Dying While Black: In their own words
After the shooting of Tyisha Miller, Sgt. Gregory Preece finally stepped forward away from where he had taken cover next to a squad car and told the officers to help him set up the crime scene. Preece assigned Officer Daniel Hotard to take photographs and told the others to cordon off the area from onlookers including members of Miller’s family who were beginning to arrive at the 76 gas station on the corner of Brockton and Central.
Soon after, Officer Paul Bugar was transported to the Special Investigations Bureau on the north side of the city. Driving him was then officer, Rene Rodriguez.
(excerpts from depositions)
Attorney Andrew Roth:
“Did you have any conversation with Officer Rodrigeuz as you were driving back to the station?”
Officer Paul Bugar:
“I don’t remember any specific conversation with Officer Rodriguez.”
Roth:
“Did you have any conversation with him?”
Bugar:
“It’s possible but I don’t recall specifically having a conversation with him. I think I was still in a state of shock”
Several months after the shooting, Rodriguez would come forward with allegations of racist comments that he had overheard being made at the scene of the shooting and afterwards. Some of those comments had allegedly been made by Bugar including one where he had said that he had “capped the bitch twice in the head” and another where he had admonished Rodriguez not to repeat anything that he had said to anyone else in the department. Rodriguez documented these and other comments in a discrimination complaint he filed with the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Commission. Later that same year Rodriguez would take his allegations to 60 Minutes and the entire country would hear them.
At the station, Bugar waited a long time to be interviewed by detectives. During that time, Rodriguez stated in his complaint, several police officers were watching video tapes which depicted other officer-involved shootings in other law enforcement agencies until a lieutenant came in the room and asked them to stop doing so. After his interview, Bugar along with the other officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative leave.
Bugar and Officer Daniel Hotard provided accounts of what took place before, during and after they shot and killed Miller in court documents.
Bugar had arrived at the gas station and met with two young Black women, who were Miller’s cousins, by the payphone. He walked towards them carrying his gun, but concealing it behind his leg. In his statement to investigators, Bugar had said that his body including one of his legs was shaking so hard at this point he couldn’t stop it.
Roth:
“What was your emotional state at this point?”
Bugar:
“I was cautious.”
Roth:
“Were you frightened?
Bugar:
“Frightened, well, there’s a little bit of anxiety, but I don’t—frightened on a scale of one to ten, probably two or three maybe.”
Bugar approached Miller’s car with his gun drawn and his flashlight on. Hotard followed him. Miller was lying in her seat which was reclined completely back, with the firearm on her lap. Officers Mike Alagna and Wayne Stewart would arrive shortly.
Roth:
“Did she have any appearances to you which at that time suggested to you that she had a medical problem?”
Bugar:
“I thought so, yes.”
Roth:
“What did you see that was consistent or at least at that time suggested that she might have a medical problem?”
Bugar:
“At that time, as I think back to it, I remember slightly twitching. Just—she appeared totally out of it. Of course, later on it was confirmed by our attempts to try to get her attention, she was totally unresponsive.’
All four police officers began banging on the windows and shouting commands, but Miller couldn’t respond, so they decided to try to get into the car to remove the gun that was resting on her lap. Stewart would strike the window on the driver's side with his baton and after the glass was broken, Alagna would try to remove the gun. All four officers agreed to that plan.
Roth:
“Do you recall being excited?”
Bugar:
“No, not really.”
Roth:
“Do you recall being frightened?”
Bugar:
“I don’t have any independent recollection of what my—what I was feeling.”
At one point, Bugar said he had seen grab her pager and look at it, before dropping her arm down again to her side. Her hands would remain in her lap. She remained unresponsive, even when Alagna began shaking the car by pushing down on its front end.
Stewart hit the window with his baton a couple times but it didn’t break. At the time Stewart had struck the window, was the time that Miller had grabbed her pager to look at it, Bugar said.
Hotard then grabbed a baton and tried to hit the window, and this time it broke. Bugar saw Hotard put his body inside and then according to him, Miller reached for the gun. At the time, Bugar had been standing and looking through the left rear passenger side window when this took place.
Roth:
“How far did she move the hand before you pulled the trigger?”
Bugar:
“It was a very quick movement and at the same time as she was reaching for this firearm that’s in her lap area, she’s also sitting up which seemed like, as I think back, it seemed like she was bolting upright and also reaching for the firearm at the same time.”
