S.F. COPS' VERSION OF KILLING DISPUTED

Woman says officers shot teen girl as car was speeding away

A woman has come forward to challenge official accounts of the May 13
shooting of 17-year-old Sheila Detoy by a San Francisco police officer.

Contradicting the police account of the events that led to Detoy's death,
Wende Toney, 25, has filed a complaint with the Office of Citizens
Complaints saying she saw the Ford Mustang Detoy was riding in drive forward
- - not backward - down the steep driveway of the Oakwood Apartment complex on
Lake Merced. And, she said, the officers who fired at the car were never in
the path of the car or in danger of being hit.

If her story is true, said Bay Area Police Watch executive director Van
Jones, then the officers are lying and they should be prosecuted for the
killing.

"There is simply no legal justification for an officer to shoot into the
back of a fleeing car full of unarmed people," he said. "There's a word for
that. The word is murder."

Police officials could not be reached for comment on the complaint Wednesday
morning.

The Detoy family has heard the new account and supports any new information
coming forward in the investigation, said the girl's aunt, Sheila Detoy.

"I'm glad she filed a complaint," Detoy said. As for filing their own
complaint or lawsuit, Detoy said Sheila's mother was still weighing her options.

"If we feel what this witness says is credible, then yes, we'll probably
file something as well," Detoy said. "We're not used to filing lawsuits.
Things are being considered."

Jones said Toney called his office after seeing a television news report of
a Police Commission meeting last month at which he and others denounced the
shooting. He said his organization was helping Toney file her complaint with
the OCC.

On May 13, undercover officers had staked out the apartment com-plex hoping
to arrest Raymondo Cox, 21, who was wanted on drug charges. When Cox
prepared to leave in the Mustang with Detoy and driver Michael Negron, 22,
police said they blocked one end of the horseshoe driveway with a police
van. That prompted Negron to put the car in reverse and speed backward down
the other side of the driveway and toward two officers, Gregory Breslin and
Michael Moran, said homicide Lt. David Robinson after the incident.

Robinson said the left rear tire struck the curb near Breslin, and, fearing
he was about to be hit, Breslin fired at the car. His bullet went through
the open driver's side window and hit Detoy in the head, police said. Moran,
who was farther downhill, heard the shots and fired at the approaching car,
shattering the rear window, police said. Robinson and Police Chief Fred Lau
have said the officers appeared to be firing in self-defense, believing
Negron was trying to run them down.

But Toney said she saw the incident from across the street as she was out
for a walk around Lake Merced that morning. In her complaint, she said she
saw two plainclothes officers with guns drawn crouching beside a vehicle
parked on the street.

"As the Mustang moved down the driveway, the two officers bolted from behind
the (vehicle) and dashed a few yards up the grass alongside the driveway,"
the complaint said. "The Ford Mustang passed the two officers, and when it
reached the street and began bearing left, both officers began firing into
the back of the Mustang."

Toney added that she never heard the officers identify themselves as police
or warn passersby away from the shootout.

Four days after the shooting, another woman, who requested anonymity, told
The Examiner that the Mustang was not backing down the driveway.

"It's hard to understand how two witnesses independent of each other can say
something as important as "the car was never driving backwards down that
steep hill' " while police maintain an opposite story, said Jones. "It casts
doubt on the whole thing."

1998 San Francisco Examiner

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett