Officer Kills Man During Response to Alleged Fight

A San Diego police officer, responding to a reported domestic dispute at a home Saturday morning, shot and killed a man who was threatening to strike the lawman with a metal baseball bat, according to police.

A police account, released in the afternoon, stated that officer Brad Phelps discharged a single shot from his 9-millimeter, semi-automatic service revolver as the bat-wielding man approached the lawman in a “threatening manner” and appeared poised to swing the bat.

Officer Phelps fired when the man was less than 10 feet away, according to police.

The incident occurred about 10:30 a.m., inside the victim’s South San Diego home, in the 3800 block of Hemlock Avenue, police said.

Officer Phelps and two other lawmen had gone to the residence in response to a report of a man beating his pregnant wife, police said.

The victim, identified as Luis Frank Perez, 28, was struck in the head, police said. He was dead at the scene.

Also present at the home was the victim’s wife, Maria Perez, 17, who is about seven months pregnant, according to police and a nursing supervisor at Scripps Memorial Hospital in Chula Vista. The woman, who had no visible injuries, was being held for observation at Scripps, the nursing official said.

The incident comes after a recent rash of law enforcement shootings in the San Diego area that has provoked an outcry from various rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, who have questioned whether officers have been using sound judgment before firing. Law enforcement guidelines generally permit lawmen to use lethal force only if their lives or the lives of others are threatened.

Representatives of area law enforcement authorities, including the San Diego police, have defended the actions of their officers and maintained that each incident is investigated thoroughly.

The official police account of Saturday’s shooting, while making no judgment on whether the use of force was justified, stated that the officer responded to a clear threat--a man wielding a “full-sized metal baseball bat.”

Officer Phelps was reassigned to an administrative post--standard procedure in incidents involving shootings by city police officers--pending resolution of the case, said police spokesman Sgt. Fred England.

Authorities say all police shootings are subject to an internal review as well as a criminal investigation by homicide detectives, who forward the results of their inquiries to the district attorney. The district attorney is then responsible for determining if lethal force was justified.

San Diego police provided the following chronology of Saturday’s shooting:

Three uniformed officers--Phelps, Norman Ernsbarger and Robert Martin--arrived at the residence about 10:30 a.m. and could hear the sounds of a “violent argument” coming from inside the small house, police said.

An “uncooperative” male occupant responded when police knocked at the door, according to the official account. The officers say they heard a woman screaming inside the dwelling, prompting them to enter.

At that point, according to police, the man retreated to the kitchen area, where he picked up the bat, which he held with one hand behind him. He refused to drop the bat despite “numerous” commands to do so, police said.

Each officer then drew his service revolver, police said. Officer Phelps fired the fatal shot when the man approached, wielding the bat, according to police.