After a dramatic day of testimony yesterday, a judge ordered a San Diego police officer to stand trial for shooting a mother and her son in an Oceanside parking lot at the culmination of an apparent road rage incident in March.
“I think we expect more from our officers than the conduct that was displayed here,” Judge Joel Pressman said at the end of a nearly daylong preliminary hearing in Vista Superior Court.
Officer Frank White, 28, is charged with one felony count of grossly negligent discharge of a firearm and one misdemeanor count of exhibiting a firearm. He faces up to nine years in prison if convicted.
The District Attorney's Office decided to charge White in July. It marked the first time in 13 years that a county law enforcement officer – on or off duty – had been charged for shooting someone while acting under the color of authority.
Authorities say Rachel Silva, 28, cut off and aggressively followed White, who was off-duty, and his wife into a Lowe's parking lot March 15, while revving her engine and yelling at them. After she pulled in front of them in the lot, she backed up toward their car.
Her right mirror hit White's left mirror, and he fired his first shot through the window of his Mercury Milan into the passenger window of her Honda Accord. Silva's son, then 8, was in the passenger seat and was struck in the left leg.
As Silva continued in reverse, the right front of her car hit the left rear of White's car. He shot four more bullets from his .38-caliber revolver through her windshield. She was struck twice in the right arm.
Silva's son, with his father by his side, teared up in court yesterday as he recalled the shooting.
He testified that his mother was upset when she picked him up at a friend's house and later when she followed the car into the parking lot. “My mom was mad at him,” he said. “She was yelling.” In the parking lot, the boy said, he saw a person in the other car pointing a gun at him.
The boy testified that he curled up in his seat when he saw the gun, putting his legs near his face. He said he told his mother, “Momma, he has a gun,” and she called 911.
Later in the hearing, prosecutors played tapes of 911 calls made by Silva and White's wife, Jacquellyn, who is a Carlsbad police dispatcher.
On the call made by Silva, she says, “There's a guy who's pulling a gun on me.” After the shooting, she says it is “some guy, a policeman.” Screams are heard throughout the tape. At one point, Silva tells her son, who sounds hysterical, “Stop! You're OK! You're OK!”
Authorities say Silva had a blood-alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit and was driving on a suspended license. She faces charges in connection with the incident. She was subpoenaed to appear at White's hearing yesterday, but she asserted her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and didn't testify.
On Jacquellyn White's 911 call, she tells a dispatcher that a silver Honda is “road raging” them, and they don't know why. After the shooting, she tells the dispatcher that her husband has fired his gun.
“Did he hit anybody?” the dispatcher asks.
“I don't know if he hit her,” White's wife responds. She soon says that the other driver has a child in the car.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys agree that White didn't see the child when he opened fire. The car's side windows were tinted, with a darker tint on the rear windows.
On the 911 call made by Jacquellyn White, her husband can be heard after the shooting yelling, “Turn the car off!” and “Police!”
Prosecutor Julie Korsmeyer said the District Attorney's Office “carefully” charged White. “We have someone who overreacted violently in this case.”
White's attorney, Rick Pinckard, said the couple didn't do anything to provoke the confrontation, and Silva assaulted them with her car. “This was clearly a case of self-defense,” Pinckard said.
The state Attorney General's Office has charged Silva with felony child endangerment and five misdemeanors, including drunken driving and driving on a suspended license. Her trial is set for Nov. 18.
3 comments:
This post is full of old information and inaccuracies about this incident. When are you going to either remove it or correct it? Terrbile example for you to use to further your cause. You should be ashamed! Fix the problem by taking responsibility for relying on other untrustworthy sources and remove it from your site!
Information will stand...but if you have new updated information that is more accurate, please feel free to post the information or the link.
Thank you
Classic that you would ask that I do your job for you! No thanks. It just shows you aren't interested in posting the truth, just what would benefit your cause.
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