, a former San Jose State football player, who had grabbed an officer's gun and fled down Leigh Avenue. Although bullets missed him, a police car ran into him, knocking him down and dislodging the gun from his hand.
Oct. 10: Responding to a report of gunshots fired on Hillsdale Avenue, police confronted a shirtless suspect. When the man threatened police with a gun, police shot and killed him. Police haven't released his name.
Oct. 16: Police killed a suspect after responding to a report of a man acting suspiciously and carrying some kind of weapon. Police revealed few details except that one officer fired his gun and two others fired Tasers.
Copyright 2011 - San Jose Mercury News, Calif.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
