Shooting a no-win situation

Jenny Marder

With a blue Toyota Corolla bearing down on him, Huntington Beach

Police Officer Corwin Bales shot and killed the erratic driver,

Kenneth Sean Anderson, who had allegedly just stolen several small

items from a nearby Arco station.

Now, Bales is faced with the long and arduous process of dealing

with the trauma that affects officers who have killed someone.

Killing another human being, whatever the reason, is something you

relive for the rest of your life, Lt. Dan Johnson said.

“You never want to hurt or kill anyone,” Johnson said. “Certainly

it’s something that’s upsetting. It’s something that you never

forget.”

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is investigating Sunday’s

shooting, which is a matter of routine in officer-involved shootings.

Bales is on administrative leave, but will be returning to work next

week.

The Huntington Beach Police Department has a 16-member trauma support team on staff, trained by a licensed psychologist to help

officers deal with traumatic situations. Physiological things can

happen to people when they’re under stress, such as tunnel vision,

time distortion and muffled hearing, Sgt. Gary Meza said.

“It’s post-traumatic stress they deal with,” Meza said. “The

officers feel bad about it, but if they have to, they’re prepared to

do it.”

Police said the incident began when Anderson, a 30-year-old

Huntington Beach resident, allegedly stole a lighter from a mini

market at an Arco gas station on Beach Boulevard. The cashier, who

stepped outside to confront him and accuse him of shoplifting,

spotted Anderson lighting a glass narcotics pipe, the kind used for

crystal meth, in the gas station parking lot, Meza said.

“The cashier said he’s drunk, he cannot drive, he’s going to get

in an accident,” said Robert Alvandi, owner of the Arco station, who

watched the episode on video. “He said he was acting very strange.”

Anderson went back in the store, swiped two more boxes of

cigarette lighters from the front counter, dropping some, and then

left without paying, Alvandi said. He described Anderson as chubby

with a strong build.

The 24-year-old gas station cashier was so shaken up by his

encounter with Anderson that he quit his job that night, Alvandi

said.

Anderson sped off in his blue Toyota Corolla, heading west on

Adams Avenue, witnesses said.

Police tracked him down in the south parking lot of the Huntington

Beach High School on a tip from a citizen who spotted him driving

recklessly near the school, Meza said.

“The officer asked for backup because he was acting strange and

not following commands,” Meza said.

Police pursued Anderson and stopped him by spinning his car around

and crashing it into a fence, using a procedure in which they bump

his car with their own.

“It causes the car to lose traction, spins it around and stops

pursuits fairly safely,” Meza said.

But after the Toyota was stopped, Anderson began accelerating

toward an officer on foot and several cruisers in a threatening

manner. “They were afraid he was going to run them over,” Meza said.

Bales fired at Anderson through his windshield at the same time as

another police officer rammed into the side of his car, pushing it

into the grass by the basketball courts.

Anderson got out of the driver’s side and collapsed into the

grass, Meza said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. None of the

police officers were injured.

The last shooting by a Huntington Beach police officer was two

years ago when Officer Mark Wersching mistakenly shot 18-year-old

Antonio Saldivar during an early morning foot chase on May 5, 2001 in

the Oak View neighborhood.

Wersching mistook Saldivar for the crime suspect he was pursuing

and shot Saldivar when the young man allegedly threatened him with

what turned out to be a toy gun.

In January 2002, prosecutors for the Orange County district

attorney’s office determined that Wersching did not act unreasonably

when he shot Saldivar. In a civil trial last month, however, the jury

sided with Saldivar’s family and awarded his mother $2.1 million for

funeral expenses, the value of her son’s estate and the loss of moral

support.

“We don’t go to work and want to shoot somebody,” Meza said.

“We’re taught that we go out and make things right. With something

like [Sunday’s shooting], it’s almost like you’ve lost control. It

emotionally affects the officers.”

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at [email protected].