Officers in Shootout Identified

Los Angeles Police Department officials Wednesday released the names of the 11 officers who fired their weapons during a July 10 shootout that killed a toddler and her gun-wielding father and left one officer wounded.

According to a partial database of LAPD disciplinary records compiled by The Times, none of the officers had ever been found to have acted “out of policy” in prior shooting incidents.

Six had been involved in previous shootings at suspects. Two of those officers had been in multiple shooting incidents.

The other five officers who fired weapons during the standoff had never before shot at a suspect.

Nineteen-month-old Suzie Marie Pena was accidentally killed by a police rifle round as officers exchanged gunfire with her father, Jose Raul Pena.

The shootout began when Pena, an auto-dealership owner, barricaded himself inside his business in Watts and held his daughter hostage.

Police have said he repeatedly shot a 9-millimeter pistol at officers and fired randomly toward neighboring homes and businesses during the 2 1/2 -hour standoff.

Earlier this week, Chief William J. Bratton told the Police Commission that there would probably be no way to tell which officer fired the bullet that killed the toddler.

Investigators say they lack evidence to pinpoint the shooter because the bullet did not lodge in the girl’s body, numerous rounds were fired and at least four officers shot identical weapons in the last moments of the standoff.

In a written statement Wednesday afternoon, the LAPD gave the following names, which appear in the order of their involvement in the incident:

* John Rusth, 33, of the Southeast Division, a two-year LAPD veteran.

* Matthew Valencia, 33, Southeast Division, seven-year veteran.

* Samuel Marullo, 33, Southeast Division, eight-year veteran.

* Jeffrey Ennis, 38, Newton Division, 16-year veteran.

* Gina Holmstrom, 40, Metro K9, 15-year veteran.

* Benjamin Santero, 33, Southwest Division, nine-year veteran.

* Dennis O’Sullivan, 36, Metro K9, 15-year veteran.

* Robert Gallegos Jr., 36, Metro SWAT, 11-year veteran.

* Eduardo Perez, 33, Metro SWAT, 11-year veteran.

* William Casey, 46, Metro SWAT, 17-year veteran.

* Daniel Sanchez, 39, 15-year veteran.

Sanchez, the officer shot in the shoulder, was briefly hospitalized.

Police also released some details of the officers’ positions during the incident.

Rusth, they said, shot at Pena while in front of the business. Valencia and Marullo shot at him while in the rear alley. Ennis, Holmstrom and Santero fired rounds during a rescue operation in which they succeeded in safely extracting a 16-year-old hostage from the parking lot of the dealership. O’Sullivan shot at Pena from the hatch of a Bearcat armored vehicle.

Gallegos, Perez, Casey and Sanchez fired their weapons after entering the office of the business in an attempt to rescue the toddler, police said. This was the final, chaotic phase of the incident in which Sanchez was wounded and the toddler most likely killed, according to Bratton.

In all cases, police have said that officers were returning fire.

Of all the officers, only O’Sullivan and Ennis have histories of shooting at suspects on more than one prior occasion. Most LAPD officers have not fired a weapon at a suspect -- as Casey, Perez, Rusth, Sanchez and Santero had not until the afternoon of July 10, according to the Times database.

The LAPD delayed release of the officers’ names for 10 days after the shootout, turning down repeated press requests. This was a departure from the practice after other high-profile incidents that ended in deaths.

In October 2000, for example, when Officer Tarriel Hopper shot and killed actor Anthony Lee at a Halloween party, the LAPD, then under former Chief Bernard C. Parks, released Hopper’s name the day of the shooting.

Similarly, when Officer Edward Larrigan shot a homeless woman, Margaret Mitchell, in May 1999, the department released Larrigan’s name the next day. More recently, under Bratton, when Officer Steven Garcia shot 13-year-old Devin Brown in February as the boy backed toward him in a stolen car, the department released Garcia’s name a day later.

LAPD officials, while conceding that the identities of the officers were a matter of public record, gave several reasons for postponing the release in this case, including concerns for the officers’ safety and privacy.

But the reason cited most often was that the officers involved felt terrible about what had happened and that superiors were loath to make their situation harder.

After repeated verbal requests, The Times submitted a letter to the department July 14 asking for the names under the California Public Records Act.

Courts have held that police officers’ identities must remain public, even when privacy or sensitivity concerns are at issue, said Susan Seager, a media lawyer for The Times and other news organizations.

“We live in an open society,” she said. “And we don’t have a secret police force.”

In releasing the names Wednesday, Lt. Paul Vernon, an LAPD spokesman, cited the “interest of transparency.” He added that “the investigation is continuing, and a full review will be forthcoming once the facts are known.”

Times staff writers Matt Lait and Scott Glover contributed to this report.