Man Killed by Oxnard Police Was Not Armed

Larry Pankey was unarmed when a SWAT team sharpshooter shot and killed him, police said Tuesday, adding that the 36-year-old auto mechanic reached for his waistband as if going for a weapon.

Oxnard police officers said they had seen Pankey--who had had previous run-ins with authorities and once told an investigator he had a bad temper that could get him into trouble--carrying a handgun in his waistband at times during a four-hour standoff outside his home Monday.

Police went to the home in the 100 block of Frank Avenue after Pankey’s 8-year-old son called 911 to report his parents were in an argument that began with a dispute about a sandwich.

But Pankey was not carrying the gun when he was shot, Assistant Chief Tom Cady said.

Police said SWAT team sharpshooter Scott Hebert fired because Pankey reached for his waistband as if going for a weapon, just as a team of four officers were moving in to make an arrest.

Officers fired two nonlethal bean-bag type rounds trying to subdue him. But the 220-pound man did not go down, and ignored officers’ orders to surrender.

Instead, Pankey moved behind a tree and, according to police, reached for his waist, prompting Hebert to fire.

The 31-year-old officer, who was awarded a medal of valor by the Ventura County Police Officers Assn. in 1992, was providing cover for the officers at some distance from the residence.

After the shooting, police found the handgun on the front seat of Pankey’s truck, a few feet from where he was shot.

The death was the second fatal shooting by an Oxnard SWAT team member in less than a year.

In March, team member James Rex Jensen was accidentally shot and killed by fellow SWAT team member Sgt. Dan Christian during a botched drug raid.

A district attorney’s investigation faulted Christian for mistakenly firing on Jensen, and criticized the planning and execution of the raid.

The investigation into the shooting of Pankey will likely take several weeks if not months, officials said.

As in all officer-related shootings, the Oxnard Police Department is conducting an internal investigation, and after the police finish their investigation, the district attorney’s office will review the case and conduct an investigation of its own, said Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Janes.

“Basically, our job is to determine whether or not this was a justifiable homicide,” he said.

Janes said the district attorney’s office would not look into police procedures, saying that is up to the Oxnard Police Department. Cady said his department would pay particular attention to whether proper procedure was followed.

“That’s part of any review that we do,” Cady said.

Cady said the department recorded all the telephone conversations between Pankey and the SWAT team negotiators before the shooting and that those tapes would also be reviewed.

“I can’t say exactly what is on those tapes but he was basically saying he wasn’t giving up,” Cady said.

Negotiators had tried just moments before the shooting to talk Pankey into surrendering, police said.

The Ventura County coroner’s office will also do a toxicology test to determine if Pankey was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, said Deputy Coroner Jim Wingate.

Until Monday’s fatal encounter, Pankey’s most serious run-in with authorities occurred six years ago when Port Hueneme police used a stun gun to subdue him after he reportedly struck a patrolman in the eye during a traffic stop.

Pankey, who worked as a mechanic with Crown Dodge in Ventura, claimed he was entrapped because officers had clocked his speed with a radar gun while hidden, police reported.

He eventually pleaded guilty to resisting arrest and was sentenced to 10 days in a work release program.

Instead of causing the struggle with police, Pankey said he retreated to his car after an officer “smarted off” to him when he failed to find his vehicle registration.

“[He] has a temper, knew he could get into trouble, and just walked to his truck to just sit down,” the probation report said, recounting Pankey’s story. “[He] was pulled from his truck, hit five times in the stomach, twice with a stun gun. [He] didn’t hit an officer . . . didn’t resist, put his hands over his head; [he] only said he could kick the cop.”

Los Angeles attorney Brian Weinberger, who represented Pankey in a 1993 case where he was injured while riding a motorcycle, said he was shocked by his former client’s death.

“I remember him well,” Weinberger said. “He was a real nice guy.”

During Monday’s standoff, police reported that Pankey was continually going back and forth between his truck--parked in the driveway--and his home.

He was loading and unloading a number of rifles and shotguns into the truck, and acting erratically, reportedly climbing a palm tree in front of his home to leer at police.

The incident began about 2 p.m. Monday when Pankey and his wife, Terri, began arguing over a sandwich, said neighbor Lisa Reyes.

The couple’s 8-year-old son ran to Reyes’ home and called 911 after his father kicked out a kitchen window, Reyes said.

When an officer arrived at the home, Pankey brandished a 9-millimeter handgun, and the officer called for backup. Police said they had been to Pankey’s home at least four times before, and knew he had a number of weapons. They confiscated some weapons after one of the calls, but the guns were returned when prosecutors declined to file charges.

The SWAT team was called in, neighbors were evacuated from their homes and a four-hour standoff with police ensued.

Pankey’s wife and young son fled to a neighbor’s house, while the couple’s 18-year-old son stayed behind for a time.

Neighbors said they did not think that Pankey was really a threat.

Reyes, who lives across the street, said they had seen the police at Pankey’s home before and were not worried.

“They asked us to evacuate,” Reyes said. “But we didn’t. We’d been through this and no one ever got hurt before. Larry yelled over to us that he didn’t have any guns, and not to leave.”

Reyes said her husband watched the whole standoff looking through the couple’s living room window, while sitting on his recliner and did not think that Pankey was going for a gun when he was shot.

Terri Pankey would not comment Tuesday on the shooting.

Family members began arriving at the white stucco house Tuesday morning. Some helped clean the blood spilled beneath the palm tree where Pankey was killed.

At Larsen Elementary School in Oxnard, where two of Pankey’s children attended classes, Principal Louise Platt said psychologists went from class to class on Tuesday, comforting students.

“They were asked if they had any questions about last night,” she said. “After all, they had helicopters over their houses last night. And two of our students lost a father.”

She knew Pankey, Platt said, because he was actively involved in his children’s education.

“He came to back-to-school night, he came to parent conferences,” the principal said. “He was a very interested parent, as was his wife.”

However, Oxnard police say that Pankey was cited two months ago for screaming profanities at a police officer at the school in front of four elementary students.

Officer Brian Ellison, who was on campus to mediate an unrelated dispute, intervened in a parking lot argument between Pankey and a woman.

“He ended up saying several slurs toward police officers,” Senior Officer Tom Chronister, a police spokesman, said Tuesday.

In Ellison’s report on the incident, the officer quotes Pankey as saying that all police do is harass people and do not help them when they need it.

Pankey was apparently referring to the way Ellison handled his complaint that the woman had slammed her hand onto his car as he was backing out of a parking space, Chronister said.

Ellison’s report, which Chronister refused to provide but which he read to a reporter, quoted Pankey as cursing all police officers.

Pankey was apparently angry partly because Ellison cited him for a broken windshield and taillight. And then also ticketed him for his profanity.

Court records indicate that Pankey pleaded not guilty in the case last week and was scheduled to go to trial next month.

Daryl Kelley is a Times staff writer. Scott Hadly and Dawn Hobbs are correspondents.