TS Officer, chief take stand in Moore inquest 09/14/2006
EUREKA - The third SWAT officer in the door of Cheri Lyn Moore's apartment testified Thursday during a coroner's inquest into her death that he did not see a flare gun when he fired with a less-lethal weapon, saying she was facing toward another officer and moving backwards. Officer Tim Jones said at first he could not see her hands. Then later they were at her side, moving up toward her mid-section. When asked whether there was anything in her hands, Jones answered: “No, sir.”
“She was walking backward, to me it looked like she was hurriedly moving backward, walking back,” he said, describing Moore's actions after hearing the first shots.
Jones said it appeared she tripped on something. Jones testified that his weapon was a compressed air gun.
Also on the stand was the SWAT commander - who said shots were fired before he was even in the door. A paramedic testified he pronounced Moore dead at the scene after asking for handcuffs to be taken off her body.
Transcripts of an interview with one of the police observers were also read. Officer Robert Mengal now lives out of state and was unable to travel. Jurors were told the evidence should be considered hearsay.
In an interview with the Critical Incident Response Team, Mengal said he took up an observation position on his own after someone in a building across the street offered to let him upstairs. He said he was not in direct communication with anyone about giving the go signal, but heard he was to let others know over the radio when her hands were free and knew that was going to result in entry.
Mengal said Moore eventually saw him across the street and seemed to purposely not point the gun at him.
Chief David Douglas testified he did not take over command at the scene but was ultimately responsible. He said there were concerns about a fire from the flare gun and that it would move quickly because of a crawl space above Moore's apartment.
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