Bugar said that his view of Miller’s lap became blocked by her upper body. He fired his gun for the first time, before losing visual sight of the firearm in the car. That bullet narrowly missed Hotard’s head. The second time he shot, Miller’s back was to him and he couldn’t see her hands. He never saw her face, or her eyes.
More shots would follow from Bugar's gun, a total of seven shots would be traced back to him. By that time, the other three police officers had also began shooting too. About 24 shots in all.
Bugar later told police department investigators that at the time Hotard had shattered the window with his baton, he had felt intense fear like he had never felt before, to the point where his leg had been shaking, but when he did the actual shooting he had felt calm.
After the shooting, Bugar and the other involved officers were placed on administrative leave after being interviewed by investigators. They would be interviewed again by the Internal Affairs Division in April 2009, shortly before the Riverside County District Attorney's office announced at a press conference in an undisclosed location that it would not be filing any criminal charges against the four officers.
Bugar said in his deposition that both the department’s use of force expert, Bob Smitson and then Sgt. Mark Boyer had called their tactics sound.
(excerpt, deposition)
Roth:
“Going back to the exhibit before you, Number 8, on that same page the next sentence indicates, ‘Sergeant Boyer who conducted the criminal investigation also indicated that in his opinion the plan and methods used were sound and that the officers involved had nothing to worry about.’ That was in the declaration when you signed it, wasn’t it?”
Bugar:
“That’s correct.”
Roth:
“As far as you knew at the time you signed it that was a true statement?”
Bugar:
“Yes.”
Roth:
“What basis did you believe that that statement was true at the time you signed the declaration?”
Bugar:
“Well, I was present when it was said.”
Former officer, Daniel Hotard also provided an account of the shooting, in November 2001.
Hotard had been driving his squad car around Magnoia and Madison heading towards the area of the Tyler Galleria on another call before he was dispatched to the 76 gas station. When he arrived, he saw Bugar talking to two Black women. Hotard and Bugar had a brief conversation before walking towards Miller’s car with their guns drawn. Hotard looked in the rear passenger window and saw Miller.
Roth:
“What did you notice about the person at that time, the person that was in the car?”
Hotard:
“I noticed that the person in the car was reclined in the seat all the way backwards.”
Roth:
“Anything else?”
Hotard:
“The person appeared to have a jittery movement, sore of like an unorthodox, nonrhythmic movement.”
Roth:
“Didn’t look normal?”
Hotard:
“It didn’t appear normal to me.”
After seeing the gun in Miller’s lap, Hotard said that he and Bugar considered calling for backup and waiting which is what both decided to do. Bugar said that he had believed that Miller was suffering a seizure.
Backup came in the form of Officers Michael Alagna and Wayne Stewart in a “matter of seconds”. Stewart and Alagna began formulating a plan.
Hotard said he remembered the car being shaken by another officer. The plan had been to yell commands including “Riverside Police” and “Do not touch the gun” and shake the car. Miller never responded and like Bugar, Hotard never saw her face.
At some point, Stewart and Alagna had discussed breaking a window with the baton and getting the gun. Hotard was instructed to stand by the rear left side of the car by Alagna.
Stewart struck the window several times with the baton and Hotard said that Miller leaned forward at that time and pick up her pager.
Hotard:
“She brought the pager up to her face in a really slow motion up to her face.”
Roth:
“In a position where she could look at it?”
Hotard:
“It was very close to her face. I can’t recall seeing from the front, but I just remember her bringing the pager up to her face.”
Roth:
“Was this kind of a low movement or quick movement?
Hotard:
“Really slow, lethargic as if she were in a trance.”
Hotard raised his gun a little and put his finger on the trigger. All of the officers stepped back from the car. Alagna yelled something out.
Hotard:
“I do remember during the time she was reaching for the pager, I remember Officer Alagna—I believe it was Alagna—yelling, ‘Wait to see what she brings up,’ I believe at some point during this time.”
After she held the pager to her face, her hand flopped down and she felt back against her seat. Stewart tried again to break the window, so that Alagna could enter into the car to get the gun. The glass didn’t break and Alagna went to get another baton. Before he could do that, Hotard motioned to him and said that he would try to break the window and go in to get the gun. The other officers agreed.
This plan would seal Miller's fate. There was only one way it could end.
