In 92503 news...

The city's Police Department ''gets away with murder'' again.. LITERALLY.


photo used from crmvet.org





I don't know how many wrongful death cases the RPD have to catch before city officials do something about the corruption in our police department, but as a proud native, I've been in fear of the RPD since they killed Tyisha Miller in 99' around 4 minutes away from where I was at the time.


story taken from Pe. com

Riverside city agrees to settle shooting death for $800,000, as report on incident is offered





08:41 AM PST on Thursday, February 28, 2008

By SONJA BJELLAND
The Press-Enterprise

Correction:

An earlier headline for this story incorrectly stated the amount Riverside has agreed to pay to a man's family. The city has agreed to pay $800,000.

The city has agreed to pay $800,000 to the family of a man shot to death by Riverside police.

The announcement came Wednesday as the Community Police Review Commission's investigator gave a report about the October 2006 shooting death of Douglas Steven Cloud.

City officials would not comment on the decision to pay $800,000, which was independent of any decision the commission might make.

Cloud's mother, Teresa Cloud, addressed the board.

"He was shot with no warning," she said. "He didn't deserve to be gunned down."

The family sued the city and the Police Department in federal court for civil rights violations and wrongful death.

The commission will now review the report and deliberate on whether the shooting was within policy and make recommendations. Private investigator Butch Warnberg provided a 61-page report detailing interviews with witnesses and taped interviews of officers supplied by the Police Department. The report offered new information that officers believed Cloud may have been armed and attempting to reach for a gun. No gun was found after the shooting.

That account is different from what police Capt. Jim Cannon told the civilian review board in a briefing on the shooting weeks after it occurred. At that time, he said that Cloud was driving recklessly and suggested that officers shot Cloud because he was trying to run them down.

According to Warnberg's report, Cloud stole a paint sprayer from Home Depot on Indiana Avenue in Riverside. Employees chased him through the parking lot and he was beaten at his car by several people.

An officer at Home Depot reported Cloud as a suspect in a robbery at the store. Cloud drove away and crashed into a palm tree and a truck.

A man working at a nearby car dealership tried to help him and soon 11 officers were on scene. Officer Brett Stennett, trained in emergency medicine, tried to open the mangled car's doors and then unsuccessfully tried to pull Cloud through a window, Warnberg said.

Officer Nicholas Vazquez told Stennett to step back. Cloud did not speak when police requested he put his hands up or get out of the car, Warnberg said.

Within 20 seconds of the officers arriving, Cloud was shot five times by Vazquez and Officer David Johansen, Warnberg said.

Johansen said he saw Cloud move his right hand as if reaching for a weapon.

"If I would have waited, I would have been shot," he said in the taped interview, according to Warnberg's report.