Long investigation of deputy who shot man in back raises concerns

Nov. 17, 2023 3 AM PT

When Adrian Abelar was shot in the back while face-down on the pavement at a Rosemead auto body shop in October 2021, the consequences were swift for everyone but the L.A. County sheriff’s deputy who pulled the trigger.

Abelar, 27, suffered multiple fractured vertebrae and woke up in a hospital bed, court records show. The bullet narrowly missed his spine, according to his lawyer, who said he could have easily been paralyzed or killed.

The shop owner, Richard Doktor, says his business suffered after the sheriff’s department released information that made it clear he was the person who called police. The word “Rat” can be seen etched in graffiti on the sidewalk outside his shop. Doktor says he’s received so many threatening phone calls that employees have quit.

But more than two years later, the question of what, if anything, will happen to Deputy Yen Liu remains unanswered.

VIDEO | 01:18

Video shows L.A. County deputy shoot man in back in 2021 incident

Body camera footage shows Adrian Abelar being shot while lying face-down on the pavement after he attempted to discard a handgun and run away from L.A. County sheriff’s deputies. Abelar survived the incident and filed a lawsuit in 2023 alleging his civil rights were violated.

The sheriff’s department turned over its investigation to L.A. County prosecutors earlier this month. Two officials inside the district attorney’s office, who requested anonymity because the case remains open and they are not authorized to discuss it with the media, described the sheriff’s probe as taking an unusually long time.

Some officials, the sources said, became concerned when Abelar’s civil attorney, Thomas Beck, alerted them to the facts of the case in mid-October and they learned it had yet to be presented for potential prosecution. The office has increasingly filed charges against police officers accused of using excessive force since Dist. Atty. George Gascón took over in 2020.

Liu’s case appears to be one of the lengthiest deputy shooting investigations in recent sheriff’s department history, according to county records. Since 2013, there were only four other cases in which more than two years elapsed between the shooting and the district attorney’s office determining whether charges were warranted, according to a 2021 report by the L.A. County Office of the Inspector General. Such delays, the report said, reduce the chances of a successful prosecution.

“Memories fade and are influenced by exposure to other information,” the report said. “Deputies and witnesses inevitably have discussed the details of an event with their colleagues, friends and family, union representatives, attorneys and counselors which affects their memories and perceptions of the events.”

A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment.

Sheriff’s Dept. Homicide Lt. Michael Gomez said such incidents take time to investigate. “We have been in communication with the D.A.’s Office throughout the case,” he said in an email to The Times. “Our primary objective is to always conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation to ensure all facts are presented.”

Calls and emails seeking comment from a civil attorney representing Liu were not returned.

Beyond the slow pace of the investigation, the shooting has drawn concerns from use-of-force experts, who question whether it was justified. While Liu’s body-worn camera fell off before the bullet was fired, footage captured by another deputy’s device clearly shows Abelar unarmed and lying flat on his stomach when Liu fires a single shot into his back at point-blank range.

“The guy clearly does not have a weapon in his hand and the deputy who is on top of him draws his firearm, jams it in the guy’s back and fires it immediately upon contact,” said Ed Obayashi, a lawyer and former Plumas County sheriff’s deputy who advises departments throughout California about use-of-force incidents.

In a recent interview, Abelar said he didn’t know why sheriff’s deputies were approaching his car at J&R Auto on the day of the shooting in 2021. But he knew he was in trouble as soon as he saw badges. Abelar — who has multiple prior arrests for domestic violence, making threats and weapons offenses — had failed to check in with his probation officer, and there was a gun in his waistband.

He said he knew it was wrong to be carrying a gun, but he felt he needed to protect himself and his friends.

Adrian Abelar poses for a portrait with his lawyer Thomas Beck

“I had a lot of people looking for me,” Abelar said, declining to offer specifics.

The deputies were responding to a call from Doktor, who had claimed Abelar arrived demanding repairs be done on his car quickly because he had an active murder warrant, according to the sheriff’s department. No such warrant existed.

Video of the incident released by the sheriff’s department shows Abelar having a calm conversation with the responding deputies, during which he lied about being on probation. After a few minutes, Abelar said, he made the decision to run, fearing if the deputies found him with a gun, he’d either go back to prison or they would shoot him. He says he tossed the weapon as soon as he opened the car door. Deputies can be heard on the video yelling “Gun!” as he tried to escape.