At that time, Bugar, Hotard and Stewart were on the left side of Miller’s vehicle in various positions. Alagna was standing to the rear of the car on the right side. Hotard put his gun back in his holster and picked up Stewart’s asp baton. He said in the deposition that even though Stewart had failed to break the window, he would succeed. He was right.
After he swung it once, the glass shattered, and Hotard tossed the baton on the ground and put his body inside the vehicle.
Roth:
“Tell us what happened after the glass broke?”
Hotard:
“I dropped the baton on the ground. I went to tuck my body in to reach for the weapon, and as soon as I broke the plane, the window pane, I heard a loud shot off towards the right side of my ear.”
Although Hotard did not know it, Bugar had just fired his gun.
Hotard had never seen Miller move from the time he broke the window with the baton and he heard the gunshot that passed closely by his head. Hotard said that had not felt any fear, just a heightened sense of awareness after he had broken the glass with the baton.
Roth:
“How would you describe your state of mind as you were reaching into the car to try to get the gun?”
Hotard:
“I believe it was clear and concise. I knew what I had to do.”
Roth:
“You were focused on that one task?”
Hotard:
“That’s correct.”
Roth:
“Did you feel that the—that that procedure with the officers covering you was safe for you?”
Hotard:
“Yes, I did. If I hadn’t felt it was safe, I would have never entered the vehicle.”
After he heard or felt the gunshot, Hotard pulled himself out of the car. He fell on the ground and hearing gunshots around him. At first he believed he had been shot, so he started patting his chest which was covered by his department issued bullet-proof vest. He said he had seen Miller rise up and so he pulled his gun out and started shooting at the lower left portion of the car door, which was in the line of fire not only with Miller but Alaga as well.
Roth:
“How many shots did you fire?”
Hotard:
“At the time I thought I fired between seven and eight shots, around there.”
Roth:
“Why did you stop firing?”
Hotard:
“Because she had stopped moving and I perceived that the threat was possibly over.”
Sgt. Gregory Preece who had witnessed the shooting while taking cover near a squad car yelled at Hotard to crawl away from the vehicle. Hotard did this towards where Preece was standing. The officers retreated back to where Preece was standing before Stewart and Alagna walked back to Miller’s car to see if she was still alive. Hotard put his gun back in his holster when he heard that she was no longer moving and probably dead.
Hotard and the other officers were then instructed by Preece to set up a crime scene. Hotard also took photographs including of Miller. At the time, the gun had fallen to the right side of her seat near the console. Other officers began to arrive including Rodriguez and David Hackman. Hackman would make the first of several racist comments he would make that day to Preece. Rodriguez would overhear them and several months later, report them.
After that, Hotard was driven to the investigations bureau by Hackman with at least one of the officers involved in the shooting sitting in the same vehicle. He also waited at least 10 hours to be interviewed by detectives before being placed on administrative leave with the others.
Preece had been assigned to supervise the four officers who shot Miller on that graveyard shift and was eating at McDonalds with Alagna and Stewart on University Avenue in the Eastside when the call came in about Miler. All three of them headed to the 76 gas station and it took Preece about 5-10 minutes before he arrived there. When Preece arrived, he saw all four officers standing around Miller’s car. Also present was Corporal Ray Soto, one of the department’s canine officers. He was standing by a police car with his dog. Both of Miller’s cousins walked up to Preece, crying and asking him to help Miller. When Preece began to walk to Miller’s car, he heard the window break and saw that Hotard had broken it with a baton.
Attorney Brian Dunn:
“Was it surprising to you that the window had all of a sudden been broken by Hotard?”
Sgt. Gregory Preece:
“Yes.”
Dunn:
“Based on what you saw in your approach to the subject incident, would you have instructed Hotard to break the window?”
Preece:
“No.”
Dunn:
“What happened after the window was broken by Hotard?”
Preece:
“I heard one shot immediately followed by a number of shots.”
Preece watched the shooting from about 30 to 40 feet away while standing near a squad car. Two separate volleys followed the first fired shot, each volley lasting 2-3 seconds in duration. Whereas Hotard had said he only had gotten his hands inside Miller’s car, Preece said that Hotard’s head, shoulders and chest were inside the vehicle before the first shot was fired.
Dunn:
“As you sit here today, do you know who fired the first shot?”
Preece:
“Yes.”
Dunn:
“Who was it?”
Preece:
“I believe it was Bugar.”
