Friday, July 8, 2016

Two undercover CHP officers under investigation for deadly shooting of unarmed teen

An unarmed teenager, Pedro Villanueva, was shot and killed by undercover CHP officers in Fullerton on Sunday 
Two undercover California Highway Patrol officers are under investigation from the Orange County D.A.'s office and by the CHP's own Internal Affairs department after they were accused of recklessly opening fire on an unarmed teen behind the wheel of a moving vehicle in Fullerton at around 10:50 p.m. on Sunday, July 3rd, killing the driver and injuring his 18-year-old passenger with gunshots.

The aftermath of the CHP shooting in Fullerton where Pedro Villanueva was
killed by undercover CHP officers
The undercover, plain-clothes officers were part of a larger CHP task force aimed at imposing a "zero tolerance" policy in cracking down on illegal street racing events over the long holiday weekend and were monitoring one such underground hot rod "sideshow" event outside a Santa Fe Springs swap meet Sunday evening, where about 80 trucks and off-road vehicles were performing adrenaline-fueled burnouts and doing doughnuts with their vehicles.

The CHP may have been interested and gotten wind of the event upon hearing there were doughnuts at the event.

As uniformed officers closed in on the event, the attendees of the sideshow event scattered, including 19-year-old Pedro Erik Villanueva of Canoga Park and his passenger, 18-year-old Francisco Orozco of Santa Fe Springs, who were spectators of the event, in Villanueva's red Chevy Silverado pickup truck. Villanueva and Orozco were merely car enthusiasts among the audience of the illegal street car event and were not participating in the dangerous stunts performed by other "sideshow" participants.


The undercover officers in question who tailed the teenagers never identified themselves as being police officers to Villanueva as they continued their dangerous pursuit of the teens for several miles in an unmarked squad car at speeds approaching 90 mph, according to police reports.

At that point in a 90 mph pursuit on the highways, it appears there was no reason for the officers to maintain their cover, and the officers should have properly followed police procedure by identifying themselves as police officers to pull the teens over; however, they reckless kept their cover—even keeping their headlights off during the chase arousing suspicion in the teenagers that the unmarked vehicle following them were robbers—and never called for back up from any uniformed CHP officers.

These highly suspicious and unorthodox tactics likely scared Villanueva and his passenger into thinking that they were not the police and were likely going to do Villanueva some harm.

The officers then cornered Villanueva into a dead-end residential cul-de-sac where the scared teens had no avenue of escape, on the 100 block of North Pritchard Avenue in Fullerton near the the Fullerton Municipal Airport.

The CHP officers, still undercover in street clothes and not flashing any siren lights, ominously approached the cornered pickup truck with their headlights off and drew their weapons, causing even more panic in the teens, who rightfully believed they were in the process of being robbed.


Villanueva is reported to have turned his truck around and tried to drive back out from the narrow dead-end street, which was cutoff by the undercover officers who, even then, still failed to identify themselves as police officers to give the teenagers an opportunity to peacefully surrender, without any fears for their own safety.

As Villanueva tried to drive his way past what he perceived as assailants to save his own life, the officers opened fire on the oncoming pickup truck without any warning, killing Villanueva and wounding Orozco in the arm with their bullets. At least ten rounds were shot into the cab of the moving truck.


The truck then dangerously went out of control striking another vehicle before driving toward the unmarked police cruiser, according to another law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation who spoke to the L.A. Times on condition of anonymity. Ultimately, the truck collided with the unmarked cruiser after the shooting and came to a stop.

Captain David Moeller (left) of the Santa Fe Springs Area CHP office who was responsible for the sting
operation against illegal 'sideshow' that went awry on July 3, 2016
CHP Lt. Charlie Sampson stated that it was not clear if the driver knew he was being followed by the undercover car, but given the fact that the CHP admitted they never identified themselves to Villanueva, there is no likelihood that the teens ever knew that they were being pursued by police officers.

Villanueva died at the scene. His passenger, Francisco Orozco, was struck in the arm by stray bullets shot by the CHP and was taken to UCI Medical Center in handcuffs for medical treatment before being released.

Orozco is expected to survive and was not charged in the incident as it appears the teenagers were the true victims in this horrifying incident.

Since the undercover CHP officers never identified themselves as being the police, there is no chance that Villanueva or Orozco could have known that they were being followed by undercover CHP officers.

Sgt. Kathryn Hamel of the Fullerton Police Department confirmed, because they were working undercover in street clothes and driving an unmarked vehicle, the driver probably did not know they were officers.

