Family of Zerby, Slain by LB Police, Assails D.A. Probe

A day after Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley released a report saying no further action will be taken against two Long Beach officers that shot and killed Douglas Zerby 11 months ago, Zerby’s family took to the street with their outrage.

On Friday, Zerby’s mother, sister, niece and others, and their attorney, family, held a press conference in front of the Long Beach Police Department to announce the next steps in their drive for prosecution of LBPD officers Victor Ortiz and Jeffrey Shurtleff.

Ortiz and Shurtleff were identified only Thursday as the pair who shot and killed Zerby in a Belmont Shore patio Dec. 12, 2010.

“I was truly shocked yesterday when the D.A. said they would not prosecute the two officers,” said Pam Amici, Zerby’s mother, who heads the math department at Poly High School. “I know they murdered my son in cold blood.”

The Long Beach Campaign to Stop Police Violence and the ANSWER Coalition organized the press conference, which turned out a number of Long Beach residents and media outlets.

“We came out today, first and foremost, to say our campaign is not over,” said Doug Kauffman, a member of the ANSWER Coalition. “In fact, we’re going to step it up and continue to go forward and organize more. We want this because there is a pattern or violence and misconduct in the Long Beach Police Department.”

Brian Claypool, the attorney for the Zerby family, spoke to those in attendance for nearly 20 minutes, adamantly opposing nearly every point made by Cooley's law enforcement agency and staff that issued findings in a letter to Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell, which was released to the press.

“It’s one thing for the D.A. not to press charges,” Claypool said. “It’s another thing to issue a report that is irresponsible and full of omissions.”

Claypool took significant exception to the explanation of Zerby’s death outlined in Cooley’s report, as well as what he called Ortiz’s and Shurtleff’s "failure to carry out proper police procedure" the day they killed Zerby.

Cooley’s report read, “Officers Shurtleff and Ortiz acted lawfully in self-defense and the defense of others.”

Cooley thus concluded the shooting was “justified.”

According to the officers' statements to investigators, Zerby was seated on the stairway of a Belmont Shore triplex--a house with two upstairs apartments behind it, all framing 3 sides to a courtyard. They stated that Zerby was manipulating the object a 9-1-1 caller reported was a gun.

After Zerby pointed the presumed firearm in Ortiz’s direction, Shurtleff began to shoot from the kitchen window of the largest home, rented by Glenn Moore--the original 9-1-1 caller.

Unlike other residents of the property and next door, who the Zerbys say knew Doug as a frequent visitor, Moore was older and thought him a stranger.

Zerby was in fact wielding a metal water nozzle that Moore and both officers mistook for a gun. The steps he sat on led to the studio apartment of one of his closest friends, also named Doug.

Claypool maintains that had the officers followed proper procedure, there'd have been no shooting and Zerby would be alive today.

“They were on the scene for 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 nine-year old son.”

Neither Ortiz nor Shurtleff announced their presence to Zerby, or asked that he drop his weapon. Their report to investigators includes Shurtleff stating his plan was to wait until a mental health team and more officers arrived to prevent the man from fleeing, and then to speak, which would reveal their presence.

“The water nozzle doesn’t even look like a gun,” Claypool said. “It’s thick with a copper end. Make no mistake, this shooting was not justified.”

Claypool also took exception to Cooley’s statement that the multiple gunshot wounds suffered by Zerby to his right and left forearms “strongly suggest that Zerby had his arms extended in front of him at the time he was shot,” according to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Deparment Deputy Medical Examiner, Juan M. Carrillo.

“The Los Angeles Medical Examiner is in no position to offer any opinions on how the shooting occurred,” Claypool said. “We’ve hired the right people to re-enact the shooting.”

“At the time Douglas Zerby was shot, he was sitting on the stairs, legs flat on the steps, and his arms lying flat on his lap. The autopsy report tells the truth.”

In addition, Claypool pointed out that the autopsy showed Zerby’s blood alcohol level to be so high at the time of the shooting, that he would have been “nearly unable to lift his arms.”

Zerby’s sister, Eden Marie Biele, commented that Zerby saw his life come to an abrupt end as he sought to make the correct choice.

“He made the responsible decision not to drive a vehicle,” Biele said. “He drank too much, walked to his best friend’s home and was sitting there patiently waiting for a ride home. For that, he paid the ultimate price.”

“If he had decided to drive, he would probably be alive right now.”

At the end of Friday’s press conference, Kauffman said that a mass demonstration is being planned for the December one-year anniversary of Zerby’s death.

“We demand the arrest of Officer Ortiz and Shurtleff,” Kauffman said. “We cannot allow them to walk the streets and carry a gun. They should be fired and tried for murder.”