Surfer shot at amid ex-LAPD cop hunt files lawsuit

June 18, 2013 @ 2:08 pm

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A surfer who was shot at by police during the manhunt for rogue ex-cop Christopher Dorner has filed a lawsuit against a Los Angeles suburb and its police department.

David Perdue, 38, was driving his black Honda pickup early Feb. 7 on his way to pick up a friend to go surfing when he was stopped by officers looking for Dorner, an ex-Los Angeles police officer who had promised to bring "warfare" to his former department's officers and their families.

Authorities say Dorner killed four people, including two law enforcement officers, during a weeklong rampage that involved a massive manhunt and ended with his apparent suicide in a mountain cabin following a gunbattle with police.

At the time officers stopped Perdue, Dorner had already killed two people, and officers throughout the area were protecting people he named as targets. Authorities believed he was driving a pickup, although it was a different make and color than Perdue's truck.

The officers who stopped Perdue asked him a few questions, then told him to turn around and go back the way he came, according to the lawsuit.

Soon after, a second police car driving toward him accelerated to 25-30 mph "without any warning," and rammed his pickup, spinning him around and tearing off the rear axle. Air bags deployed and Perdue's upper body was jolted over the center console, he says in his complaint.

Perdue says the two officers fired at least three bullets into the open driver's side window, sending them into the side air bags, past his head and through the front windshield.

Perdue was ordered out of the pickup with a gun to his head and forced to lie face-down on the pavement. He was detained for an hour.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court, says Perdue has suffered "physical injuries, severe emotional distress and mental suffering."

The complaint alleges that the city and its police department refused to accept responsibility for what happened and instead published false and conflicting accounts. It also states that the officers involved were allowed to return to duty without any discipline. Torrance police Sgt. Robert Watt said he can't comment on discipline issues, but the two officers involved returned to duty after a psychological evaluation, which is routine after such an incident.

The suit notes that Perdue, who is white, was much shorter and smaller and looked nothing like Dorner, who was black.

A statement from the city said they could not comment on specifics of the lawsuit. Watt said the department is in mediation and had a four hour session Thursday with Perdue's attorneys; no future date is yet set. The Los Angeles district attorney's office is investigating.

The Perdue shooting was not the only case of mistaken identity that morning. Two women delivering newspapers in Torrance were also shot at by Los Angeles police officers; the city reached a $4.2 million settlement with the women in April in addition to the $40,000 settlement for the loss of their pickup truck.

The eight officers involved in that incident are still working "non-field" assignments and Police Chief Charlie Beck will decide if and when they return to the field, said LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith.

___

Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams


(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Comments (23)


  • Add A Comment

  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    He will not be
    February 12, 2013 12:55 pm
    taken alive!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Cbrew wrote...
    Why do they report this stuff when they have no idea what's going on?
    February 12, 2013 1:50 pm
    This report says he was barricaded in a cabin, stole a car, had a shootout... They don't provide a logical order to it all and do not say whether he's still in the cabin or if he's left or what's going on... reporters do know they can slow down enough to get the real story right? Or is it just that they have to win the race to put it on the internet first?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • William Lawn wrote...
    Cop has a kmini 14 ruger
    February 12, 2013 1:56 pm
    Or as they are known by the NRA "Black scary looking rifle".
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Cash wrote...
    First reporting...
    February 12, 2013 1:58 pm
    I hate the news format of having to be the first to report... How about the first to report accurate details?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Moondoggie wrote...
    Shouldn't the headline read...
    February 12, 2013 2:06 pm
    Piers Morgan follower and killer of innocent people holed up in cabin! If He was a listener of Rush Limbaugh, you can bet that limbaugh's name would be in the tag line.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • William Lawn wrote...
    Might also read Chris Christie, George Bush follower and killer of innocent people.
    February 12, 2013 2:16 pm
    But then you'd howl media bias.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Cbrew wrote...
    This story really makes you wonder......
    February 12, 2013 2:11 pm
    If he really did get shafted by the LAPD... they aren't exactly an organization with a lot of credibility with the community... regardless, It's no excuse to go out and kill people... anybody... over it. He needs to be captured, whether he was unjustly fired or not, he's a murderer now...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • William Lawn wrote...
    Yeah, killing innocents does tend to trump a hostile work environment
    February 12, 2013 2:18 pm
    when filing a EEOC complaint.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Cbrew wrote...
    yup... it does...
    February 12, 2013 2:29 pm
    There's a thousand other ways he could have gone with this... including working with groups to have his name cleared etc. could have embarrassed the LAPD by starting a campaign to root out these kinds of problems he claims exist within the department, instead, he went on a killing spree... kinda ended his chances of clearing his name right there...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    Cbrew
    February 13, 2013 11:23 am
    I'm with ya on all your comments. Well put.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • murr wrote...
    Anybody wanna take bets
    February 12, 2013 3:16 pm
    Only thinking. Are/Did the L A PD open his records back up of his firing, to be the first to protect themselves of what they did or to fabricate ??? or to really (honestly) really search for answers. Look at the media, look at all the attention this is getting. This does promote more of this in my mind.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rich White and Orange wrote...
    Foreshadowing Kersey's End
    February 12, 2013 3:42 pm
    This is.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Bucket Dad wrote...
    I really want the LAPD chief to step up to the mike and ...
    February 12, 2013 4:01 pm
    answer the question of why did they shoot this cold-blooded killer so many times with the answer that Sheriff Judd used: "Because that is all the bullets we had."
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Bloodsurf69 wrote...
    Guilty first
    February 12, 2013 4:10 pm
    I have not seen anything proof that he killed anyone. Remember what happened in the movie, Shootist? Just saying
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }