By 3-2 vote, commission that oversees the LAPD rules that mentally ill homeless person with screwdriver was not a deadly threat.
Decision is seen as a blow to chief.
We also believe that the officer had not exhausted all reasonable alternatives at the time he fired. The commission's ruling, clearly a blow to Parks, comes at a time when the department is dealing with the ever-expanding Rampart corruption scandal, in which more than 70 LAPD officers are under investigation for either committing crimes or knowing about them and helping to cover them up. Eglash, however, concluded in a confidential report to the commission that civilian witnesses at the scene did not see Mitchell lunge at Larrigan, as the department says she did, sources said. The commission spent months deliberating over the incident and even considered changing the way the department evaluates shootings. On Tuesday, after more than five hours in closed session, the panel reached its split decision.