Bizarre, Criminal law

Two Women Delivering Newspapers Shot By LAPD After Being Mistaken For Christopher Dorner

220px-Christopher-jordan-dorner.nlapd-two-women-shot-1.pngIn Torrance, California, two women delivering newspapers were shot by LAPD officers looking for triple murder suspect Christopher Dorner. Maggie Carranza, 47, and her 71-year-old mother Emma Hernandez looked nothing like the African-American male suspect but police insisted that they were driving a Toyota Tundra pickup truck similar to Dorner’s truck.

They were in their truck when they were shot by LAPD officers guarding a high-ranking LAPD officer named in Dorner’s manifesto. Their attorney said that there were no warnings before the truck was peppered with bullets. Hernandez was shot in the back.

The officers said that they thought the women’s royal blue Toyota Tacoma matched Dorner’s dark-colored Nissan pickup truck. Of course, under any interpretation of Tennessee v. Garner, that would not constitute a justified basis to open fire.

In the meantime, there are growing calls to reopen the investigation linked to Dorner’s termination by the LAPD. Dorner was terminated on September 4, 2008 after the LAPD accused him of lying about a fellow officer kicking a mentally ill man. Dorner accused now Sergeant Teresa Evans of police brutality in kicking suspect Christopher Gettler in the face while he was handcuffed and lying on the ground. The LAPD internal review board accused Dorner of lying. What is curious about the case is that the father of the mentally ill man corroborated Dorner’s account and Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe who reviewed the case in 2010 examined the case a year later as part of an appeal filed by Dorner, said he was “uncertain whether the training officer kicked the suspect or not.” That handling of the case has concerned many who wondered whether Dorner was punished for breaking the code of silence. The LAPD insist he was given a full hearing and found guilty of lying.

LAPD says it will reopen the case to see if there is anything new in Dorner’s manifesto.

Of course, even if one were to accept that he was treated badly, it hardly justifies an alleged killing rampage. Yet, Dorner is developing a following of supporters.

Source: CBS

116 thoughts on “Two Women Delivering Newspapers Shot By LAPD After Being Mistaken For Christopher Dorner”

  1. if this is the collateral damage the govt leaves in its wake on domestic soil, imagine the collateral damage it leaves in other countries…

  3. Thanks Darren Smith for your input on all the different cop threads. It’s always good to hear from the perspective of a cop, but not one who’s an apologist.

    And, on Dorner, I mistrust cops as much as the next guy, but this guy is reprehensible. I have no idea if there’s any merit to any of his complaints, but hope he spends the rest of his life behind bars. And if he’s killed while being apprehended, I won’t shed too many tears for him. And the cops who shot the women in the truck should probably be in another line of work.

  9. It is definitely a case of improper training. Human life is to be preserved whenever possible! Their are too many Public Officials with the power of abuse and no accountability.

  10. We must get corporate money out of the hands of our Representatives.

    WE have a problem America. We are creating two classes of people. One that cannot be arrested because they control the economy, Banks and Wall Street. The other are the politicians who create law, ignore it and enforce it at there discretion while taking contributions from the people violating the law. What is happening right now is we have admitted that are classes of people who are more important and are immune to criminal persecution based on who they are. If you create a class of people that can not be arrested then you are also saying there is a class of people that can be safely arrested and killed with out cause or process. The assistant Attorney General of the US Lanny Breuer has said there is a class of people that are un arrest-able. They are so important they cannot be arrested and held accountable for criminal activities. At the 5:00 mark in this video.

    http://billmoyers.com/segment/matt-taibbi-on-big-banks-lack-of-accountability/

    In the banking, scandals of laundering drug money and Wall Street gambling and fraud we discovered not so much that these two most respected groups in our society were criminals but worse they were criminals in the open and could get away with it. Billion of dollars of Drug money and the death accompanied with that money and the justice Department ignored them. Yet that same justice department makes a criminal out of a kid with a joint and ruins there lives. Banks and Wall Street STOLE the working class pensions and savings investments to gamble like bookies in Vegas. In Vegas at least you got better odds.

    In this LAPD manhunt frenzy we are discovering this same class of people are beginning to emerge. The end justified our means we will break the law to enforce it. Many in law enforcement have earned my respect by their actions and service to the community. We must not allow a few who desire absolute power ruin our trust in that thin Blue line they secure between a Politician and the Public Trust they swear to uphold..

