I write this now, because similar events have caused divisions among social groups and between citizens and police that can only be reconciled by open dialogue. The community depends on the police, and they depend on the community; without the other, each becomes impossible.
Ron Burkholder was a bright, slightly built kid, a member of the tennis team who finished high school early and received a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University, where he earned degrees in advanced chemistry. I remember him as quiet and friendly and all one expects in the way of isolation of intellectual teens from "the in crowd." After high school our paths diverged, and I never saw him again after June 1960.
I learned much later that in August, 1977, Ron was killed with numerous gunshots by a Los Angeles police officer while running naked - and unarmed - through streets in Hollywood. According to the police officer he exhibited a threatening demeanor, which anyone who knew him would have questioned. In an autopsy he was found not to have been under the influence of any drug or of alcohol.
The LA Police Department may have hindered access to documents and witnesses in the investigation that followed, according to numerous sources (documentation is difficult after so many years). A key witness at the scene was not identified until much later, though the police officer who fired the deadly shots knew who he was.
A documentary on his 1997 death/murder is summarized as follows:
On the morning of August 4, 1977, Sgt. Kurt Barz of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division stopped his car to investigate Ron Burkholder, a naked unarmed man on a Los Angeles street corner. Within two minutes, Burkholder lay dead, shot six times.
The use of 'deadly force' is a recurring and divisive issue in communities across the nation. This powerful and provocative documentary examines police accountability for civilian fatalities by zeroing in on a case that rocked city hall, stirred national press and resulted in the re-writing of gun policy for LAPD officers.
Deadly Force follows the Burkholder killing through a coroner's inquest and investigation by the district attorney's office. It provides telling insights into the conflicting views of police officials who defend the use of deadly force in dangerous situations and Burkholder's friends and relatives who charge authorities with engineering a cover-up. (Worth the $39, IMHO, if it is still available. The following scene is an interview with Burkholder's mother, which eerily presages the comments of more recently bereaved relatives of shooting victims.)
Comments and Chronologies
Several news articles easily discoverable on the 'net summarize the highlights but leave readers only with ambiguity.
Valley News 1977
Support asked for daughter of police victim
Friends of Ronald Burkholder said Wednesday they would file a claim against the City of Los Angeles for support payments for the recently-born daughter of Burkholder, who was shot to death by a Los Angeles police sergeant earlier this month. At a news conference. Attorney Stanley Arnold said they would file the claim within a few days, but expected it would be denied.
Such a denial would prompt the filing of a wrongful death suit against the City and the police, the attorney explained. Burkholder was nude and unarmed when he was shot by Rampart Division Police Sergeant Kurt Barz the night of Aug. 4. Arnold, representing friends of the slain biochemist, brought forth information from the coroner's autopsy which he said increased apprehension about the police version of the shooting.
According to the coroner's report, there were no traces of drugs or alcohol in Burkholder's body when he was shot. The police have stated that Burkholder assumed a martal arts stand and "lunged" at Sgt. Bartz. But Arnold said there was no evidence the man ever had been trained in the martial arts. The attorney further noted that Burkholder was "deeply into far eastern philosophy." As part of that philosophy, the inventor and John's Hopkins University graduate was known to hold a pose, "a way of holding his hands," that meant peace and protection, Arnold said.
This, the attorney stated, could account for the martial arts conclusion by authorities. Arnold said the claim would be filed on behalf of Burkholder's common-law wife, Maria Herbst. and their daughter, Isis Sari Burkholder.
Valley News 22 Nov 1977, Tue » Page 1
Mother of slain chemist sues city
Biochemist Ronald Burkholder's mother Monday filed a wrongful death suit against the city (Los Angeles) in connection with the shooting death of her son by police last August 4. Joyce Burkholder of San Clemente sought an unspecified amount of damages from the city. the police department and Sgt Kurt Barz who has admitted shooting Burkholder six times. The suit is the second filed in less than two weeks against the city stemming from the controversial shooting in which Burkhoider died, though nude and unarmed, on a Los Angeies street.
Valley News Thursday, November 24, 1977
Board supports coroner in row over subpoenas
A majority of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appears to support County Coroner Thomas Noguchi in an effort to expand his powers of subpoena. Noguchi was told Tuesday by Superior Court Judge Edward A. Hinz Jr, that his powers of subpoena only applied to persons. The judge ruled that state statutes did not permit a coroner to subpoena documents.
After the ruling, the coroner announced that he would seek legislation to extend his authority. "We cannot adequately investigate police shooting incidents without access to police documents," he said.
On Wednesday, three county supervisors expressed support for Noguchi's position. "If state legislation is weak, I would support a change," said Supervisor Kenneth Hahn. "Without the power to subpoena documents, the coroner's office is weak, and the public is not fully protected." Hahn said, "The coroner must have all the facts concerning any aspect of a death of a human being. If he needs documents from a hospital, a drug store, a police department or a prison, he should be able to get them." (Fast forward to Ferguson, MO, 2014, anyone?)
The superior court ruling was a victory for the Los Angeles Police Department, which had refused to provide subpoenaed records of its internal affairs department investigation of the Aug 4 shooting of a naked unarmed man by an LAPD sergeant.
Supervisor James Hayes concurred with Hahn's view, saying, "It seems to me the coroner is kind of hamstrung without having the ability to subpoena police department records. I'm inclined to support any attempt by the coroner to expand his subpoena powers to include documents."
