Crime & Safety

Zerby Family Attorney: Bystanders Were Endangered

Five to six people were in dwellings overlooking the courtyard where officers fired at Doug Zerby, he said.

When Long Beach police officers fatally shot Doug Zerby in an enclosed Belmont Shore courtyard, up to six others in surrounding homes were endangered by the gunfire, the Zerby family's attorney alleged Friday. 

Countering parts of the Long Beach Police Department account of how two officers fired on Zerby after mistaking a pistol-grip hose nozzle for a gun, lawyer Brian E. Claypool held a press conference backed by Zerby's parents, four siblings and ex-wife. Claypool told reporters gathered at a Long Beach mortuary, where Zerby's service will be held today, that the ongoing probe by him and Zerby's family has yielded radically different findings from what the LBPD has said happened.

The LBPD has defended its actions on Dec. 12 as coming in the course of protecting the public from someone possibly wielding a gun. But Claypool said  "people could have been killed in those apartments" by police gunfire, along with Zerby. 

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Claypool said that based on witness interviews, and an examination of the shooting scene and of Zerby's body, their unofficial investigation showed that three to four officers left 20 to 24 gunshot holes in structures, including wood and stucco walls of apartments occupied by five to six people.

And he said that the shooting might never have happened had police, who stood on a dwelling's street-facing balcony with a view of the courtyard, instead moved to the back of that home. A window there offered a direct view from above and behind  Zerby.

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"They could have shouted out, 'Police! Drop your gun!' and Doug would have dropped it," Claypool said after the briefing. The LBPD says that officers didn't speak to Zerby before opening fire.

Long Beach police give this account of the critical moment:  Officers were positioned from 30 to 40 feet away from Zerby. He was on the stairway landing, holding what looked like a gun, when he extended his arms straight out, pointing it at an officer. Zerby then was shot with a shotgun and pistol by two officers who fired a total of eight rounds. 

At a Dec. 13 news conference, Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell played a portion of the 9-1-1 call that reported Zerby on the back apartment's stairway landing, apparently drunk and holding a pistol. Police have released an enlarged photo of the pistol-grip hose nozzle (see accompanying photo) that they thought was a gun.

McDonnell said officers were at the scene for 10 to 15 minutes before the shooting occurred, waiting for the mental health team and other officers to help surround the property before saying anything that might provoke a confrontation. He stressed that no more than eight rounds were fired. And he  called the shooting a tragedy.

The L.A. Coroner's office has completed an autopsy, but at the request of law enforcement agencies, has not released its findings pending the outcome of other investigations--by the L.A. District Attorney's Office and LBPD's command staff.

McDonnell did not detail exactly where officers were positioned, but numerous witnesses have consistently told Patch that they saw three officers: A female officer with a gun drawn ran into the property.  A male officer lying in front of a front sidewalk gate trained what resembled a rifle into the courtyard. And another officer was visible from the street, on a glass-walled condo balcony with a view of the courtyard.

George Pallin, who owns the property, discussed the incident with his tenants in that home and in two back upstairs studios. He said that a fourth officer was inside the home opposite the condo building, at the downstairs kitchen window closest to the stoop and Zerby. 

After the shooting, five holes were visible in that window's screen, which Claypool said was 12 feet from where Zerby was shot. (There was a bullet hole visible on the narrow strip of wall between the studio apartments.)

What has not been disputed is that Zerby, the 35-year-old father of a son, 8, was dropped off at 2 p.m. Sunday at Domenico's on Second Street and at some point walked a third of a mile down Santa Ana Avenue, toward the upstairs studio apartment of his friend, Doug Blair.

Zerby, a Millikan High swim star whose records still stand, suffered from  alcoholism and had long periods of sobriety, but had begun drinking again six months ago, his mother said.

He was wearing nice jeans, a gray Guess t-shirt and sharp black tennis shoes when a friend named Andrew said he dropped Zerby off.

A witness reported Zerby staggering in front of his house, and spending three our four minutes steadying himself before

Police said that a resident of the two-story house on Ocean Boulevard then called police at 4:40 p.m. to report him as having a possible gun.

On Friday, Claypool said that a claim may be filed against those involved in the case, and the police department said it would not comment further on the case pending the outcome of the probes.

Claypool told reporters that on Thursday,  he personally viewed Zerby's body and counted 20 wounds--some of them possibly exit wounds--and listed many of their locations. Among them: right foot, left forearm, above the left elbow, four to five times in the chest, his right side, right below the right shoulder, the right elbow.

"He was also shot in the right thigh area," Claypool went on, as one of Zerby's two sisters cried out, and his mother, Pam Amici, a Poly High advanced calculus teacher, teared up.

"Doug Zerby was shot in almost every part of his body but his face," Claypool said.

"Several of these bullets in Doug's body tell you that he was already slumping forward, he was already leaning forward or slumping forward, because that's the only way you can get the trajectory of a bullet at a steep angle," Claypool said.   "Doug had already been incapacitated and these police officers continued to shoot."

Zerby's sister, Eden-Marie Biele, one year older than he, said she knows many police officers are dedicated to public safety and she respects them. But her brother, she pointed out, was drunk but not driving, and was choosing to wait at a friend's house for his return.

At the conference, the lawyer and Zerby's family were surrounded by photos of Doug Zerby, including one of him with his family at a holiday meal that showed his son River, 8, beside him. Extended video of the news conference can be found at LBReport.com.

Viewing of Zerby's body will be held today from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., and his memorial will be conducted at 7 p.m., at the McKenzie Mortuary on Anaheim Street.


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