Preece said that from his vantage point, he could see Miller sit up after the window had broken. After the first shot, Preece immediately took cover by the car which was behind Miller’s. When the officers were firing their guns, the glass in the rear windshield spider webbed so Preece was unable to see Miller inside the car.
After the second volley, Preece moved forward and yelled at the officers to watch their crossfire. That was all he would tell them.
After the shooting, the four officers, Preece and Soto stood by one of the cars and Preece sent Stewart and Alagna up to check on Miller. Preece walked up to join them and shone his flashlight in Miller’s car and said he saw the gun but could not be specific in terms of where it was and in what position. After the shooting, Preece said he was confused and surprised.
Dunn:
“What did the sight of Tyisha Miller’s person, what did that do to you?”
Preece:
“Nothing.”
Dunn:
“Did you think anything that she had been shot quite a few times?”
Preece:
“Yeah, it’s a tragedy but I had other things on my mind.”
Preece assigned the officers to tasks to secure the crime scene. He said that Miller’s family members began to arrive at the gas station and screamed at the officers, calling them murderers.
Preece admitted making a statement to Hackman about Kwanzaa.
Dunn:
“Why did you tell Officer Hackman this is going to ruin their Kwanzaa?”
Preece:
“A couple reasons. I knew this was going to be a racially charged incident, and it was more of a light-hearted gallows humor statement I made.”
Like the officers, Preece was interviewed by detectives on the officer-involved shooting team and later by Internal Affairs Division personnel. In the deposition, he provided some light on how false information about Miller having shot her inoperable gun had been published in a Press Enterprise article.
Preece:
“During the criminal investigation there was actually—for lack of a better term not dispute, but there was—the criminal—the detectives were trying to establish whether she had fired a round or not. And they were looking through the car and they were looking at the scene and they were trying to establish whether they could find a .32 casing. In the midst of all that, the chief’s office was—their intent was to get the information out as quick as you possibly could.
You have a chief desirous of this and a criminal investigation team saying they are not going to release anything until they are sure. Obviously the chief’s office went and jumped the gun and stated that, in fact, yeah, she did basing it on all the conversation that the officers that were directly involved with it. They felt pretty confident that she had fired a round. They were going to go ahead and release the information because of the pressure, the public outcry and pressure.
In June, 1999 then Chief Jerry Carroll fired the four officers who shot and killed Miller In September, Preece would join them.
Soon after, Officer Paul Bugar was transported to the Special Investigations Bureau on the north side of the city. Driving him was then officer, Rene Rodriguez.
(excerpts from depositions)
Attorney Andrew Roth:
“Did you have any conversation with Officer Rodrigeuz as you were driving back to the station?”
Officer Paul Bugar:
“I don’t remember any specific conversation with Officer Rodriguez.”
Roth:
“Did you have any conversation with him?”
Bugar:
“It’s possible but I don’t recall specifically having a conversation with him. I think I was still in a state of shock”
Several months after the shooting, Rodriguez would come forward with allegations of racist comments that he had overheard being made at the scene of the shooting and afterwards. Some of those comments had allegedly been made by Bugar including one where he had said that he had “capped the bitch twice in the head” and another where he had admonished Rodriguez not to repeat anything that he had said to anyone else in the department. Rodriguez documented these and other comments in a discrimination complaint he filed with the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Commission. Later that same year Rodriguez would take his allegations to 60 Minutes and the entire country would hear them.
At the station, Bugar waited a long time to be interviewed by detectives. During that time, Rodriguez stated in his complaint, several police officers were watching video tapes which depicted other officer-involved shootings in other law enforcement agencies until a lieutenant came in the room and asked them to stop doing so. After his interview, Bugar along with the other officers involved in the shooting were placed on administrative leave.
Bugar and Officer Daniel Hotard provided accounts of what took place before, during and after they shot and killed Miller in court documents.
Bugar had arrived at the gas station and met with two young Black women, who were Miller’s cousins, by the payphone. He walked towards them carrying his gun, but concealing it behind his leg. In his statement to investigators, Bugar had said that his body including one of his legs was shaking so hard at this point he couldn’t stop it.
Roth:
“What was your emotional state at this point?”
Bugar:
“I was cautious.”
Roth:
“Were you frightened?
Bugar:
“Frightened, well, there’s a little bit of anxiety, but I don’t—frightened on a scale of one to ten, probably two or three maybe.”
