Riverside Tries to Go Back to Normal

RIVERSIDE —  As an edgy sense of order returned to City Hall, authorities Wednesday charged a dismissed city recreation worker with attempted murder after a wild gun battle a day earlier left the mayor, two council members and two police officers wounded.

Joseph Neale, 48, faces 15 felony counts--including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and taking hostages--for his alleged role in the incident that ended when police stormed a barricaded boardroom and wounded the gunman.

Authorities said Neale, a U.S. postal carrier described by co-workers as polite and solitary, could be in court for arraignment in the next few days, although no date has been set.

He remained in stable condition Wednesday at a jail ward at Riverside County Regional Medical Center after undergoing surgery for multiple gunshot wounds to his midsection and a fractured leg sustained in the shootout with police. Bail was set at $1 million.

Councilman Chuck Beaty, who underwent extensive surgery for wounds to his face and shoulder, was in guarded condition but “doing quite well,” said Ann Matich, spokeswoman for Riverside Community Hospital. “He’s out of the woods.”

Police Sgt. Wally Rice and Councilwoman Laura Pearson were in good condition, Matich said. Mayor Ron Loveridge and Sgt. Chris Manning were treated for wounds and released Tuesday.

Neale was fired by the city in 1994 from his job as a part-time chess coach with the city recreation department. The dismissal came after he wrote a 57-page treatise on discrimination that he sent to city officials and President Clinton. Neale filed a lawsuit and charged that his written complaints prompted the firing. City officials would not comment Wednesday on the lawsuit, which was scheduled for trial later this month.

Authorities said Neale entered a conference room at the back of the council chambers shortly before a scheduled city government meeting at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

The suspect shut the door and began firing at the officials with a 9-millimeter handgun, officials said. Police arrived within five minutes, using a pry bar to force the door open.

Neale began firing at four officers and they returned fire through the partially open door, authorities said. Det. Steve Johnson, a department spokesman, said the gunfire “went on for just seconds.”

Police got the call at 7:56 a.m., arrived at 8:01 a.m. and the incident was over by 8:16 a.m., Johnson said. Rice, the more seriously injured officer, is a sergeant with the department’s SWAT team.

On Wednesday, the only obvious sign of the events was yellow police tape cordoning off the council chambers. Phones were being answered and city workers were getting on with business.

“We’re making every effort to return back to normal,” said Robert Wales, assistant city manager.

Wales said officials are examining their security procedures “as we speak.” City Hall normally is patrolled by a single private security guard, who was briefly away from the council chambers Tuesday morning when the gunfire broke out but called in the emergency to police, Wales said.

Mayor Loveridge resumed his normal rounds Wednesday morning, including an early morning meeting at the Mission Inn, the centerpiece of Riverside civic life. As he walked through the hotel lobby, friends surrounded him, asked him about the horrifying experience and expressed their relief that no one was killed.

Calmly, Loveridge told of being herded into a small room and then threatened by a man he knew only slightly.

“His gun was aimed directly at my head but his hand was shaking so badly that he couldn’t shoot straight,” Loveridge said. “I just froze there, unable to react. But his hand kept shaking and apparently, I was told later, he couldn’t handle the kick of a 9 millimeter. Otherwise I’d be dead. It was surreal.”

As he described his brush with death, Loveridge used his hand as a mock gun to explain how close the gun had been to his head. Two women embraced Loveridge and he seemed emotionally overcome.

He later stopped briefly at a fund-raising event at the hotel for GOP Senate candidate Matt Fong. Fong, who had just begun a speech, recognized Loveridge and asked him to come into the room. The two dozen people in attendance applauded the mayor.

“It’s good to be alive,” Loveridge told the group softly, his voice quavering slightly. “It was simply an extraordinary moment that one will never forget. Obviously you have a sense of someone looking over us. So many rounds were fired. Any one of them could have killed someone. But we’re not celebrating funerals today, we’re celebrating life.”

He talked of taking “corrective” action at City Hall regarding safety. After speaking, Loveridge received more applause and then turned and said softly, “Time to get to work.”

Times staff writer Tom Gorman contributed to this story.