Man shot to death by police without warning while watering neighbor's garden

Here is a perfect example of the citizen spy culture taking root in the USA with the "If you see something, say something" program encouraged by Homeland Security. A 911 call apparently was made after a neighbor mistakenly interpreted a man sitting on a porch as a "drunk with a gun." Officers arrived, ready for battle, and the man was killed . . . while watering his neighbor's lawn

KTLA Long Beach "Cops", or "Police" Murder 35 year old Long Beach man for watering lawn in Long Beach upscale neighborhood Belmont Shore.

A neighbor called the LBPD about a man with a gun that was sitting
in a lawn chair on a friends front lawn with what appeared to be a firearm.

Police admit not following procedure.
The 35 year old subject was not ordered to drop
his firearm (garden hose) before LBPD shot and killed him.

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This article has recently gained a lot of popularity. It was tough finding the original source but i managed to track it down.

Man killed by Long Beach police was holding a water nozzle, not a gun, police say

Douglas Zerby, 35, was shot and killed by officers responding to a 911 call of an intoxicated man holding a 'six-shooter' Sunday in the Belmont Shore neighborhood.

The 35-year-old Long Beach man killed in an officer-involved shooting Sunday was holding a pistol-grip water nozzle, not a gun, Long Beach police officials said Monday.

Two officers responded to a 911 call at 4:40 p.m. Sunday from a neighbor reporting an intoxicated man holding a "six-shooter" in the 5300 block of East Ocean Boulevard in the upscale Belmont Shore neighborhood.

"The officers had a position of cover and were observing the suspect while other officers were en route," said Sgt. Dina Zapalski, a spokeswoman for the Long Beach Police Department.

Zapalski said Douglas Zerby had been sitting on a stoop playing with what appeared to be a weapon and pointing it at objects as if it were a gun. He extended his arms and pointed in the direction of an officer. Police said they did not have time to make their presence known or to tell Zerby to drop the weapon before opening fire because they believed he was a threat.

"They wanted to shoot him before he shot them," Zapalski said. "There was no time to react. If you're standing there and someone points a gun at you, you're going to react....There was only two of them there. This happened first, and that's why they shot."

Zerby was shot in the torso with a shotgun and handgun, then handcuffed, Zapalski said. He died at the scene.

Zerby, a hardwood floor installer who ran Seaside Flooring in Long Beach, is survived by an 8-year-old son.

Authorities said this was the first fatal officer-involved shooting this year. There have been nine non-fatal shootings in 2010.

Zerby's older sister, Eden Marie Biele, said she was mortified by her brother's death. The two were very close and had spoken a few days before he died, she said.

"Our brother was killed for no reason," she said. "We're outraged. You can't get drunk in the city of Long Beach and not get shot? You're trying to do the responsible thing and not drive and you get shot? Is that standard protocol? They didn't wait for backup, they just shot him."

Zapalski said the officers involved were not rookies but could not immediately say how many years they had served with the department.

Staci Liken, 45, said she saw a police car and a Long Beach Marine Patrol SUV make a U-turn before two officers got out and made their way to the back building where Zerby was sitting. She said within 30 seconds she heard two types of gunshots. She counted at least 15 shots fired.

"This is supposed to be the safest neighborhood around. I don't know what's going on with the police," she said. "This is out of control to shoot and kill when they don't need to."

Zerby had been sitting on the stoop of a friend's house waiting for the friend to return. He often frequented the apartment after he had been drinking and was known to neighbors, his sister said. It was a new tenant who was unfamiliar with Zerby who made the 911 call, she said.

Scores of family and friends gathered at the scene Monday night to light candles and leave flowers and a small Christmas tree.

Originally Posted On: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/14/local/la-me-long-beach-shooting-20101214

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The End Result

"Zerby Family Gets $6.5M in Nozzle Shooting Case"

The family of a man fatally shot by Long Beach police in 2010 was awarded $6.5 million in damages by a federal jury on Thursday.

“The money doesn’t bring my son back, which is all I really want,” Douglas Zerby’s mother, Pam Amici, said after the verdict, chocking back tears.

“I would just rather have Doug standing here next to me right now. But this is all we can hope for, and I’m very happy with the result.”

The jury deliberated for one day before ruling that officers Jeffrey Shurtleff and Victor Ortiz were negligent and used excessive force when Zerby was shot and killed.

At the time, Zerby, 35, was on a friend’s porch in Belmont Shore, holding a water nozzle that a neighbor thought might be a gun.

Apparently, unbeknownst to Zerby, police arrived and surrounded the area.

When police say Zerby appeared to be pointing what they thought was a gun toward one of the officer’s positions, police opened fire.

Autopsy results revealed that Zerby was shot 12 times in the chest, arms and lower legs.

He had a blood-alcohol level of 0.42% and had Valium and THC in his system at the time of his death.

“The most important thing is they never announced their presence,” said the family’s attorney attorney, Garo Mardirossian.

“They didn’t give him an opportunity to at least cooperate, to do what the officers wanted him to do,” he continued.

“The first time he realized there were cops there is when they shot him, and that just should not happen in America,” he said.

“I’m happy that we got justice and I’m glad that they got to go home feeling bad for themselves,” River Sentell, Zerby’s now 10-year-old son, said on Thursday.

But Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell, who was in court for the verdict, said he was disappointed by the decision.

He says the officers were cleared in an internal probe and still defends their actions.

“Their actions, we believe, were in immediate defense of life,” McDonnell said. “That’s the way we judge — based on the circumstances known to them at the time.”

McDonnell said that city attorneys are still evaluating all of their options in terms of a possible appeal in the case.

Originally Posted On: http://ktla.com/2013/04/05/verdict-reached-in-douglas-zerby-wrongful-death-lawsuit/#ixzz2YPFx0Ckj