PUBLIC DESERVES OPEN HEARING IN FATAL SHOOTING BY DRUG AGENT

The San Jose Police Officers' Association is urging District Attorney
George Kennedy to close the grand jury proceedings into the shooting
death of an unarmed man by a state narcotics agent. The association's
president is hoping other police groups will lobby Kennedy as well.

Kennedy should ignore them. After Rodolfo ``Rudy'' Cardenas was
fatally shot in February, Kennedy's chief deputy called for an open
process. ``The public deserves and needs to hear all the facts
surrounding the shooting,'' said Assistant District Attorney Karyn
Sinunu.

That's the right position. The circumstances behind the death are
tragic and suspicious.

Agent Michael Walker shot who he thought was an armed fugitive.
Cardenas turned out to be neither that man nor armed. The paramedics
who arrived at the scene were kept from him for a critical five
minutes, during which he bled profusely.

Grand jury hearings are normally closed. But the outrage after
Cardenas' death was strong, and public interest remains intense.
People need to hear all of the facts to trust the legal system.

Last year, Kennedy persuaded Thomas Hansen, the Superior Court's
presiding judge, to open proceedings in the fatal shooting of a
Vietnamese woman a San Jose police officer mistakenly thought was
holding a knife. That was a wise precedent. The case for opening the
Cardenas inquiry is equally compelling.