'Burkholder witness' talks
The newly-found eyewitness to the lolling of Ronald Burkholder spoke with the policeman who shot the nude and unarmed biochemist following the shooting, District Attorney John K. van De Kamp disclosed Wednesday. Sgt. Kurt Barz mentioned the existence of the witness in his shooting report. Van de Kamp continued, but the officer didn't identify the man. (Not that a policeman would ever suppress the existence of a possible contradictory witness.)
Van de Kamp Monday told reporters his investigators had located a "third-party, independent" witness to the Aug. 4 shooting of Burkholder, 35, Barz contends he opened fire on Burkholder after the man twice took his nightstick and then charged him in a martial-arts-like stance.
Until van de Kamp's announcement, it was believed Barz was the only living witness to the shooting, which has become something of a cause celebre in Los Angeles.
The witness. Van de Kamp told reporters Wednesday, saw "most everything that transpired," including the shooting and had talked with Barz afterwards. The unidentified witness was driving through the area when Burkholder came up and pounded his fists on his car, Van de Kamp explained. This, the district attorney continued occurred before Burkholder was shot six times by Barz.
A spokesman for Supervisor Pete Schabarum said Scahabarum "wants the coroner to have the power he needs to do his job. If he needs documents as part of an inquest proceeding to determine the cause of death, he should be able to get them." He added, "There should be controls, though, over what areas the inquest should cover. It should determine the cause of death, not guilt or innocence."
Supervisor Ed Edelman was not available for comment. Supervisor Baxter Ward, currently on vacation, is chairman m charge of the coroner's department. While he was unavailable for comment, one member of his staff predicted that Ward would support the coroner's position. "He advocates a policy of making records public as much as possible," the staff member said. The coroner's subpoena powers are currently established by a state statute passed in 1975. The original bill, sponsored by the county and introduced by Assemblyman Joe Montoya, D-El Monte, included all records and documents, but the Assembly Judiciary Committee amended it to include only records from a doctor or a medical facility relating to a victim's mental or physical condition. Noguchi said he will make a formal request for a change in the current law, and for board support, when he testifies Dec. 7 at a hearing on police shootings called by Supervisor Edelman. Edelman called the hearing because he said current procedures for investigating police shootings of citizens were "inadequate."
We cannot help but notice the LA Times is not a source of much information, nor is the old Temple City Times. One is left to wonder about the independence of those news organs from political influence.
Mike Davis described the event as follows in an LA Weekly article "Six Remarkable Ways to Die."
#5. Challenge the LAPD to a nude wrestling contest. Over the years, the LAPD has killed several nude people. The most notorious case was the shooting of Echo Park resident Ron Burkholder in August 1977. Ramparts Division officers encountered the naked, unarmed and clearly hallucinating chemist raving on a street corner one morning. After a brief scuffle, Sergeant Kurt Barz ended Burkholder’s PCP trip with six bullets. As usual, the department ruled the shooting "justified." (Source) (Note that the official coroner's report showed no alcohol or drugs in Burkholder's remains.)
Dave Lindorff, writing in the website Counterpunch, reports "
I remember covering a coroner’s inquest in Los Angeles back in 1978 involving the 1977 killing of a small, naked and unarmed man by a hulking LAPD sergeant. The victim, Ron Burkholder, a biochemist who had apparently accidentally burned himself badly one night while trying to make PCP in his basement for personal use. In pain, he had torn off his burning clothes and had then run out onto the street. His erratic behavior led Sgt. Kurt Barz, who was passing in a patrol car, to stop and investigate. Barz testified that he felt threatened when Burkholder (clearly seeking help) ran towards him, and he unloaded his pistol into the approaching “threat,” killing Burkholder instantly with six shots.
The LAPD, in an internal affairs investigation, quickly found the killing “justifiable,” and though the inquest later reached the conclusion of wrongful death, there was no prosecution of Barz, though clearly the scrawny Burkholder posed no conceivable threat to him, and being naked, clearly had no weapon."
Lessons
So, in 1977 Ron Burkholder; earlier this year (2014) police shot a mentally challenged hiker near Albuquerque who would not obey police commands after they determined he was camping illegally; this week a 12-year-old with a toy gun in Michigan was killed only two seconds after police encountered him; this summer Michael Brown died in Missouri after a minor crime and failure to obey a policeman who suspected him of a shoplifting offense; following Erik Garner in New York after failure to obey a policeman while selling two cigarettes on a sidewalk; video shows him either resisting or submitting to arrest (your call). And so on so many, many times when no real threat to police existed but a denial of their authority was clear. In every one of these cases, time was not of the essence. Are you seeing a pattern here?
In any of these cases would backing down and de-escalating the confrontation have hindered the exercise of normal police power. It's not just about racial identify, though that has recently confused the issue. Police simply MUST be better trained and more accountable, given that we have imbued them with the right to carry deadly weapons and use deadly force - against any of us.
When 1950s TV hero marshal Matt Dillon outdrew the 1880s bad guy, that guy always had his own gun and was unambiguously about to shoot good ol' Matt; he was not slow witted, unhinged, weak, young, old, fat or ooooh, scary, of a different race. After 125 years, might we not start talking to one another and not shooting first?
“O, wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion.” - Robert Burns