Witness accounts vary on fatal shooting by off-duty SoCal officer

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Witness accounts vary on fatal shooting by off-duty SoCal officer
The Associated Press
Article Launched:03/11/2008 02:27:19 AM PDT


TEMECULA, Calif.—Witnesses are giving varying accounts of Saturday night's shooting by an off-duty Costa Mesa police officer during a fight.
Meanwhile, Riverside County sheriff's officials on Monday released the names of the two men who were shot.
Shaun Vilan, 30, was hit in the chest and died Saturday at a hospital. His acquaintance, Taylor Willis, 22, was hit in the leg and survived.
Sheriff's spokesman Jerry Franchville said his agency is leaving it up to the Costa Mesa police to decide whether to release the name of the officer involved. Police officials declined to do that, only saying that the officer had not been placed on administrative leave and has been on the force at least 10 years.
The officer was hospitalized Saturday night with a head laceration that took several staples to closed.
The shooting happened at about 7:20 p.m. Saturday outside the Bank of Mexican Food restaurant on Main Street.
Earlier in the evening, the off-duty officer got into an argument with Vilan inside the restaurant. The restaurant's owner, Craig Puma, said the officer had not been drinking alcohol at his establishment and did not appear drunk. The officer had mistakenly slapped the behind of a woman in Vilan's group, Puma said, thinking it was someone he knew. Puma said it was a mistake and the officer apologized.
But Nicole Kitley, a friend of Vilan's, said it didn't happen quite like that.
"He slapped me really hard," she said, and when she turned around, "He said, 'Oh, I thought you were my sister.'"

"I could tell he was very drunk," she said, adding the officer did not apologize. "He was being very confrontational," and Vilan spoke up for her, although things ended there without violence.
It was about an hour later when Vilan and his group ran into the officer and his group outside the restaurant and a confrontation occurred. Police said Villas' group began beating the officer.
"Witnesses said some men were beating the officer pretty badly, possibly kicking him in the head," Temecula police Chief Jerry Williams said Saturday night. "He had identified himself as a police officer."
The officer drew his gun and fired what witnesses estimated at five to eight shots.
Villas' group, meanwhile, said the man did not identify himself as a police officer before he began shooting. He only did so, they said, when Temecula police arrived.
Riverside sheriff's homicide investigators are working the case, and the Costa Mesa police also are doing an internal investigation.

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need to send this to kaine.

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There's a reason we have a general discussions forum... What does this have to do with either OC or VA?

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http://www.ocregister.com/news/vilan-officer-temecula-1996936-shot-brother

Vilan smashed bottles in peoples' faces

UPDATE: Man shot to death by off-duty Costa Mesa police officer served 6 years in prison for assault in connection with bottle-smashing attacks.
By JON CASSIDY and KIMBERLY EDDS The Orange County Register

Shaun Vilan, the 30-year-old man shot to death by an off-duty Costa Mesa police officer in Temecula Saturday night, spent six years in state prison after he was convicted of two unprovoked assaults in which he smashed a beer bottle in someone's face, according to court records.
In Vilan's trial, Riverside Superior Court also admitted as evidence accounts of four other unprovoked attacks for which he didn't face charges. In four of those incidents, Vilan and his friends beat up on people they outnumbered, documents say. Vilan has been out of prison for two and a half years.
The Costa Mesa police officer, whose name has not been disclosed, suffered a gash on his head that took six staples to close.
The officer appears to have acted in self-defense when he shot and killed Vilan and injured another during a fight outside a popular Temecula restaurant, according to a preliminary investigation by Riverside Sheriff's investigators. A full investigation could take some time as investigators try to piece together how Vilan ended up dead in a fight that unfolded in front of dozens of people, including his 7-year-old son.
Vilan died after being shot at least once in the chest by the officer about 7:20 p.m. His friend, Taylor Willis, 22, of Temecula was shot in the leg.
The shooting followed a dispute outside of the Bank of Mexican Food restaurant in Old Town Temecula, which was crowded with people from the Temecula Rod Run, an annual three-day custom hot rod and car show that draws tens of thousands.
According to court records about the previous incidents, Vilan and a half-dozen others pulled up in two cars on Nov. 9, 1996 to the home of a man who had interrupted Vilan mid-burglary three months earlier.
Vilan's group began pushing the victim, his brother and a friend of the brother, according to the prosecutors' account. The brother tried to fend them off with pepper spray. When that didn't work, he went inside to get his mom to call 911.
Vilan's friend, Michelle Lorraine Hughes, poured a beer over the mother when she came outside and then hit the victim in the head with a can of beer, which exploded.
Vilan then broke a beer bottle over the man's face.
Worried that Vilan was going to stab the man, the victim's brother hit Vilan with a wrench, taking him out of the fight.
He then hit another of Vilan's friends, Brad Lee Stevens, on the arm with the wrench after Stevens brandished a knife at the mother and attacked the brother, the documents said.
While Vilan was out on bail after being charged with assault, he went to a birthday party on March 29, 1998, walked up to a guest, sniffed him and told him he smelled like white trash, the documents said. When someone tried to break up the dispute, Vilan smashed a beer bottle in his face, the documents said.
Vilan was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon for the two attacks.
The name of the officer who shot and killed Vilan is being withheld because he opened fire after identifying himself as a police officer, which gives him protection under the Peace Officers' Bill of Rights, authorities said.
The officer, who has more than a decade on the force, has been placed on paid administrative leave, said Costa Mesa police Sgt. Bryan Glass, while investigators decided whether he should be charged with a crime for killing Vilan and injuring Willis.
"We're not treating this any differently than if it was anybody else," said Riverside Sheriff's Department investigator Jerry Franchville.
Accounts differ drastically as to how an argument inside the restaurant later escalated to the death of Vilan, who was on parole after serving the 6-year sentence for an incident that involved the family member of a police officer.
Several witnesses, including a local bar owner, said Vilan and Willis had been asked to leave at least one of the bars in Old Town Temecula. Vilan and his family apparently ran into the officer in the street and the fight broke out.
It is unclear whether any of the men were intoxicated at the time. Investigators took a handgun from the officer but it was unclear if it was his service weapon. He was the only one who was armed.

