PROBE OF DELAY IN AID FOR MAN

Prosecutor Reconstructs Fatal Shooting

A prosecutor is investigating whether a delay in treating a San Jose man
shot by a state drug agent may have contributed to his death.

Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Lane Liroff said Friday
paramedics did not receive permission to begin treatment at the scene
"within a timely fashion."

"There's a problem there," Liroff said.

Rodolfo "Rudy" Cardenas, 43, was shot last month while fleeing from a state
drug agent who mistook him for a violent fugitive parolee. The prosecutor's
questions add to the growing concern over the Feb. 17 shooting, which has
prompted marches on San Jose City Hall and calls for a rare open grand jury
hearing.

Liroff would not speculate on where the communication error occurred and
did not know exactly how long the medics were kept waiting in a staging
area at the scene.

"We're trying to reconstruct what happened to get to the bottom of this,"
said Liroff.

Dispatch records indicate that fire and ambulance medics were called at
1:26 p.m. and arrived eight minutes later. It's not clear at what point
paramedics were able to begin treating Cardenas. At 1:51 p.m., Cardenas was
driven by ambulance to San Jose Medical Center. He was pronounced dead at
1:57 p.m.

Family's Claim

Cardenas' family, which has filed a wrongful death claim against the state,
believes the lack of immediate medical treatment contributed to his death.

"There was no excuse for them to not get medical care immediately," said
Raul Cardenas, the slain man's older brother, who wonders whether officers
let his brother bleed intentionally. "He wasn't dead. He was bleeding to
death," he said.

Officers routinely secure a shooting scene before allowing paramedics to
treat the injured, for the safety of everyone involved. This case was
complicated by the fact that there were several law enforcement agencies
involved, including San Jose police and state parole and narcotics agents.

Sources close to the investigation also say the state agents were not
equipped to communicate on police radio, so they were unable to quickly
check Cardenas' license plate number to see if they were following the
right person. Instead, state agents had to call 911 from their cell phones
and be routed through the California Highway Patrol to notify San Jose
police of the chase.

Hallye Jordan, press secretary for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer's
office -- which is conducting its own investigation into the shooting --
said her office could not comment on the case while a grand jury
investigation is pending.

The California Department of Corrections, which oversees parole agents, and
San Jose police had no comment.

The state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement agent involved in the shooting,
Michael Walker, 33, was put on routine administrative leave after the
incident and has since returned to work performing administrative duties,
Jordan said.

Cardenas' death marks the second time in less than a year that a fatal
shooting by an officer has drawn outrage in San Jose over what critics
called a needless use of deadly force.

But unlike the July 13, 2003, shooting of Bich Cau Thi Tran, prosecutors
quickly voiced concern about the Cardenas case and will once again ask for
an open grand jury hearing into the shooting. The jury foreperson and a
judge must also agree to open the normally secret proceeding.

Tran, shot through the heart by a San Jose policeman after she raised a
large vegetable peeler he thought was a cleaver, collapsed on the spot and
never regained consciousness. An officer with rescue training checked her
moments later and said she had no pulse.

Paramedics arrived in six minutes and waited outside another six minutes
before being allowed to treat her. But in an open grand jury hearing, a
doctor testified it would have made no difference to the mortally wounded
woman's fate.

While declining to discuss specifics, Liroff said he plans to ask the grand
jury to review the conduct of the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement,
Parole Fugitive Apprehension Team and the San Jose police in the Cardenas case.

"The performance of those three law enforcement agencies are going to be
evaluated by the grand jury, there's no question about that," said Liroff,
who will present the case to the grand jury after it convenes this spring.

Day Of Shooting

On Feb. 17, several state narcotics and parole agents gathered in unmarked
cars near a North 14th Street home hoping to nab David Gonzales, a
37-year-old parolee considered dangerous.

At 1:10 p.m., a man they said resembled Gonzales approached in a van. The
driver was Cardenas, an acquaintance of Gonzales.

The undercover agents followed as the van drove away. At 1:17 p.m., the
agents notified San Jose police of their pursuit as they chased the van
through several downtown blocks.

Cardenas ditched the van in front of Shires Memorial Center at Fourth and
St. James streets, running through an alley and hopping a fence as he fled
into the building's parking lot.

At 1:23 p.m., police reported shots were fired. State agent Walker, a
former Watsonville police officer who had worked for the justice department
a little over a year, had fired at the fleeing man because Walker feared he
was about to be shot, according to police.

Police said the fleeing man was carrying something the drug agent thought
was a gun but was a digital scale.

Cardenas collapsed near a fence after a witness said Cardenas pleaded for
officers to hold their fire. It wasn't until after Cardenas was pronounced
dead that authorities realized he was not the man they were seeking.

At 4:25 p.m., about two hours after Cardenas was shot, state drug agents
and San Jose police captured Gonzales near the North 14th Street home where
he was staying.

Whether faster medical treatment could have saved Cardenas' life can't be
determined without knowing more about the nature of his injuries. The Santa
Clara County coroner's office has not released its investigation or autopsy
reports.

John C. Stein, the lawyer representing Cardenas' family in its claim
against the state, said that based on his investigation and conversations
with trauma surgeons, Cardenas may have lived if he got to the hospital sooner.

"They could have saved this guy's life without question," Stein said.