Bugar approached Miller’s car with his gun drawn and his flashlight on. Hotard followed him. Miller was lying in her seat which was reclined completely back, with the firearm on her lap. Officers Mike Alagna and Wayne Stewart would arrive shortly.
Roth:
“Did she have any appearances to you which at that time suggested to you that she had a medical problem?”
Bugar:
“I thought so, yes.”
Roth:
“What did you see that was consistent or at least at that time suggested that she might have a medical problem?”
Bugar:
“At that time, as I think back to it, I remember slightly twitching. Just—she appeared totally out of it. Of course, later on it was confirmed by our attempts to try to get her attention, she was totally unresponsive.’
All four police officers began banging on the windows and shouting commands, but Miller couldn’t respond, so they decided to try to get into the car to remove the gun that was resting on her lap. Stewart would strike the window on the driver's side with his baton and after the glass was broken, Alagna would try to remove the gun. All four officers agreed to that plan.
Roth:
“Do you recall being excited?”
Bugar:
“No, not really.”
Roth:
“Do you recall being frightened?”
Bugar:
“I don’t have any independent recollection of what my—what I was feeling.”
At one point, Bugar said he had seen grab her pager and look at it, before dropping her arm down again to her side. Her hands would remain in her lap. She remained unresponsive, even when Alagna began shaking the car by pushing down on its front end.
Stewart hit the window with his baton a couple times but it didn’t break. At the time Stewart had struck the window, was the time that Miller had grabbed her pager to look at it, Bugar said.
Hotard then grabbed a baton and tried to hit the window, and this time it broke. Bugar saw Hotard put his body inside and then according to him, Miller reached for the gun. At the time, Bugar had been standing and looking through the left rear passenger side window when this took place.
Roth:
“How far did she move the hand before you pulled the trigger?”
Bugar:
“It was a very quick movement and at the same time as she was reaching for this firearm that’s in her lap area, she’s also sitting up which seemed like, as I think back, it seemed like she was bolting upright and also reaching for the firearm at the same time.”
Bugar said that his view of Miller’s lap became blocked by her upper body. He fired his gun for the first time, before losing visual sight of the firearm in the car. That bullet narrowly missed Hotard’s head. The second time he shot, Miller’s back was to him and he couldn’t see her hands. He never saw her face, or her eyes.
More shots would follow from Bugar's gun, a total of seven shots would be traced back to him. By that time, the other three police officers had also began shooting too. About 24 shots in all.
Bugar later told police department investigators that at the time Hotard had shattered the window with his baton, he had felt intense fear like he had never felt before, to the point where his leg had been shaking, but when he did the actual shooting he had felt calm.
After the shooting, Bugar and the other involved officers were placed on administrative leave after being interviewed by investigators. They would be interviewed again by the Internal Affairs Division in April 2009, shortly before the Riverside County District Attorney's office announced at a press conference in an undisclosed location that it would not be filing any criminal charges against the four officers.
Bugar said in his deposition that both the department’s use of force expert, Bob Smitson and then Sgt. Mark Boyer had called their tactics sound.
(excerpt, deposition)
Roth:
“Going back to the exhibit before you, Number 8, on that same page the next sentence indicates, ‘Sergeant Boyer who conducted the criminal investigation also indicated that in his opinion the plan and methods used were sound and that the officers involved had nothing to worry about.’ That was in the declaration when you signed it, wasn’t it?”
Bugar:
“That’s correct.”
Roth:
“As far as you knew at the time you signed it that was a true statement?”
Bugar:
“Yes.”
Roth:
“What basis did you believe that that statement was true at the time you signed the declaration?”
Bugar:
“Well, I was present when it was said.”
Former officer, Daniel Hotard also provided an account of the shooting, in November 2001.
Hotard had been driving his squad car around Magnoia and Madison heading towards the area of the Tyler Galleria on another call before he was dispatched to the 76 gas station. When he arrived, he saw Bugar talking to two Black women. Hotard and Bugar had a brief conversation before walking towards Miller’s car with their guns drawn. Hotard looked in the rear passenger window and saw Miller.
Roth:
“What did you notice about the person at that time, the person that was in the car?”
Hotard:
“I noticed that the person in the car was reclined in the seat all the way backwards.”
Roth:
“Anything else?”
Hotard:
“The person appeared to have a jittery movement, sore of like an unorthodox, nonrhythmic movement.”
