Up in arms

Tariq Malik

The weekend shooting death of a Huntington Beach teen by a city police

officer has upended the Oak View neighborhood, prompting a Monday protest

by family, friends and neighbors.

At least 100 people marched from the primarily Latino community of Oak

View, a square half-mile around the elementary school of the same name,

to the steps of City Hall waving cardboard signs emblazoned with “We Want

Justice,” “Respect” and other epitaphs written in the name of Antonio

Saldivar, the 18-year-old who was shot by an officer early Saturday

morning.

“We’re here because we want to support [Saldivar’s] family, and find

out what happened and who shot him,” said family friend Abel Brito, 30,

who lived across the street from Saldivar for almost 10 years. “The

Mexican community feels a lot of aggression from the police, and it all

comes out now.”

At 1:39 a.m. Saturday, two officers in a marked patrol car saw

Saldivar peering into a parked car in the 17100 block of Ash Street, a

suspicious act considering the late hour and his dark clothing, police

said.

“An officer went to make contact with the subject, who then fled on

foot over some fences, during which the officer in pursuit lost sight of

him,” said Lt. Chuck Thomas, a police spokesman, adding that the names of

those officers involved have not been released.

When the officer caught up with Saldivar he was squatting behind a

car, police said, and only showed himself after being ordered in English

and Spanish.

As Saldivar showed himself, he carried a rifle pointed at the officer

who then, in fearing for his safety, fired, Thomas said. The gun turned

out to be a toy.

Saldivar was taken to UCI Medical Center where he later died from his

injuries.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the incident,

as is procedure in officer-involved shootings, and the officer involved

feels terrible about what happened, police said.

“This whole incident can only be described as an absolute tragedy,”

Thomas said, adding that the department harbors tremendous sympathies for

the victim and his family, as well as the officer and his family.

That sentiment did little to alleviate the anger and grief of Monday’s

protesters especially after investigators said the rifle Saldivar

allegedly pointed at an officer was a toy gun retrieved by the sheriff’s

department.

“They said he was carrying a gun, but my brother never used them,”

said Susana Campos, Saldivar’s sister. “It’s impossible.”

Saldivar’s mother Epifania Huertero nodded in agreement, and said the

whole tragedy has left her full of grief.

The toy gun picked up at the scene of Saturday’s shooting measures 20

inches long, with a blue steel barrel and a wooden stock, said Sgt. Steve

Doan, spokesman for the sheriffs’s department.

Thomas said Surf City officers do undergo some training to

differentiate between real firearms from their toy counterparts, and are

taught only to fire when a threat is perceived to be real.

In her small Queens Lane apartment, which was home to Saldivar and

only blocks from Saturday’s shooting, candles and flowers line a wall in

his memory. The same appeared Monday along the white picket fence, where

Saldivar was shot.

His family hopes to send his body home to Pueblo, Mexico for burial.

“The police are not supposed to kill people,” said family friend Olga

Flores, 19, in disbelief. “Supposedly [Saldivar] had a toy gun, that

belonged to little kid in the neighborhood. How could he?”

This is not the first time, she added, that the Oak View

neighborhood’s faith in its police has been shaken.

Oak View resident Robert Tapias said his cousin, Jose Manuel Rios, was

shot and killed by police in October 1995. Rios was carrying a sawed-off

shotgun, and officers only fired after he continued to point the gun at

their unmarked car, police said.

But Tapias said the shooting, like Saturday’s, has hurt the community.

Police added that they understand the frustration of Oak View

residents, and if any feel they have been mistreated in any way they

should file a complaint with the department.

Saldivar’s death marks the third fatal officer-involved shooting since

January 1999, but the first in which a threatening weapon turned out to

be a toy, police said.

Coroner officials with the Orange County Sheriffs Dept. said an

autopsy of Saldivar’s body scheduled for Tuesday was performed, but the

results are being withheld pending further investigation into the

incident.