No Grounds to Prosecute : Killing by Police Is Called ‘Needless Tragedy’ by D.A.

The police slaying early this year of a 25-year-old Clairemont man was a “needless tragedy” that occurred because two San Diego officers created a situation from which there was no escape other than deadly force, the district attorney’s office ruled Friday.

However, the death Jan. 9 of Chip Doonan was ruled a justifiable homicide because Doonan, confronted suddenly by officers in a garage, reached for what appeared to be a gun tucked underneath his right arm, the district attorney said.

Doonan was shot once in the chest by Officer Ron Featherly. According to what Featherly later told his superiors, Doonan began to reach under his arm. He started to say “It’s . . .” and Featherly shot him, and Doonan, falling to the ground, completed the sentence: “. . . only a BB gun.”

In its report, the district attorney said that Featherly ordered Doonan to drop the gun and hold up his hands and that, at that point, “there was seemingly no action Doonan could have taken to prevent his being shot.”

But, in ruling the homicide justifiable, the district attorney said there was no way the officers could have known that the weapon was merely a pellet gun until after Doonan was dead.

Had Doonan raised his hands and let the weapon clatter to the floor, it could have discharged on impact, the district attorney said. The report indicates that the proper police command should have been for Doonan to “freeze.”

‘Did Nothing’ to Alert Suspect

“Individuals are frequently startled when they see a police officer,” the report says. “It’s for that reason, if an officer perceives danger, that an immediate command will be for the individual to ‘freeze,’ lest any sudden movement be misinterpreted by the officer.”

The report also notes that Featherly and his partner, Officer Norman Ernsbarger, “did nothing” to alert Doonan of their presence before confronting him with their weapons drawn in the garage. And it says the officers did not call out to him nor seem to heed warnings from witnesses that Doonan was not a suspect in the domestic disturbance they were investigating.

Featherly told investigators that he recalled one witness saying Doonan was “OK; he lives here.” But Featherly said he also wondered how that witness, inside a nearby home and talking on the phone, could have known or seen what was going on.

An Outcry From Residents

As it turned out, Doonan was not a suspect and had done nothing to provoke the officers into following him and confronting him with weapons drawn.

Given all these factors, the report says, the incident “constitutes a needless tragedy.”

“Once the officers faced off against a startled Doonan, the die was cast,” it says.

The slaying prompted an outcry from the Clairemont Mesa neighborhood, where many residents accused officers of acting out of revenge and being trigger-happy because a fellow officer had been shot the night before.

Review Board to Convene

Featherly, who has returned to duty at the Northern Patrol but was reportedly on sick leave Friday, could not be reached for comment. Ernsbarger also could not be reached.

Police Chief Bill Kolender declined to discuss the district attorney’s report and referred all questions to Cmdr. Keith Enerson.

Enerson said the Police Department will convene a shooting review board to study the findings and determine whether any disciplinary action should be taken. The board will be made up of three police commanders and attended by the city’s legal adviser, the officers and the officers’ private attorneys if they so choose.

The board will probably meet within two to three weeks, then send its report to Assistant Chief Bob Burgreen, Enerson said.

“I’m sure Kolender then looks at it also,” Enerson said. “I’m sure Burgreen will consult with the chief. It’s his ultimate responsibility.”

Doonan had been arrested several times, and his family and neighbors said that one officer in particular, Richard D. Draper, had often harassed him.

Arrested Twice by Officer

The district attorney’s report says Draper arrested Doonan twice last year, both times for unlawful possession of controlled substances. However, neither case was prosecuted, “for evidentiary reasons.”

The report also says that Doonan had told acquaintances that he felt threatened by police. Draper was the first officer to respond to the scene after the shooting.

But, “remembering that Officer Draper was not present when Doonan was shot, we reject any suggestion that Doonan’s death is connected with prior police conduct,” the report says.

On Heels of Shooting

The slaying came just 10 hours after Officer Jerry Hartless suffered a fatal gunshot wound during a police chase in Southeast San Diego.

The district attorney gave this account of the Doonan case:

Officers were dispatched to the Clairemont Mesa neighborhood on a domestic disturbance call. They interviewed a woman in a home on Jemez Drive, remembering that they had been in that area just the day before investigating a report of a stolen car.

Unknown to the officers at that time, Doonan was moving out of a camper shell and into a garage behind the home. From inside the home, Featherly saw Doonan from the rear carrying what the officer said appeared to be a handgun.

The officers followed him into the garage and confronted him, with guns drawn.

“Both officers observed Doonan, who was facing them, reach across his chest with his left hand in a grasping motion for the gun. Officer Featherly, in response, fired a single shot at Doonan, who was hit in the chest and fell to the floor.”

Talked the Day Before

As Doonan lay dead, the officers confirmed what the dying man had said, that his weapon was a .177-caliber pellet gun. Featherly told investigators that it was also only then that he recognized Doonan from the day before, when he had briefly talked to him while another man was being arrested for the auto theft.

During questioning by supervisors, “Officer Featherly appeared visibly shaken by the events and had to compose himself.”

He said he believed Doonan’s gun was real and that Doonan was reaching for it to shoot the officers.

He also told superiors that, “as he turned the corner of the garage and confronted Doonan, thoughts of Officer Hartless, shot in the head 10 hours earlier, were on his mind.”

Asked why he did not order Doonan to “freeze,” Featherly said: “I just expected him to put his hands straight up. Whereas, ah, the gun would fall out of his armpit and onto the floor.”