REDDING POLICE FATALLY SHOOT 3

Two Incidents In One Day Involve A Pot Raid And A Cyclist's Arrest.

Four Redding police officers are on administrative leave after fatally
shooting three people in two separate incidents in one day.

Besides internal department reviews of Tuesday's shootings, the deaths will
be investigated by a team with members from the state Department of Justice
and the Shasta County District Attorney's Office and Sheriff's Department,
as well as the Redding Police Department.

The four officers will be off the street during the reviews, a police
spokesman said Thursday.

"We'll feel it, but we'll make adjustments," said Sgt. Tim McDonald.

Tuesday was the single deadliest day for the 111-officer department.

The first incident began shortly after midnight when a bicyclist refused to
stop as an officer attempted to cite him for riding without a light,
McDonald said.

A brief chase ensued, but then the suspect abandoned the bicycle, McDonald
said. Officer Chris Jacoby, who was in a police car, then gave chase on
foot into an alley, he said.

Jacoby got within 30 feet of Timothy Torchia, 36, McDonald said, and
ordered him to drop what the officer thought was a holster.

Torchia turned and charged toward Jacoby, McDonald said, and at the same
time appeared to reach for something in his rear waistband.

Jacoby shot "multiple times" at Torchia, killing him instantly, McDonald said.

No weapons were found on Torchia, who was a parolee wanted by the Shasta
County Sheriff's Department, McDonald said.

The second incident occurred during a multiple-agency raid on a
marijuana-growing operation in a southeast corner of the county, about 25
miles from Redding.

The Shasta County Sheriff's Department headed up the raid on what was the
year's single biggest marijuana bust in the county, netting 33,354 plants
with a street value of $133,416,000, according to sheriff's Capt. William Cox.

The raid began before dawn with 22 officers, including members of the
Redding police SWAT team, Cox said.

Divided into three teams, they fanned out through mountainous terrain
covered in chaparral, thorned bushes and manzanita to three garden sites,
Cox said.

Three Redding officers -- Eric Wallace, who has been with the department
for three years, Jeff Wallace, who has been with the department for 2 1/2
years, and David Schultz, a five-year veteran -- became separated from
others on their team, Cox said.

About 30 to 40 feet in front of them, Cox said, two men came out of the
brush, one carrying an assault weapon on his right shoulder. The officers
ordered the two to stop, in English and in Spanish, he said.

The first man, who also had a pistol in his waistband, raised the rifle to
his shoulder and began to aim at the officers, Cox said, and the officers
opened fire on both men.

The first man was killed and the second man fell to his hands and knees,
Cox said. The second man appeared to reach for his waistband as he moved
toward the first man's weapons on the ground, Cox said.

The officers ordered him to stop moving, in English and Spanish, Cox said,
but he kept moving toward the weapons.

All three officers fired again, mortally wounding the second man. At least
20 shell casings from the officers' weapons were recovered, Cox said.
Neither suspect fired a weapon, he said.

Cox said marijuana growers often hire Latino immigrants to do the most
dangerous part of their operation: guarding and caring for the crop in
remote terrain.

After the shootings, another officer found three other unarmed men in the
brush, Cox said, but they fled.

Officers found 16 bedrolls at the garden site, but no other weapons.
Officers returned to the area Thursday to search for the three who fled.

As of Thursday, the Shasta County Coroner's Office had not identified the
two dead men, who appeared to be between 30 and 40 years old, according to
a deputy coroner.