:: Another link about a memorial for Vilan and more info on the "fight":
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_vigil12.61cfd8.html

:: And of course Vilan's mommy says he was a good boy because he drove a BMW:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/inland/la-me-copshoot13mar13,1,6291743.story


Sounds like self-defense but who knows....

MODS: This thread probably should be moved to True Tales of Self Defense.

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kaine said we cant but leos can and att. can thats what

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leos can defend thenselfs we cant

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lose 1 right others will follow

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roscoe13 wrote:

There's a reason we have a general discussions forum... What does this have to do with either OC or VA?

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Likely posted here because of the recent debate on CC in ABC-on restauraunts in VA.

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like i said lose 1 right others will follow enuf said

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savery wrote:

roscoe13 wrote:

There's a reason we have a general discussions forum... What does this have to do with either OC or VA?

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Likely posted here because of the recent debate on CC in ABC-on restauraunts in VA.

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YUP!

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ask kaine

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ggd276 wrote:

leos can defend thenselfs we cant

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nitrovic wrote:

ggd276 wrote:

leos can defend thenselfs we cant

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Yeah, i didn't get that point of the story either. So because the officer identified himself as an officer then he can shoot the guy? If I am getting kicked in the head you can gaurantee I'm taking the shot. Let the cards fall where they may. That is a deadly force protection situation in my opinion.

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I think his point is that if the governor had his way, a non-LEO/CA citizens would not had been able to have his pistol with him because he was leaving a restaurant that serves alcohol.

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"It was about an hour later when Vilan and his group ran into the officer and his group outside the restaurant and a confrontation occurred. Police said Villas' group began beating the officer."

"Witnesses said some men were beating the officer pretty badly, possibly kicking him in the head," Temecula police Chief Jerry Williams said Saturday night. "He had identified himself as a police officer."


I think his advisinghe was a cop was to give them a chance to stop on their own.

But I agree... if a group is kicking the crap out of me... they are going down hard and fast. I know that kicks top the head can and do cause serious and often fatal injuries.

Was the cop drinking and armed? I guess he could have been since he was in a bar.

The point to focus on is that he only pulled his gun out and shot when he was being attacked. This would be completely justified for anyone.

It is unfortunate that citizens cannot carry in a bar. I do not know the statistics on how many armed patrons at a bar have gotten drunk, pulled out a gun, and started shooting holes in the ceiling. We see this all the time on TV when we watch westerns. :lol:

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While Villa was a scumbag, I think that the truth is somewhere in the middle. It appears to me that the officer started trouble inside the bar by intentionally slapping the female's buttocks and that he had been drinking. The confrontation outside the bar was a continuation of the initial physical assault of Villa's female friend by the officer.

That PD is handling this MUCH differently than if an ordinary citizen was involved in a shooting like this. If it were a citizen, armed, drinking, beligerent, physically assaulting females that had done this, he would be in jail on the spot.

Equality for equals.....

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ODA 226 wrote:

While Villa was a scumbag, I think that the truth is somewhere in the middle. It appears to me that the officer started trouble inside the bar by intentionally slapping the female's buttocks and that he had been drinking. The confrontation outside the bar was a continuation of the initial physical assault of Villa's female friend by the officer.