    WE are loosing respect for those who are responsible for securing the trust of the people. WE must enforce the law equally and fairly regardless of class. If WE do not prosecute criminals or prosecute some and ignore others and hold everybody to the standards we all were taught. This entire thing will implode in to anarchy if we do not re establish trust in those we elect and serve. Surprisingly, as we have seen so far, very quickly.

  11. It got quiet here. What happened?

    As some who know me could predict, I am for the idea that this was a golden chance to test the FED forced coordination between police agencies.
    And as one noted, a chance to test if this could be an opportunity for a drone use domestically.

    The FED enforced coordination is a fact. The other is speculation.

    Again read Joseph Wambaugh’s book “Choir Boys”. He was a former LAPD cop who got out after doing only 14 of his required 20 years.
    Published in 1975, it is a blue print of the internal workings of the LAPD, which apparently is little if any changed today.

    More wild speculation. Dorner was picked out and fixed by coordinated preparations. Jusl like Oswald, and the guy who allegedly shot MLKjr.
    I say allegedly in view of his defense attorney’s work, although the defendant was convicted. Which was the meaning of it all.

    See Ellroy, “Cold Six Thousand”

  14. My insider says the LAPD may have over reacted on shooting the women but the City of Torrance was definitely wrong and have to clean up their own mess.( it was a mistake when we did it but the other guys are out of control )

  15. A few issues here:

    I believe the public statement that the LAPD will re-open his termination case is probably a “carrot” to try to encourage him to him to come in or partially to cool him down a bit and not murder his way out. Dorner already knows what the “stick” is, which is being treated like an Active Shooter when he is confronted by the police.

    As for him being accused of “Lying” as being the basis for termination. I have known many occasions with agencies over there that have done this as an excuse to get rid of someone. The tactic is straightforward. You interrogate the officer for hours on end or over the course of several days and if he/she makes even one statement that is contridicts what they might have said earlier, you accuse them of deception or lying and boot them out for lying. It doesn’t matter what the relevance of this was or if the officer made a mistake, such as if the shirt was blue or ultra-marine, it is then blown totally out of proportion. The officer is then sanctioned and only the most resolute of personalities of the accused officers ever contest it until they are reinstated. I don’t know if it was the case here.

    The shooting of these two women was unjustified and tragic. I can’t really offer any more than it’s generally better to wait two seconds and see what is going on before shooting up the scene.

  16. LAPD is trying to make sure that Dorner is killed, not taken in. He broke the blue line. I can smell the adrenaline all the way across the county. Someone is going to be a hero for killing him. Dorner is trying to clean the house of LAPD but without the power to do it non-violently.

  17. I’m just looking at some of the drone stuff on this. My question I put to you is this. HOW MUCH COLLATERAL DAMAGE? We’ve already seen they don’t give a rip about normal collateral damage, as evidenced by these OK Corral shootemups. But HOW much collateral damage, with something like drones, that take out babies all the time. They shrug off foreign people that are collateral damage. Are they going to do the same things with US citizen babies on US soil that might wind up as collateral damage from drones? How will they play this? Do they care AT ALL? Judging from what happened to these two ladies in a truck, I would say obviously not.

  18. Investigating Dorner’s original charges? You mean somebody imagines there are any memos or papers (undoctored) left from that original investigation for anybody to find? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!

    Dorner is no fool. He sent the cops on two or three false trails already. They don’t even take notes when they watch TV! LAPD? LAPD? Remember who they are? LENO: “The LAPD is so bad they have to frame a guilty man.” [circa OJ]

  19. Just got another posting notifying me of the Rules of force allowed to police.
    http://www.laaw.com/howmuchforce.htm

    This officer feels since there is a “fatwa” against the police so as they have a legitimate fear for their life, everything is justified to protect their life. “us versus them” Isn’t this the stuff Dorner was talking about? BTW there are several different “Manifestos” out there. Some only 8 pages of the supposed 20+

  20. feemeister,

    I agree something smells funny about this. Especially since I’ve read he was involved in an incident as a cop where he reported police brutality by another officer and that was a contributing factor to ending his employ.

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