Charges considered against Los Angeles police in fatal shooting

April 12, 2000
Web posted at: 11:03 p.m. EDT (0303 GMT)

In this story: Officers fired 10 rounds Tally of dismissed cases could grow RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Correspondent Charles Feldman and Producer Stanley Wilson

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Investigators are considering possible murder and conspiracy charges against several officers involved in a 1996 shooting incident, sources close to the criminal investigation into the Los Angles Police corruption scandal tell CNN.

An apartment building at 676 South Shatto Place was the scene of what the police department calls "an officer involved shooting" on the night of July 20, 1996.

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What really happened, said former police officer-turned key government witness Rafael Perez, is what police on the street call "a dirty shooting."

Perez is now in prison after pleading guilty last year to eight felony counts stemming from cocaine thefts from a police evidence room.

As part of his plea agreement with state prosecutors to win a lenient sentence, Perez has confessed to participating in or witnessing criminal behavior in the department's Rampart division, including the 1996 shooting, which left one man dead and two others wounded.

In that incident, according to sworn statements published in the Los Angeles Times and confirmed by CNN, Perez and several officers from a gang-suppression unit descended on the apartment building west of downtown Los Angeles searching for gang members suspected of planning a retaliatory attack for a fatal drive-by shooting the day before.

What ensued, according to Perez and witnesses, was a shootout where police officers fired 10 rounds, killing one man and wounding two others.

According to published transcripts, Perez claimed that officers deliberately delayed calling an ambulance for 21-year-old Juan Saldana while they concocted a phony story and fabricated evidence by planting a gun on Saldana. According to Perez, Saldana was unarmed.

Saldana later died at a hospital from a gunshot wound to the chest and back, according to Scott Carrier, a spokesman for the Los Angeles coroner.

In a videotape obtained by CNN, Perez can be seen congregating with fellow officers and investigators moments after the shooting as paramedics treated some of the victims.

At least half a dozen officers from the shooting have been relieved of duty; another officer, who fired his weapon, was terminated for an unrelated charge, CNN has learned.

Since the police corruption probe unraveled last year, more than two dozen officers have been fired, relieved of duty or quit as a result of the investigation, according to Los Angeles Police spokesman Horace Frank.

Meanwhile, 10 more criminal cases are expected to be dismissed Thursday as a result of testimony by Perez, who admitted framing innocent people. A total of 60 cases have been dismissed or thrown out of court because of Perez's testimony.

At his sentencing in February, Perez tried to explain the mentality of his fellow officers.

"The us against them ethos of the overzealous cop began to consume me," Perez said. "And the ends justified the means. We vaguely sensed we were doing the wrong things for the right reason. Time and again, I stepped over that line."

Investigators said they believe Perez is telling the truth.

Meanwhile, Saldana's family has filed a lawsuit in federal court.

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The Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles County District Attorney
United States Attorney's Office, Central District of California
U.S. Department of Justice
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Federal Bureau of Investigation

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