Picketers Call for Probe of Shooting

Waving posters and chanting for justice, about 50 people picketed the East Los Angeles sheriff’s station Saturday to demand an investigation into the shooting death of a Ramona Gardens youth who was killed Aug. 3 in a confrontation with deputies.

The demonstrators, who included residents of the Ramona Gardens housing project as well as numerous Latino activists, called for a full-scale investigation into the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department by an independent panel styled after the Christopher Commission. Investigations by the Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s office are under way.

“We need to put a stop to the killing,” Carmen Ortiz, a middle-aged mother from the Eastside housing complex, told the crowd. “We want to trust (sheriff’s deputies) and respect them as police officers. But the killing must stop.”

Arturo Jimenez, 19, was shot three times in the chest by Deputy Jason Mann early Aug. 3. The Sheriff’s Department maintains that Jimenez, a gang member, attacked Mann’s partner with a flashlight and knocked him unconscious. Witnesses dispute that account, saying that Jimenez argued with the officers over their rough treatment of a friend, but did not threaten them.

The shooting sparked a confrontation between about 300 Ramona Gardens residents and dozens of Los Angeles police officers and deputies who rushed to the scene. Tensions have run high ever since.

On Saturday, the protesters who walked the sidewalk in front of the East Los Angeles sheriff’s station blamed Jimenez’s death on what they called a pattern of excessive force and brutality within the law enforcement agency.

The shooting “shows we have gunslingers, outlaws with badges, who must be taken out of the community,” said Pete Navarro, an attorney for Jimenez’s family. Navarro said he planned to file a wrongful death claim Monday with the county, a precursor to a lawsuit.

As the sun beat down and nearby vendors sold ice cream and churros, the crowd waved placards and a Mexican flag, and chanted popular slogans of protest: “El pueblo, unido, jamas sera vencido” (“The people, united, will never be defeated!”) and “Queremos justicia” (“We want justice!”)

Several passing motorists honked their car horns in apparent support, while employees of the Sheriff’s Department videotaped the protest.

Capt. Ramon Sanchez, commander at the station, said the department’s investigation into the shooting is progressing.

Several protesters said the examination of Jimenez’s death should look into purported activities by “gangs” of sheriff’s officers who, it has been alleged, operate with impunity inside the department. The protesters said a group called the Cavemen is active at the East Los Angeles station, and they compared it to the more widely publicized group, the Vikings, which is based at the Lynwood station.

The Vikings, according to news reports, began as a social club but evolved into a group adopting its own gang symbols as part of a campaign to harass minorities. The Times reported last week that Mann, the deputy who shot Jimenez, was transferred to the East Los Angeles station from Lynwood in December amid allegations that he was a member of the Vikings. He denied the charges in a suit filed to stop his transfer.

Sanchez confirmed that a group called the Cavemen exists at the East Los Angeles station, but he said it is nothing more than a club of deputies who like to socialize and play sports together.

He said about 30 to 40 male officers belong to the Cavemen, which is sending a football team to the Police Olympics. The group is mixed racially and ethnically, he said.

The Vikings reportedly engaged in white supremacist activities. As for the Cavemen, Sanchez said he knew of no philosophy that united them.

“They’ve always been a social club, a tightknit group of (deputies) who like to get together,” Sanchez said.

The captain added that neither Mann nor his partner were members of the Cavemen.