Roth:
“Didn’t look normal?”
Hotard:
“It didn’t appear normal to me.”
After seeing the gun in Miller’s lap, Hotard said that he and Bugar considered calling for backup and waiting which is what both decided to do. Bugar said that he had believed that Miller was suffering a seizure.
Backup came in the form of Officers Michael Alagna and Wayne Stewart in a “matter of seconds”. Stewart and Alagna began formulating a plan.
Hotard said he remembered the car being shaken by another officer. The plan had been to yell commands including “Riverside Police” and “Do not touch the gun” and shake the car. Miller never responded and like Bugar, Hotard never saw her face.
At some point, Stewart and Alagna had discussed breaking a window with the baton and getting the gun. Hotard was instructed to stand by the rear left side of the car by Alagna.
Stewart struck the window several times with the baton and Hotard said that Miller leaned forward at that time and pick up her pager.
Hotard:
“She brought the pager up to her face in a really slow motion up to her face.”
Roth:
“In a position where she could look at it?”
Hotard:
“It was very close to her face. I can’t recall seeing from the front, but I just remember her bringing the pager up to her face.”
Roth:
“Was this kind of a low movement or quick movement?
Hotard:
“Really slow, lethargic as if she were in a trance.”
Hotard raised his gun a little and put his finger on the trigger. All of the officers stepped back from the car. Alagna yelled something out.
Hotard:
“I do remember during the time she was reaching for the pager, I remember Officer Alagna—I believe it was Alagna—yelling, ‘Wait to see what she brings up,’ I believe at some point during this time.”
After she held the pager to her face, her hand flopped down and she felt back against her seat. Stewart tried again to break the window, so that Alagna could enter into the car to get the gun. The glass didn’t break and Alagna went to get another baton. Before he could do that, Hotard motioned to him and said that he would try to break the window and go in to get the gun. The other officers agreed.
This plan would seal Miller's fate. There was only one way it could end.
At that time, Bugar, Hotard and Stewart were on the left side of Miller’s vehicle in various positions. Alagna was standing to the rear of the car on the right side. Hotard put his gun back in his holster and picked up Stewart’s asp baton. He said in the deposition that even though Stewart had failed to break the window, he would succeed. He was right.
After he swung it once, the glass shattered, and Hotard tossed the baton on the ground and put his body inside the vehicle.
Roth:
“Tell us what happened after the glass broke?”
Hotard:
“I dropped the baton on the ground. I went to tuck my body in to reach for the weapon, and as soon as I broke the plane, the window pane, I heard a loud shot off towards the right side of my ear.”
Although Hotard did not know it, Bugar had just fired his gun.
Hotard had never seen Miller move from the time he broke the window with the baton and he heard the gunshot that passed closely by his head. Hotard said that had not felt any fear, just a heightened sense of awareness after he had broken the glass with the baton.
Roth:
“How would you describe your state of mind as you were reaching into the car to try to get the gun?”
Hotard:
“I believe it was clear and concise. I knew what I had to do.”
Roth:
“You were focused on that one task?”
Hotard:
“That’s correct.”
Roth:
“Did you feel that the—that that procedure with the officers covering you was safe for you?”
Hotard:
“Yes, I did. If I hadn’t felt it was safe, I would have never entered the vehicle.”
After he heard or felt the gunshot, Hotard pulled himself out of the car. He fell on the ground and hearing gunshots around him. At first he believed he had been shot, so he started patting his chest which was covered by his department issued bullet-proof vest. He said he had seen Miller rise up and so he pulled his gun out and started shooting at the lower left portion of the car door, which was in the line of fire not only with Miller but Alaga as well.
Roth:
“How many shots did you fire?”
Hotard:
“At the time I thought I fired between seven and eight shots, around there.”
Roth:
“Why did you stop firing?”
Hotard:
“Because she had stopped moving and I perceived that the threat was possibly over.”
Sgt. Gregory Preece who had witnessed the shooting while taking cover near a squad car yelled at Hotard to crawl away from the vehicle. Hotard did this towards where Preece was standing. The officers retreated back to where Preece was standing before Stewart and Alagna walked back to Miller’s car to see if she was still alive. Hotard put his gun back in his holster when he heard that she was no longer moving and probably dead.
