Wheeler Denies Staging Torture-Shooting

Standing Thursday in front of a house outside Spokane, Wash., a former San Diego police lieutenant strongly rebutted speculation that he may have staged a bizarre incident in which he was tied up, burned and shot in the head.

“I’m not suicidal,” Doyle A. Wheeler said. “I didn’t stage that. I didn’t shoot myself. And I didn’t pay to have anybody shoot me.

“If it took two dimes to go around the world, I couldn’t get on a bus to get out of town. So I don’t know how I’d pay somebody to shoot me.”

According to accounts from the Stevens County sheriff, Wheeler, 36, was found tortured and shot in his home Tuesday afternoon. He reportedly used his tongue to call the 911 emergency telephone number.

Face Appeared Scratched

He had what neighbors said appeared to be cigarette burns on his body, a slight bullet wound behind his ear and a San Diego Police Department badge pinned to his shirt.

On Thursday afternoon, wearing a denim suit and a large cowboy hat at a press conference in his front yard, Wheeler’s face appeared scratched, and there was evidence of dried blood around his left ear.

He recounted the events surrounding the alleged attack, in which he has claimed three men armed with guns attacked him in retaliation for his testimony against fellow police officers in the Sagon Penn case. He indicated that one of the alleged assailants resembled a member of the San Diego Police Department’s special investigations unit.

Victim’s Car Found 10 Miles Away

Wheeler’s car, allegedly stolen by the assailants, was found Thursday night at a shopping mall about 10 miles from his home.

The sheriff’s office is continuing to investigate the incident as an attempted murder. Two medical personnel who arrived at the scene Tuesday and were interviewed Thursday by the Spokane Spokesman-Review said they did not believe the wounds were self-inflicted.

“I honestly don’t think he could have done it to himself,” said Randy Allard, an emergency medical technician and volunteer fire chief.

Clarence Swindle, an ambulance driver, said he saw cigarette burns on Wheeler’s back and that “the places where he was burned high in the center of his back, I don’t see how anybody could reach those spots and burn themselves.”

‘A Lot of Problems’

However, officials in the San Diego Police Department have vehemently discounted Wheeler’s accusations that their department was involved in any way.

“That’s ridiculous,” Police Chief Bill Kolender said Thursday night. “He’s ridiculous. He’s got a lot of problems. I think the investigation will show this is a contrived deal.”

But Wheeler said he is no longer taking chances, fearing he may be attacked again.

“I am heavily armed, and, yes, I am scared,” he said.

He said he could not say whether he was shot only because of his testimony in the Penn case against San Diego Police Agent Donovan Jacobs.

Noting that another controversial police shooting occurred recently in San Diego, Wheeler suggested that he may have been shot as a warning to other officers not to “follow my footsteps” and testify against an officer involved in a shooting.

Wheeler did not identify the recent shooting. But last month, Tommie Dubose was killed by an officer in a Southeast San Diego incident that has sparked tense emotions in the minority community.

Wheeler also recounted his role in the 1984 San Ysidro massacre at a McDonald’s restaurant that claimed 21 lives. He said that if his initial order to shoot the gunman had been obeyed, four fewer children would have died.

Considered ‘Absolute Nonsense’

“That’s absolute nonsense,” Kolender said. Other police officials have said Wheeler never had the authority to order officers to fire their weapons at the scene.

Wheeler also alleged that police tried to cover up their handling of the massacre, to which Kolender responded: “Ridiculous.”

Wheeler also contended that Kolender once had an affair with a new female officer who later threatened to blackmail him if she was fired. Wheeler said the chief eventually found her a lucrative job through a millionaire friend of his.

Kolender scoffed at that allegation, too.

“That’s absolutely nonsense,” he said. “That’s terrible. What an awful thing to say.”