That PD is handling this MUCH differently than if an ordinary citizen was involved in a shooting like this. If it were a citizen, armed, drinking, beligerent, physically assaulting females that had done this, he would be in jail on the spot.

Equality for equals.....

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Seems that there are too many conflicting eye witness accounts to go straight to these conclusions.

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The victim of the offensive touching had ample time to call the police and have the offender arrested.

She did not and instead her fiends too matters into the own hands and dished out a little street justice. They got more than they bargained for.

Making no difference if it was a cop or average citizen armed with a gun......eitherwould be justified shot shoot in my book.

Now... let's play devils advocate for a minutes. [This is a excellent video game by the way]

What if the offender was not armed and the vigilante mob was? How about they are armed and intoxicated.One of the mob could have been so intoxicated and mad that he could draw his gun and go above kicks to the head.

Being drunk and not fully in control.... he could have shot theguy on the ground.

I think this is what people think willhappenand why there is a law prohibiting the carry in alcohol establishments.

It appears that this cop, who is allowed to carry in a bar, drew and fired at the right time. So none of us can argue that he made a baddecision except for the offensive touching. But we truly have no cluewhat that was really about and has nothing to do with a carrying a gun.

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LEO 229 wrote:

The victim of the offensive touching had ample time to call the police and have the offender arrested.

She did not and instead her fiends too matters into the own hands and dished out a little street justice. They got more than they bargained for.

Making no difference if it was a cop or average citizen armed with a gun......eitherwould be justified shot shoot in my book.

Now... let's play devils advocate for a minutes. [This is a excellent video game by the way]

What if the offender was not armed and the vigilante mob was? How about they are armed and intoxicated.One of the mob could have been so intoxicated and mad that he could draw his gun and go above kicks to the head.

Being drunk and not fully in control.... he could have shot theguy on the ground.

I think this is what people think willhappenand why there is a law prohibiting the carry in alcohol establishments.

It appears that this cop, who is allowed to carry in a bar, drew and fired at the right time. So none of us can argue that he made a baddecision except for the offensive touching. But we truly have no cluewhat that was really about and has nothing to do with a carrying a gun.

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I'm not so sure I'd go quite that far. As a rule in bar fights, the winner gets arrested even if charges are dropped or reduced later.

Also, I'd like to know what his blood level is

and

I'd like to know if he had the chance to walk away.
Even though he's a cop, if he was drunk, he had no business trying to make an arrest... so if he could have walked away (and yes it's difficult) he needed to.
As usual, a lot of unknowns and as you pointed out in a previous thread, LEO's cannot just get drunk without consequences (Like Plumbers:lol

That said, I can't see where this would be of any help to us if shown to St Tim.

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LEO 229 wrote:

The victim of the offensive touching had ample time to call the police and have the offender arrested.

She did not and instead her fiends too matters into the own hands and dished out a little street justice. They got more than they bargained for.

Making no difference if it was a cop or average citizen armed with a gun......eitherwould be justified shot shoot in my book.

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You know that I'm a former LEO and as such, I do have a personal tendency to side with Law Enforcement MOST of the time. In this case, however, if he was indeed intoxicated and carrying a weapon and acting in the alleged manner, he should be suspended WOP at a minimum and the DA should refer this case to a Grand Jury. This may not be a clear-cut case of self-defense.

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ODA 226 wrote:

You know that I'm a former LEO and as such, I do have a personal tendency to side with Law Enforcement MOST of the time. In this case, however, if he was indeed intoxicated and carrying a weapon and acting in the alleged manner, he should be suspended WOP at a minimum and the DA should refer this case to a Grand Jury. This may not be a clear-cut case of self-defense.

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I do not take sides... I point out right and wrong. It makes no difference who it is. I do have a better understanding how things work in the LEO world and this will help me to decide.

In this posted case... the cop was drinking and armed. It is reported that he was drunk but I have no way of knowing to what level. A cop is not supposed to drink so much that he is publicly intoxicated.

If he wants to drink that much... he should stay home. Drinking socially while being armed is OK in my book. Nobody should be drinking till they are drop dead drunk. Armed or not.

Should this cop be suspended without pay? I do not think so. You are effectively saying that he is guilty and without pay is a punishment before the case has been investigated

And for what act is he to be suspended?

1. The alleged touching?
2. Allegedly being drunk?
3. Allegedly arguing with others?
4. Using his gun against a mod assault?
5. All of the above combined?

This cop is a victim of a mod assaultwhich is far more serious than any other allegation made against him. Should we be punishing victims?

He should be placed on paid leave while the matter is investigated. This is the right thing to do. Once all the facts are known he department can decide what action to take against him if necessary.

We do not take pay away from victims of other self defence shooting so why should the cop be help to pay before having his case heard.

I am sure the prosecutor will be contacted to see if the details fit self defense. I think this is a no brainier.