Hotard and the other officers were then instructed by Preece to set up a crime scene. Hotard also took photographs including of Miller. At the time, the gun had fallen to the right side of her seat near the console. Other officers began to arrive including Rodriguez and David Hackman. Hackman would make the first of several racist comments he would make that day to Preece. Rodriguez would overhear them and several months later, report them.
After that, Hotard was driven to the investigations bureau by Hackman with at least one of the officers involved in the shooting sitting in the same vehicle. He also waited at least 10 hours to be interviewed by detectives before being placed on administrative leave with the others.
Preece had been assigned to supervise the four officers who shot Miller on that graveyard shift and was eating at McDonalds with Alagna and Stewart on University Avenue in the Eastside when the call came in about Miler. All three of them headed to the 76 gas station and it took Preece about 5-10 minutes before he arrived there. When Preece arrived, he saw all four officers standing around Miller’s car. Also present was Corporal Ray Soto, one of the department’s canine officers. He was standing by a police car with his dog. Both of Miller’s cousins walked up to Preece, crying and asking him to help Miller. When Preece began to walk to Miller’s car, he heard the window break and saw that Hotard had broken it with a baton.
Attorney Brian Dunn:
“Was it surprising to you that the window had all of a sudden been broken by Hotard?”
Sgt. Gregory Preece:
“Yes.”
Dunn:
“Based on what you saw in your approach to the subject incident, would you have instructed Hotard to break the window?”
Preece:
“No.”
Dunn:
“What happened after the window was broken by Hotard?”
Preece:
“I heard one shot immediately followed by a number of shots.”
Preece watched the shooting from about 30 to 40 feet away while standing near a squad car. Two separate volleys followed the first fired shot, each volley lasting 2-3 seconds in duration. Whereas Hotard had said he only had gotten his hands inside Miller’s car, Preece said that Hotard’s head, shoulders and chest were inside the vehicle before the first shot was fired.
Dunn:
“As you sit here today, do you know who fired the first shot?”
Preece:
“Yes.”
Dunn:
“Who was it?”
Preece:
“I believe it was Bugar.”
Preece said that from his vantage point, he could see Miller sit up after the window had broken. After the first shot, Preece immediately took cover by the car which was behind Miller’s. When the officers were firing their guns, the glass in the rear windshield spider webbed so Preece was unable to see Miller inside the car.
After the second volley, Preece moved forward and yelled at the officers to watch their crossfire. That was all he would tell them.
After the shooting, the four officers, Preece and Soto stood by one of the cars and Preece sent Stewart and Alagna up to check on Miller. Preece walked up to join them and shone his flashlight in Miller’s car and said he saw the gun but could not be specific in terms of where it was and in what position. After the shooting, Preece said he was confused and surprised.
Dunn:
“What did the sight of Tyisha Miller’s person, what did that do to you?”
Preece:
“Nothing.”
Dunn:
“Did you think anything that she had been shot quite a few times?”
Preece:
“Yeah, it’s a tragedy but I had other things on my mind.”
Preece assigned the officers to tasks to secure the crime scene. He said that Miller’s family members began to arrive at the gas station and screamed at the officers, calling them murderers.
Preece admitted making a statement to Hackman about Kwanzaa.
Dunn:
“Why did you tell Officer Hackman this is going to ruin their Kwanzaa?”
Preece:
“A couple reasons. I knew this was going to be a racially charged incident, and it was more of a light-hearted gallows humor statement I made.”
Like the officers, Preece was interviewed by detectives on the officer-involved shooting team and later by Internal Affairs Division personnel. In the deposition, he provided some light on how false information about Miller having shot her inoperable gun had been published in a Press Enterprise article.
Preece:
“During the criminal investigation there was actually—for lack of a better term not dispute, but there was—the criminal—the detectives were trying to establish whether she had fired a round or not. And they were looking through the car and they were looking at the scene and they were trying to establish whether they could find a .32 casing. In the midst of all that, the chief’s office was—their intent was to get the information out as quick as you possibly could.
You have a chief desirous of this and a criminal investigation team saying they are not going to release anything until they are sure. Obviously the chief’s office went and jumped the gun and stated that, in fact, yeah, she did basing it on all the conversation that the officers that were directly involved with it. They felt pretty confident that she had fired a round. They were going to go ahead and release the information because of the pressure, the public outcry and pressure.
In June, 1999 then Chief Jerry Carroll fired the four officers who shot and killed Miller In September, Preece would join them.
posted by Five Before Midnight | 1:15 PM
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