FBI CHIEF MEETS WITH OREGON FAMILY

Freeh says review of shooting by police will be thorough, fair
`The only thing I am asking for is a fair investigation'

FBI Director Louis Freeh met here Friday with the family of Pedro Oregon
about the federal investigation of his fatal shooting by Houston police.

Freeh said he didn't know when the FBI and federal grand jury investigation
will be completed.

"We'll do it as quickly as we can, but as carefully as we have to, to assure
that it's a full investigation and a fair one," said Freeh, who met with
local agents, officials and civic leaders on other issues.

He also met with the family of Laura Smither, the 12-year-old Friendswood
girl abducted last year and later found dead.

Freeh said Smither's family "had a very supportive message to us that law
enforcement needs to ensure that these cases receive the very best resources
and priority in investigations."

The Oregon investigation has been under way for about three weeks, he said.

Freeh said the FBI would provide additional training to Houston officers in
handling certain life-threatening situations if the city requests such
assistance.

Meanwhile, five of the six officers involved in Oregon's shooting appealed
their terminations with the city Civil Service Commission Friday.

The arbitration process of trying to regain their jobs could take several
months, said their attorney, Chad Hoffman of the Houston Police Officers'
Union.

Police Chief C.O. Bradford fired all six last week, calling the shooting an
"egregious" case of official misconduct.

An internal police investigation found that the officers had violated HPD
policies and state and federal laws, but a Harris County grand jury cleared
five of them and charged the sixth with criminal trespass, a misdemeanor.

On July 12, the officers, though lacking a search warrant, burst into
Oregon's residence on a tip that drugs were being sold. They fired about 24
shots at Oregon, 22, after Officer David R. Barrera accidentally fired his
weapon, striking a fellow officer.

Oregon was hit 12 times, including nine in the back. Only Barrera, who fired
most of the shots, has not appealed his termination and is not expected to
do so.

"I wanted the director to meet directly with the family of Pedro Oregon,"
said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, who organized the meeting.
"There is a commitment by the director that an investigation will not cease
until every stone is unturned."

Oregon's mother, Claudia Navarro, said, "The only thing I am asking for is a
fair investigation."

Her attorney, Paul Nugent, said that if civil rights violations are found, a
possible federal trial could still bring prison time for the officers.

"Director Freeh pledged to the family a thorough and independent
investigation to get to the tragic truth of what happened to Pedro Oregon,"
Nugent said.

"It's not going to be a rubber stamp of the local investigation."

Hoffman said the five officers filed appeals because "there is no question
they were acting in their official capacity. They feel they were correct in
what they were doing."

Mexican Consul General Rodulfo Figueroa, newly arrived in Houston, said he
will continue moral support of the Oregon family, immigrants from Mexico.

"This federal intervention shows the state is not capable of handling this
case," Figueroa said.

Checked-by: Don Beck