Tape Surfaces in Shooting of Deputy : Inquiry: The district attorney’s office is reviewing video footage, but the camera did not catch the fatal incident, sources say.
SANTA ANA — The district attorney’s office is reviewing videotape from a camera mounted on a patrol car when an Orange County sheriff’s deputy was fatally shot on Christmas, but the tape has no footage of the shooting itself, sources said Monday.
Disclosure of the tape’s existence could raise more questions than it answers, however, as investigators piece together the chronology of events leading to the shooting of Deputy Darryn Leroy Robins, 30, by a fellow deputy. The shooting occurred during what was described as an impromptu afternoon training session in a mall parking lot behind a Lake Forest movie theater.
Chief among the questions is why the camera failed to capture the shooting.
One law-enforcement source said the camera--installed under a new sheriff’s program to provide conclusive evidence in disputed cases--appears to have been rolling during the shooting but was not aimed properly out the front window.
Prosecutors are investigating the possibility that a deputy may have accidentally knocked the camera from its normal angle during a burglary investigation at the Twin Peaks shopping plaza in Lake Forest, just minutes before the shooting.
“Had that camera been raised up,†a source said, “it probably would have filmed the whole thing.â€
Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates confirmed the existence of the videotape Monday but said he did not know what it showed.
Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Dan Martini said the tapes “are in the hands of the district attorney, but I can’t tell you if there’s anything on the tapes or not. I don’t know what’s on them.â€
District attorney’s officials declined to discuss the videotape issue. The office is investigating the case to determine whether criminal charges are warranted against Deputy Brian Scanlan, 32, a field training officer who shot Robins.
The Sheriff’s Department began installing the video cameras in mid-1992 from the rearview mirrors of each of its 125 patrol cars. The fist-sized cameras can be activated manually or automatically when the car’s emergency lights or sirens are turned on.
Deputies can also adjust the direction of the camera, Martini said.
Spurred by the videotaped beating of Rodney G. King by Los Angeles police, the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved spending more than $540,000 on the program in two phases. It marked the first time in the nation that a law-enforcement agency had agreed to put video cameras in its entire fleet of patrol vehicles, experts in the field said.
The cameras provided “a third, disinterested, objective eye†in the patrol cars, sheriff’s officials said. They were designed to provide footage in pursuits, traffic stops, arrests and other run-ins between police and suspected lawbreakers that might later come into legal dispute.
But in the Robins case, the camera offered the prospect of direct evidence in an incident between two deputies.
Sources have said that Robins and Scanlan were running through a “hot car†stop to review apprehension procedures when the shooting happened. Investigators are focusing on the possibility that Robins, playing the part of the suspect in the car, surprised Scanlan by reaching for a gun from the car visor and that Scanlan then shot him in the face.
Still unanswered is the question of why Scanlan was training at a public lot with a loaded weapon--in apparent violation of department policies at most local police agencies.
At least two sheriff’s vehicles were in the lot at 2 p.m. Dec. 25 when Robins was shot. Officials did not say Monday when the tapes now being reviewed by the district attorney’s office began rolling or where the car that held the camera was positioned in relation to Robins.
One source said he had not viewed the videotape but understood that the camera had been aimed toward the dashboard. It did not capture any images of the shooting itself, the source said.
The videotaping equipment also can provide audio sound through wireless microphones worn by the deputies. But officials said the audio is not automatically activated along with the video, and it is unclear whether any sound was recorded that may prove of use in the district attorney’s investigation. The probe is expected to last several more weeks.
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