Rookies Recall Confusion, Fear at King Beating

The only black Los Angeles police officer who was at the scene of the Rodney G. King beating told prosecutors he was confused by what he saw, but heard no racial epithets hurled at the black motorist by other officers, according to court documents.

Foothill Division Officer David Love, who said he helped handcuff King at the end of the March 3 incident and placed a foot on the suspect’s shoulder, later asked a training officer if what he had just witnessed was “normal” police conduct.

“I’d never seen anything like that before,” the rookie officer said. “He said, ‘No, not really.’ He wasn’t too sure. ‘Cause I didn’t--I didn’t--like the blow like to his mouth, when we cuffed him, he was bleeding. And I didn’t know where that came from.”

Verbatim transcripts of interviews by prosecutors with the four rookie cops, among 27 law enforcement officers who converged on the scene after King was stopped for speeding, were obtained by The Times. They offer the most complete police version yet presented of what happened that night, as well as the young officers’ rationale for not intervening.

Although their accounts vary in some details, all describe being frightened and confused, shocked by King’s continued “resistance,” and puzzled by the supervising sergeant’s failure to control events. They said they assumed King was dangerous and that his behavior appeared to justify the use of force.

In a particularly compelling exchange, rookie Officer Rolando Solano described how he fearfully fingered the trigger on his handgun as he watched King leave his car and approach surrounding officers.

“(King) turned around and he dropped his hands. . . . And he’s looking around. And I’m thinking, ‘OK, what’s--what’s he going to do? What’s he thinking?’ I’m thinking, ‘Does he have a weapon? You know, Christ, he might have a weapon. He might be reaching for something, or he might be thinking about something.’ ”

The interviews with Solano, Love and two other bystanders were conducted earlier this month with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. The interviews form the basis of a defense motion asking that charges against Officer Theodore J. Briseno be dropped.

Briseno’s attorneys, William J. Kopeny and John D. Barnett, contend that the district attorney intentionally withheld information from the Los Angeles County Grand Jury that would “negate Briseno’s guilt.”

They argue that evidence of King’s “bizarre” behavior, as described in interviews with these officers, “would tend to justify the use of a higher level of force.” They also say the interviews show that Briseno acted properly “whether or not the other defendants used excessive force.”

Briseno and three other Foothill Division officers--Sgt. Stacey C. Koon and Officers Timothy Wind and Laurence M. Powell--were indicted on criminal assault charges last month, after a Lake View Terrace resident videotaped the beating. On the tape, Briseno appears to kick the suspect once, but his attorneys contend that he merely followed police protocol by holding him down with his foot while handcuffing him.

The rookies, who have not been charged but gave interviews to prosecutors on orders from the department, said King appeared crazed and impervious to pain from a Taser stun gun and baton blows and refused to obey police orders, leading them to believe he was “dusted”--high on PCP.

- Love said he saw King struck twice before he “went down,” and wrestled with the struggling man as he and Briseno attempted to handcuff him.

- Solano, who held one of King’s legs, said his partner, Briseno, was upset after the incident. “He was mad at the sergeant (Koon). He said, ‘The sergeant should have handled that better. Goddamn it, you know, Sarge should have handled that differently.’ ”

- Officer Susan Jane Clemmer said she overheard Powell say of King: “The guy threw me off his back and I thought I was going to have to shoot him.”

- Officer Christopher J. Hajduk said he still remembers the look on King’s face. “I mean, I just couldn’t believe that somebody took that (a Taser), wouldn’t comply, wouldn’t do what he was told and was not obviously in pain. . . . When I was looking at his eyes he just looked like he was off in the wild blue yonder.”

Seventeen Los Angeles Police Department officers stood by and watched King being beaten.

King was arrested after two California Highway Patrol officers said they observed him driving at high speed in the northern San Fernando Valley.

In Love’s interview, given April 8, he said that when he responded to the call he thought an officer was “in trouble.”

“They just said there’s a pursuit going on,” he said. “And when there’s a pursuit, then more than likely at the end . . . it’s not going to be something too minor.”

When he arrived at the scene, Love said he saw King on the ground and was told everything was OK. But as he started to leave, he said King got up, despite having been “Tased.”

“He just looked kind of different in the face,” Love said. “He was just like standing there, and his hands were up. And I remember a bunch of officers yelling at him, ‘Get down. Lie down.’ ”

Love said he saw the officers strike King several times with their batons.

