Re “A Theory on the Shooting at the Police Station”
David James Ward, 66, a wanderer who lived on the streets – in Culver City – for decades, was identified this afternoon by the Sheriff’s Dept. as the bizarre intruder onto the grounds of the Police Station on Duquesne early on the morning of Saturday, Sept. 21.
Described as medium tall and “casually but well” dressed, he waited just outside the vehicle entry gate south of the main Police Dept., entrance a little after 7 a.m., walked through when a car activated the gate.
Confronted by three or four officers, he muttered, “I have a gun,” whereupon cops drew their weapons and fired multiple times.
However, only one bullet struck Mr. Ward, Sheriff’s Lt. Dave Coleman told the newspaper.
Although a Culver City officer tentatively described the incident as “suicide by cop,” meaning Mr. Ward intended to end his life, or have it ended for him.
“I wouldn’t describe it that way,” Lt. Coleman said. “We don’t really know what was in his mind. To our knowledge, he didn’t leave a note. So we don’t know what took him there or much more than that he was an area transient.”
How can homicide investigators be certain of that? “They talked to people in the area,” Lt. Coleman said. “I can’t speak in detail because the investigators aren’t available. One is on vacation, the other in court all week.”
The triggering development that brought about Mr. Ward’s abrupt death was either a citation or a warning from Culver City police that he would have to move his car.
“We think that caused concern for him,” Lt. Coleman said. “That may have brought a change in his behavior.”
This much is known: Mr. Ward had lived on the streets for decades. More precisely, he slept in his car. Same place, presumably.
Nagging questions stand unresolved:
Move his car where? What were his options?
Was he a nuisance? A random potential violator?
Did Mr. Ward panic at the prospect of dislodging himself from his relatively comfortable sleeping post where, perhaps, he had invested years’ worth of nights?
What happens to an otherwise orderly mind – even of an aging transient who has relaxed into an acceptable routine – when told the most reliable dimension of his schedule was about to be shattered.
How would a housed person react?
In a community that boasts of scant crime, Mr. Ward’s strange death made him the ninth homicide victim in Culver City in the past six years.
This dates back to the battering murder of so-called girl friend Jo Ann Crystal Harris, Aug. 24, 2007, at the Culver City National Guard Armory by Guard Sgt. Scott Ansman, whose wife had just given birth to their third child. Later convicted, he was sentenced to life without possibility of parole.