The body-cam footage shows Abelar diving to the ground. That video, as well as a slowed down version of the clip provided to The Times by his attorney, does not show a gun in Abelar’s hands at the moment Liu shoots him. His right arm can be seen outstretched and empty in the video, though his left arm isn’t visible.

Deputies recovered a loaded handgun at the scene “on the ground north of the vehicle,” according to the sheriff’s department report.

Documents turned over by the sheriff’s department to prosecutors — which Beck obtained in discovery in a civil lawsuit he filed this year on Abelar’s behalf — show one internal incident report describing the encounter as an “assault with a deadly weapon against a peace officer.” Liu is listed among the victims.

None of the deputies alleged Abelar pointed a gun at them, a necessary element for that crime to be charged, according to Beck and the sheriff’s department report. One deputy said he didn’t even see the weapon until it was recovered. The video also does not show Abelar point the gun at anyone.

An assault case has not been presented against Abelar, according to the district attorney’s office. Nicole Nishida, a sheriff’s department spokeswoman, said only that the issue of whether or not Abelar had committed an assault was “being investigated.”

Beck said he believes the deputies were simply looking for a way to cast blame on his client, who he said is lucky to be alive.

“If this bullet had gone one millimeter to the left or one millimeter to the right, he would have been paralyzed, or he would have been dead,” the attorney said.

During a recent interview in Gloria Molina Grand Park in downtown L.A., Abelar’s leg began to shake as an LAPD cruiser went by. Already unnerved by police, now he says his “anxiety goes up” whenever he sees an officer or deputy. He said he hasn’t worked since the shooting and his back constantly hurts.

Abelar said he went to J&R Auto that day because he had a problem with his brakes and Doktor — the shop owner known in the neighborhood by the nickname “Brooklyn” — was a family friend.

But Doktor, a 63-year-old with an unmistakable New York accent, called the sheriff’s department’s Temple station directly asking deputies to get Abelar “off his property,” according to recordings made public by law enforcement. In the call, Doktor described Abelar as “inked from head to toe” and demanding car repairs because he was fleeing from the cops due to an active murder warrant.

Doktor told The Times this week that Abelar drove into the auto body shop’s parking lot at a high rate of speed, “waved a gun around” and pointed it at two of Doktor’s mechanics, insisting he had just been involved in a shooting in Alhambra.

Abelar denies all of Doktor’s accusations. He was not wanted for murder at the time of the shooting, according to the sheriff’s department, though Abelar did have an active warrant for a probation violation. None of Doktor’s allegations concerning Abelar threatening people with a gun or claiming to have shot someone are reflected in the sheriff’s department’s report on the incident.

Doktor said Abelar’s actions were captured by surveillance cameras at his auto body shop, but that the sheriff’s department took that footage from him the day of the shooting. When they returned the files, Doktor said, the videos were unplayable. Doktor also could not point The Times to any other employees who would corroborate his allegations.

The mechanic stood by his version of events, but also said the deputies were in the wrong for shooting Abelar.

“That kid was no threat,” he said of the shooting, adding that he screamed at deputies on scene for opening fire and that he saw Abelar throw the gun away.

Doktor says his business has been “in the toilet” since the shooting, in part because the sheriff’s department described him as an “informant” in their videos detailing the incident. While the sheriff’s department didn’t release his name, his voice is easily recognizable. Doktor said some regular customers moved on out of fear that the violent incident that day would be repeated. Others have fled due to the threats.

In addition to the “rat” graffiti outside his shop, Doktor says he’s found dead rodents and bullets thrown over the fence. Several mechanics have quit, he said.

Nishida said no such threats have been reported to the sheriff’s department’s Temple station, which patrols the area where the shop is located, and refuted Doktor’s complaints about the video footage.

“No video footage was destroyed or erased,” she said. “Homicide investigators only made a digital copy of what was on the surveillance equipment and returned it.”

Beck said he considers Doktor an “unreliable” witness and still has no idea why the investigation into the shooting has taken so long. The civil lawsuit against the sheriff’s department is pending. The county has denied all wrongdoing in legal filings and a trial date is set for next March.

The sheriff’s department’s report only lists six witnesses to the incident — the three responding deputies, Doktor, Abelar and Abelar’s ex-girlfriend — and the confrontation itself was brief and captured on camera, the lawyer said.

“They had to know this was a bad shooting,” Beck said. “The best way to deal with it was to suppress it.”