The Board of Supervisors Tuesday called for a full investigation into the criminal history and parole and probation record of the reputed gang member who allegedly shot and killed Whittier police Officer Keith Wayne Boyer.
The labor union representing Los Angeles police officers, meanwhile, called on federal and state attorney generals to review the effect of various laws and voter-approved measures affecting the criminal justice system.
Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Janice Hahn called for the county review.
“The board needs a full understanding of the specific facts,” Barger said, asking Chief Probation Officer Terri McDonald to work with county lawyers and court officials to gather a comprehensive history of suspect Michael Christopher Mejia’s time in state prison, on parole and under county supervision.
“Law enforcement going to these funerals is becoming more and more common,” Barger said. “And I don’t want to have to do another adjournment in memory of a fallen police officer.”
Barger recalled that Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Owen was killed in Lancaster in October, allegedly by a parolee with a long criminal history.
The board’s meeting opened with a moment of silence for Boyer and was adjourned in his name.
Hahn, who read the adjournment, told her colleagues that questions were raised at a vigil she attended for Boyer Monday night.
“Everyone last night was troubled by the facts,” Hahn said. “Many people want to blame AB109, Prop 47 and 57 … we don’t know if those … voter- passed initiative contributed in any way.”
In a statement issued later, Barger said that Proposition 47, which reduced some drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, AB 109, which transferred state prisoners to county probation supervision upon release, and Proposition 57, which Barger characterized as granting early release to prisoners with serious and violent backgrounds, put police and sheriff’s deputies in greater danger.
“The county must do everything in its power to provide the highest level of public safety to our residents and our law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line every day, Barger said.
Mejia was under supervision by the county’s probation department.
According to the Orange County Register, Mejia, who is suspected of shooting to death his cousin 46-year-old Roy Torres and Officer Boyer, was arrested five times in the past seven months and was on county probation under AB 109 during Monday’s killings. He was released from state prison in April 2016 following a grand theft auto conviction in 2014, Lt. John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau told the OC Register.
Hahn said the aim of the probe is to determine whether there was in any way a failure of protocol” by state or local officials in Mejia’s case.
Separately, the Los Angeles Police Protective League called for an immediate review of the effects of AB109 and Proposition 47.
“The murder of Whittier police Officer Keith Boyer is the latest tragic example of California’s failed social experiment of releasing hard-core criminals back onto our streets who have no business being there,” according to the LAPPL.
The union sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra asking for the study.
“The public deserves to know just who the state of California feels is safe to be back in their neighborhoods again,” according to the union. “The LAPD is already understaffed in patrol, and we do not have the resources to contend with more and more criminals either being let out early or not prosecuted because of failed policies cooked up by academics, statisticians and those who have made a cottage industry out of apologizing for criminals.”
–City News Service and staff