Officer testifies in car-lot slayings
SHOOTINGS: The suspect, shot in the leg, is accused of killing two men and later a boy, 16.
10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, August 1, 2006
SAN BERNARDINO - A San Bernardino police officer told jurors Tuesday that he intentionally shot an unarmed Louis Mitchell Jr. in the lower leg last year as the shirtless and screaming man advanced on his patrol car.
"I yelled at him several times to get on the ground," Thomas Adams testified.
"He said he had a gun bigger than mine."
Adams was the last prosecution witness in Mitchell's trial on three counts of murder and three of attempted murder involving the Aug. 8 through 9 shooting rampage in Colton and San Bernardino.
Mitchell, 36, of Rialto, faces the death penalty or life without parole if convicted.
The district attorney's Office ruled in November that Adams was justified in shooting Mitchell. The report credited Adams with lowering his weapon and wounding Mitchell in the leg instead of killing him -- an act that would have been justified.
"He started yelling that he was dead," Adams testified.
"I reminded him that he wasn't."
Mitchell's 9mm semi-automatic pistol was found in the area where he was arrested Aug. 9 in the 300 block of West 19th Street in San Bernardino, the report said. That gun matched the gun used in the killings of three people in San Bernardino and Colton, it said.
The report also said Mitchell tested positive for PCP and marijuana.
Defense attorney Alan Spears reminded Adams of a report in which he indicated to police officials that Mitchell acted like he wanted to commit "suicide by cop."
Spears said after court recessed on Tuesday that he would not call any witnesses and that Mitchell would not take the stand. He said his client refused to implicate others or use drugs or mental instability as defenses.
Spears declined to say why Mitchell prohibited those defenses.
"It's like being in a sword fight with both of your hands tied behind your back," Spears said.
Superior Court Judge Brian McCarville scheduled closing arguments for Tuesday .
Police said last year that Mitchell killed two people, and wounded another two, at California Auto Specialist in Colton on Aug. 8 after he ostensibly became upset about his girlfriend buying a Dodge Durango that broke down shortly afterward.
Killed were dealership manager Patrick Mawikere, 20, and salesman Mario Lopez, 59. Employees Juan Bizzotto and Jerry Payan were wounded.
Mitchell then went to an apartment complex in San Bernardino, where he fatally shot 16-year-old Susano Torres and wounded his brother, Armando, said officials, who are unsure about the reasoning behind those shootings.
The next day Mitchell fired at a passing FedEx vehicle on West 19th Street, witnesses said, before he was confronted and wounded by Adams.
Reach John F. Berry at 909-806-3058 or jberry@PE.com
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