After King went down, police rolled him on his stomach and asked Love to help handcuff him. “But he was still struggling. He was still like resisting arrest or whatever. . . . And I walked up and put my foot on his shoulder.”

Love, who graduated from the Police Academy in November, said he never heard his fellow officers use racial epithets. Computer messages containing racial slurs were transmitted between LAPD patrol cars before the incident.

Love said he later saw the videotape of the beating. “It’s hard to watch,” he said.

“You don’t like looking at it because of the force used on the suspect?” he was asked by Deputy Dist. Atty. Terry White.

“Yes, sir,” Love responded.

Clemmer, who joined the force 19 months ago, said in her April 8 interview that she and Wind accompanied King in the ambulance to the hospital. King was “spitting or blowing blood” on her uniform and shoes, then laughing, she said.

In the hospital emergency room, she said, she heard King tell Koon, who was seated nearby, “I love you,” several times. “And then the suspect clapped and then smiled at us.”

Earlier, Clemmer--who said she had directed traffic at the scene--heard King “laughing in a very deep laugh, constantly” and cursing the officers.

Solano, whose first day at the Foothill Division was in October, said that when he arrived he heard King being told by officers: “Exit the vehicle with your hands in the air. Step away from the car. Come down on your knees. Keep your hands up. Keep your hands where we can see them.”

Solano said he saw other officers with their weapons drawn, and readied his as well. King did not appear to hear the shouted commands.

It was at that point, Solano said, that he fingered the trigger on his handgun and thought to himself what might happen if King had a weapon.

King continued to move his hands, movements Solano said he interpreted as “potentially dangerous.”

He said at one point he feared King was going for a weapon. “And I moved my finger towards the trigger. . . . I was mentally preparing myself . . . if I have to return fire, I have to do that.”

Solano, who was interviewed April 5, said King then fell to his hands and knees, with “kind of a crazed stare” in his eyes. He said Koon told King: “If you don’t start following orders, I’m going to zap you, I’m going to electrocute you.”

After being hit by the Taser, Solano said, King yelled for five seconds, then got up. “And that was scary. He got up. And he started lunging in the direction of Sgt. Koon.” At that point, “Powell jumped in with his baton and started hitting him in the upper torso, arms, and in the shoulders, and also in the clavicle.”

King appeared unfazed, Solano said. “I’m thinking we have a duster. I’m thinking a PCP suspect, because they don’t feel pain and they’re just capable of superhuman-type strength . . . and I remember Sgt. Koon yelling, ‘Get the knees! Get the knees!’ ”

He said he saw Powell and Wind strike more than 20 blows with their batons and that King was still standing.

“I remember Sgt. Koon yelling, ‘Do you give? Do you give?’ and I recall hearing voices like, ‘Stay down. Stay down.’ ” Solano said he then heard Koon say, “OK, he gives. He gives.”

Afterward, Solano said he heard Briseno say: “I thought we were gonna have to shoot that guy the way he was acting when he first came out of the car.” Solano said Briseno then told him, “Sarge (Koon) should have handled it differently.”

Solano then went to his car, got some alcohol jelly and offered it to the other officers to clean King’s blood off their skin. Briseno, he said, rubbed the jelly on his hands, saying, “Yeah, I got some on me.”

Solano said he later mentioned the beating to Briseno. “I just told him, ‘Geez, wasn’t there something else that could have been done? God, you know, it was just--just horrible.’ ”

Hajduk, who graduated in October from the Police Academy, said he viewed the altercation as it was in progress.

“The suspect was lying on the ground and he was being commanded to put his hands behind his back and he was not complying, repeatedly. I can’t even count the number of times he was told to put his hands behind his back.”

Hajduk, interviewed April 4, said the officers had trouble handcuffing King. “They were having just a hell of a time getting his arms and legs behind him.”

Hajduk said he was “shocked” that King still did not comply. But, he said, he did not recall seeing King try to hit anyone.

He said he felt Powell and the other officers were trying to make “a lawful arrest.”

“I know I wouldn’t have wanted to have to go wrestle that guy.”

He reiterated that despite multiple blows with batons, King showed no reaction.

“He wasn’t screaming, he wasn’t yelling, he wasn’t submitting to the officers. . . . You know, it could have all ended if he would have just put his hands behind his back.”