zerbycandles Today (Dec. 12, 2011) makes one year since  the unseasonably warm December evening that Doug Zerby was killed by Long Beach Police Department (LBPD) officers who opened fire on him from close range and without warning as he drunkenly played with an unattached water nozzle on the stairway of a friend’s Belmont Shore apartment.

A candlelight vigil and rally will be held this cold-and-rainy evening outside the Police Department’s downtown Long Beach headquarters to commemorate Zerby’s life and to protest the tactics of LBPD officers Jeffrey Shurtleff and Victor Ortiz, who claimed they shot Zerby in the mistaken belief that the water nozzle in his hands was actually a gun.

Over the next 11 months, three investigations by law-enforcement departments absolved Shurtleff and Ortiz of culpability on more-or-less the same basis.

In February, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office determined that Zerby’s wound trajectory was consistent with someone in a seated position, feet flat on the floor with knees bent and leaning forward with both hands close together and raised out in front of him. This supported the officer’s statements that Zerby pointed the object at them when they fired.

In June, Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell, who from the beginning had contended that Zerby was killed as a result of his own actions, made a preliminary finding that the actions of both officers were within Police Department policy and consistent with training guidelines.

The last and most-significant of those inquiries was by Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, whose report released on November 3 stated:

The evidence examined in this investigation leads to the conclusion that this was a tragic mistake of fact. The evidence also demonstrates that the police actually and reasonably believed that Zerby was armed with a firearm at the time of this incident…. For these reasons we conclude that Officers Shurtleff and Ortiz acted lawfully and in self-defense and the defense of others.

Those who disagree with this conclusion—among them Zerby’s family, which has filed suit and called for a federal probe—contend it is based on a very superficial reading of the circumstances that led to the killing and that it frighteningly expands the circumstances under which police can use deadly force.

“It’s one thing for the D.A. not to press charges,” attorney Brian Claypool, who has been retained by the Zerby family, said when Cooley’s report was released. “It’s another thing to issue a report that is irresponsible and full of omissions.”

Last December 12 Zerby spent much of the warm afternoon drinking in Belmont Shore bars near his Ocean Blvd. apartment. The sun was still out when he wobbled home on foot, quite drunk. He took a seat on the stairs of the triplex to wait for a friend and amused himself by playing with a trigger-style water nozzle.

At about 4:30 p.m., a relatively new resident of the apartment complex, Glenn Moore, heard his dog growl and looked out the window. He saw Zerby on the stairs, but did not recognize him as one of the residents of a rear apartment. He also did not recognize the water nozzle in Zerby’s hands. He thought it was a gun, and called 9-1-1.

While Zerby continued to drunkenly play with the water nozzle, Long Beach Police began to arrive. First came Ortiz, wearing body armor and carrying a shotgun. He took a position inMoore’s apartment where he could observe Zerby—by a sliding-glass door that was obscured by a wall. Then came Shurtleff, toting a Glock Model 22 .40 caliber handgun, who took a position in the kitchen window where he could also see Zerby.

While they watched Zerby, they radioed for backup, and it came in droves—squad car after squad car, sirens screaming, lights flashing—until Ocean Blvd. looked like a cross between black-and-white parking lot and a disco While most of the officers milled around, one strung yellow police tape from tree to tree to hold back the crowd that had been attracted by all the excitement. Another laid on his stomach across the sidewalk in front of the apartment complex, staring through the high-powered scope of a rifle that was trained on Zerby.

Apparently, none among this swarm of Long Beach Police officers could tell the difference between a water nozzle and a handgun. Certainly, none of them ever told Doug Zerby they were there. He continued to play with the nozzle, waving and pointing it.

After a little less than 8 minutes, Zerby eventually happened to point the nozzle in the direction of Officer Ortiz, who from his hidden position already had his shotgun pointed toward Zerby. From his hidden position in the kitchen window, Shurtleff reacted by firing his Glock at Zerby, over and over. Ortiz reacted to the sound of Shurtleff’s gun by squeezing off a couple of shotgun blasts toward Zerby.

As the handgun bullets and shotgun pellets ripped through Zerby’s skin, tissues and internal organs—mostly in his torso—Zerby reacted by bleeding profusely for awhile, barely even stopping when paramedics arrived. Then he died.

Out on the sidewalk, the officer lying on his stomach behind an automatic rifle, just kept staring through his high-powered scope. Whatever his reactions were, they did not include pulling the trigger.

Claypool, the attorney, insists that the investigations strong focus on  Zerby’s almost incoherent behavior missed the point that officers Ortiz and Shurtleff did not follow proper procedure.

“They were on the scene for almost eight minutes, and neither officer took two seconds to identify themselves,” Claypool said. “That is all they had to do and Douglas Zerby goes home alive to his son.”

Oh, yeah—Zerby had a young son, eight years old when his daddy died, nine now.

It is acknowledged that Ortiz nor Shurtleff did not communicate with Zerby, neither identifying themselves nor giving him a command or in any way announcing their presence.

“Doug had no idea he was being observed,” said Eden Marie Biele, Zerby’s older sister. “He was alleged to be pointing in the direction of a hidden officer—out of sight behind a wall inside a home wearing bullet proof armor. There was no threat posed at any time. There was no justification to the shooting.”