Autopsy Shows 14 Shots Hit Youth : Coroner Reports on Shooting During Tussle With Escondido Police Officer

Seventeen-year-old Robert Scriven, killed by an Escondido police officer Jan. 2 after the two struggled for the officer’s handgun, was shot 14 times, according to an autopsy report released Tuesday by the county coroner’s office.

The Escondido Police Department previously said the teen-ager had been shot at least 11 times, based on the number of bullets recovered during the autopsy.

Chased by Officer

Scriven, who lived in Escondido, was chased down on foot by Officer Martin Hewlett after the teen-ager was spotted driving a stolen car. He led police on a car chase before he abandoned the vehicle in the 3000 block of North Broadway, just north of the city limits, and ran into thick brush in an open field.

Hewlett caught up with the youth on foot and the two struggled, with Hewlett ending up on his back with the teen-ager over him, according to Escondido police reports. Police Chief Vince Jimno said that, when Hewlett reached for his handgun, Scriven struggled for it and the officer, fearing for his own life, fired 15 rounds from the semi-automatic weapon, which was loaded with 16 bullets.

Scriven died at the scene of multiple gunshot wounds. The shooting sparked a controversy because of the number of times Hewlett fired his gun.

Jimno defended his officer’s actions, saying Hewlett did what he felt was necessary to save his own life during what he perceived as a life-and-death struggle with Scriven.

The autopsy report does not set out to justify the shooting, but merely lays out in medical language the number of times Scriven was shot, where he was shot, and the paths the bullets took through his body.

Testing for Drugs

A separate toxicology report, which would show whether drugs were detected in Scriven’s body, is not complete. Dr. Ronald Rivers, the chief medical examiner for the county, said Tuesday that the delay in receiving the toxicology report indicates that tests showed the existence of drugs and that further testing is being done to determine what types, and in what quantities, they were detected.

In addition to the gunshots, other injuries on Scriven that were noted in the autopsy report appeared consistent with Scriven and Hewlett fighting, including a broken thumb, bruises on his face and a black eye.

The autopsy report, prepared by Rivers, said Scriven was shot three times at close range, with powder burns on two wounds in his left hand and on a wound on the left side of his back.

Scriven was struck by bullets 11 other times: Twice in his left chest, once in his left forearm, four times in his buttocks, twice in his left leg, once in his left hip and another wound, without powder burns, in his back.

The two chest wounds and one of the leg wounds were from the front, the autopsy report said.

At least eight of the shots hit Scriven from the back--consistent, Escondido police have maintained, with Hewlett firing at Scriven even as he was falling off of the officer after the initial shots were fired.

Review by District Attorney

Rivers said his autopsy did not attempt to determine what position Scriven was in when he was shot. “To say they (the angles of the wounds) are consistent with him being bent over or sideways or upside down is pure speculation,” Rivers said. “That would be something an attorney would have to bring out, along with the police. But, with that number of gunshot wounds, from lots of different angles, there were lots of possible positions. Many times an individual is in a moving position at the time they sustain as many gunshot wounds as we see here.”

The district attorney’s office is reviewing the case, as is customary when a police officer is involved in a fatal shooting. The Escondido Police Department has promised its own internal review of the incident as well, pending the district attorney’s conclusions.