OIS 2017-006 - JSID LetterTO;
FROM:
SUBJECT:
DATE:
MEMORANDUM
CHIEF ROBERT G. LUNA
Long Beach Police Department
400 West Broadway
Long Beach, California 90802
JUSTICE SYSTEM INTEGRITY DIVISION
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
Officer Involved Shooting of Michele Rice
J.S.I.D. File #17-0281
L.B.P.D. File #170033750
April 3, 2018
The Justice System Integrity Division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office has
completed its review of the June 7, 2017, fatal shooting of Michele Rice by Long Beach Police
Department (LBPD) Officers Richard Wharton, Eduardo Reinhold, Brian Neal, Omar Deleon,
and Rudy Rodriguez. It is our conclusion that the officers used reasonable force in self-defense
and defense of others.
The District Attorney's Command Center was notified of this shooting on June 8, 2017, at
approximately 2:03 a.m. The District Attorney Response Team responded to the location. They
were given a briefing and walk-through of the scene by LBPD Detective Scott Lasch.
The following analysis is based on reports, audio recordings, recorded interviews and
photographs submitted to this office by the LBPD. The departmentally compelled statements of
the officers were not considered in this analysis.
FACTUAL ANALYSIS
-·· and Michele Rice were in a dating relationship and lived together at . Studebaker
Road in the City of Long Beach. During the evening of June 7, 2017, -and Rice became
involved in an argument. The argument became heated and -told Rice that he had to go
to bed because he had to be at work early in the morning. This made Rice even more upset, and
at about 9:00 p.m. Rice told-that she was breaking up with him and leaving. She left
their home on foot without her house key. -and Rice continued to argue via text message
and over the phone. Rice walked to a liquor store, purchased a bottle apparently containing
alcohol, and continued walking in the neighborhood. 1 Shortly before midnight, Rice and _
continued to argue on the telephone, and -believed Rice was intoxicated. During the
1 At 9:40 p.m., Rice entered Dick's Palm Tree Liquor and purchased a "pink wine-sized bottle" for $20.84. While
there is surveillance video of Rice making the purchase, it is not possible to teU exactly what she bought.
conversation, Rice told -that she wanted to "play a game" with him and that she was
"going to give [him] a reason to kill [her]."
Knowing that Rice was armed, and believing that she was suicidal, -left his home and got
into his pickup truck. As he was driving away from his home, -saw Rice on the sidewalk
walking toward their home. He slowed down and Rice pulled out a black semiautomatic
handgun and fired it two times in his direction.2 -accelerated away and called 9-1-1 at
11 :55 p.m. He reported to the dispatcher that his girlfriend "just shot at [him]" and provided
Rice's location. -then drove around the block and awaited the arrival of LBPD officers.
Officer Richard Wharton was the first officer to locate-who was sitting in his truck
approximately half of one block north of his home. -told Wharton and Officer Brian
Neal, who had arrived shortly after Wharton, that Rice had just shot at him and that she was still
armed. While the officers were interviewing -Officer Eduardo Reinhold drove slowly
south from their location while a LBPD helicopter began circling overhead. The observer in the
helicopter advised the other responding officers that there was someone sitting on the victim's
front porch, but that he was unable to provide any details about that person's appearance.
Moments later, Reinhold trained his patrol vehicle's spotlight on the front porch and saw Rice
sitting on a stool on the porch. He drew his service weapon, pointed it in her direction, and
armounced over the radio that he had a suspect at gunpoint.
After hearing Reinhold's announcement that he was trying to detain Rice, Wharton and Neal
quickly drove south to his location. All three officers took cover behind various parked vehicles
and told Rice to put up her hands and walk off the porch. In response, Rice slowly stood up,
stumbled slightly, and slowly walked off the porch and onto the sidewalk in front of the home.
While Rice was walking off of the porch, Officers Omar Deleon and Rudy Rodriguez arrived at
the scene in a LBPD patrol Jeep. Rodriguez maneuvered the Jeep onto a median on the street
such that the vehicle's headlights and spotlights were illuminating Rice.
Rice took several steps away from the porch and looked in the direction of the officers who first
arrived to the house. The officers gave Rice multiple commands to keep her hands up, but she
slowly dropped her hands to her waist and reached into the hand warmer pocket of the sweatshirt
she was wearing. Reinhold yelled out, "Please don't do this!" and Rice removed a .40 caliber
semiautomatic handgun from her jacket and pointed it in the direction of Neal and Reinhold, who
were both taking cover behind Reinhold's patrol car. 3
2-explained that, while Rice was a good shot, the bullets she fired hit the dirt in front of his truck. He
believed she was either so drunk that she was unable to aim or was not actually trying to shoot him. Investigators
located two spent .40 caliber shell casings on the sidewalk of Studebaker Road near the intersection of Spring Street.
Those casings matched the fireann Rice dropped when she was shot by officers.
3 Alvin S. was watching the scene from his home across the street. He watched as a "guy" walked off the porch with
his hands up before suddenly reaching to his waist and pulling something out. As soon as the subject pulled out the
object, Alvin heard one volley of gunshots which caused him to retreat into his home.
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injury or death. CALCRIM No. 3470; See also People v. Randle (2005) 35 Cal.4th 987, 994
(overruled on another ground in People v. Chun (2009) 45 Cal.4th 1172, 1201); People v.
Humphrey (1996) 13 Cal.4th 1073, 1082. In protecting himself or another, a person may use all
the force which he believes reasonably necessary and which would appear to a reasonable
person, in the same or similar circumstances, to be necessary to prevent the injury which appears
to be imminent. CALCRIM No. 34 70. If a person uses force in lawful self-defense, he need not
stop using force until the threat has ended. See Plumhoffv. Rickard (2014) 134 S.Ct. 2012,
2022.
In this case, the officers responded to a 9-1-1 call regarding a woman who had just shot at her
boyfriend and was still armed. They then spoke with -and confirmed that Rice was
indeed still armed and had shot at him before relaying that information to other responding
officers. When Reinhold initially located Rice, she appeared to be responsive to his commands,
standing and putting her hands up when ordered. However, her initial apparent compliance
changed shortly after she stepped off the porch. Rice's decision to reach into her pocket, retrieve
a handgun, and point it at the officers left them no other reasonable option but to respond with
deadly force. Because the officers acted reasonably in discharging their weapons at Rice, their
use of force was lawful.
CONCLUSION
We conclude that all of the involved officers used lawful force in self-defense and in the defense
of others when they shot Michele Rice. We are closing our file and will take no further action in
this matter.
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