To date, the CHP has been very vague in the details about what happened in this public relations fiasco. Captain David Edward Moeller of Acton/Lancaster, California, spoke on behalf of his Santa Fe Springs area CHP office, where the sting operation was located, only saying that two officers were involved in the shooting, and he very clumsily continued by saying, "We were following some people." (Tell us something we don't know.)


Many law enforcement experts can't comprehend the CHP's lack of judgement in following the teens in an unmarked car and failing to ever identify themselves at any time during a very dangerous, high-speed and risky chase.

Pedro Villanueva's red Chevy Silverado pickup truck riddled with bullets from the CHP
There was absolutely no way that Villanueva could have known he was being pursued by police. Instead, the persistent failure of the CHP in identifying themselves likely caused the driver to believe he was, instead, being assailed by robbers. So that fear likely caused Villanueva to panic and speed away at nearly 90 m.p.h., trying to get away from his unidentified assailants.

"If a car is following me, it's unmarked with no lights and doesn't look like cops," said Mohammad Walid, an 18-year-old former classmate of Villanueva's at Chatsworth High School, "I wouldn't stop for them either."

Beyond their biggest glaring mistake in failing to identify themselves police officers, the CHP employed another highly controversial tactic in the incident which many other law enforcement agencies have barred their officers from doing—namely shooting at moving vehicles.

Federal authorities and law enforcement experts consider this kind of action to be dangerous because it puts everyone's safety at risk, and so this kind of reckless practice has been banned by police in Los Angeles, New York and several other major U.S. cities.


The reason for the ban is simple: shooting at drivers in moving vehicles, even when it appears they are trying to ram police vehicles, is unlikely going to stop a speeding vehicle. In fact it may only serve to increase the danger that the drivers who are shot will be incapacitated to the point that they are going to be unable to control their vehicles, doing more harm than good, as the vehicle will crash uncontrollably before coming to an undesired stop.


According to the CHP's use-of-force policy, officers are allowed to use deadly force to stop the commission of an assault with a deadly weapon, including when a vehicle is used as a weapon to ram someone.

Close-up of Pedro Villanueva's pickup truck windshield
"Only a fool thinks a... bullet is going to stop a 3,800 pound car. Nobody is really shooting at the vehicle, they're shooting at the driver," said Sid Heal, a retired L.A. County sheriff's commander. "Then the natural thing is, what's going to happen if you stop the driver? Is it going to prevent the attack? If not, it's fruitless."

In any case, it is uncertain if Villanueva even tried to ram the undercover officers as his only avenue of escape was down the same, narrow dead-end road he had entered to flee from what he perceived were robbers.

It appears that Villanueva was trying to get past the undercover officers because he feared he was trapped in the cul-de-sac and was imminently going to be harmed by the unidentified assailants who had drawn their weapons on him. Villanueva's actions to escape the unidentified CHP officers were clearly taken to save his own life and that of his passenger's and shows no wrongdoing on his part.


Clearly, the fault in that kind of situation lies with the two undercover officers and the department's systematic failure in not having any clear rules of engagement in confronting unwitting subjects of interest who were only aware they are being followed by suspicious and unidentified undercover officers without any idea who they were or why they were being followed.

Can you tell if this armed undercover CHP officer is a cop or a bad guy when
he fails to identify himself until after he draws his weapon?
This kind of ambiguity places the public's safety in great danger because, under no circumstances, is anyone reasonably going to surrender willingly to suspiciously unidentified persons in hot pursuit whose motives in the aggressive pursuit were never known to the subject in question.

Thus, not only should the undercover CHP officers be fired, but their superiors who approved the dangerous pursuit while maintaining cover should also be held accountable for placing innocent lives in danger. There simply is no excuse for an innocent Latino teenager to be shot dead behind the wheel of a moving pickup truck without ever knowing his armed assailants were part of law enforcement. This kind of conduct by the CHP is completely unprofessional and reckless.


The CHP, continuing their policy of non-transparency in the incident, would not identify either officer involved in the shooting, but said they had been with the CHP for 15 and six years, respectively. Fullerton Police also would not divulge the names of the CHP officers involved either, saying they considered them as "victims regarding the criminal investigation being conducted." However, the true victims in this case appear to be Villanueva, who is now dead, and his passenger, Francisco Orozco, who was shot in the arm by the CHP's stray bullets.


Meanwhile, the Fullerton P.D. confirmed the undercover officers involved "are being investigated by their own agency and the shooting itself...is being investigated by the Orange County District Attorney's Office."

 

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