A shooting in which an officer is wounded is like any other violent crime investigation.
It requires a search for facts and evidence that will be needed to prove or disprove a crime was committed and by whom. The primary goals are to find out what happened and who did it, and assist prosecutors in bringing to justice those who committed the crime. Assumptions are not evidence.
Did the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office adhere to these guidelines in the well-publicized case involving Deputy Louie Puroll?
Not completely.
On April 30, Puroll called sheriff’s headquarters on his cell phone to report he’d been ambushed west of Casa Grande by five or six people toting AK-47s and hauling large bundles of marijuana.
Puroll was alone, without a police radio and body armor, about eight miles south of Interstate 8 in extremely rough desert terrain when he was reportedly shot. He said the shootout with bandits took place when they were within 25 yards of each other.
About 200 city, county, state, tribal and federal law enforcement officers and four helicopters responded. The massive manhunt began within an hour.
After a multiday search, no one linked to the shooting was found, no evidence was found supporting Puroll’s belief he wounded someone and none of the marijuana bundles were found. The PCSO investigation into who shot Puroll was closed without arrests and was done so before all of the evidence was examined.
A Phoenix New Times story by Paul Rubin on Sept. 23 challenged the PCSO’s conclusions surrounding the events of Puroll’s shooting, leading to speculation that it was a hoax timed to inflame the debate over illegal immigration and further Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu’s anti-immigration stance.
Rubin, who has earned a reputation as a pro-law enforcement investigative journalist who spent a year embedded with Phoenix police homicide detectives, consulted with three forensic pathologists, one forensic psychiatrist, a retired police criminalist and several retired expert police and sheriff’s homicide detectives for the story.
An analysis of the photos taken by PCSO of Puroll’s wound by the two of the three pathologists led to their conclusion the wound was a “close contact wound” — not one that occurred from a shot 25 yards away, as Puroll said. Since then, Babeu has said he stands by Puroll’s report but he reopened the investigation in an effort to maintain transparency. The “reopened” investigation is limited to having Puroll’s T-shirt examined by the Arizona Department of Public Safety Crime Lab — which was not done in the initial investigation.
Rubin’s conclusion of the events was that, “In the end, key aspects of Puroll’s account to authorities, plus an analysis of the reported crime scene, lead to this troubling conclusion: The odds that Puroll is telling the truth about what happened to him are slim.”
I have read the reports and examined the photographs and concur 100 percent.
PCSO’s version of events from everything to where Puroll was, where the smugglers were, what happened and what the deputy did during, after and while waiting for help to arrive and how they conducted the investigation have created reasonable doubt in the minds of many experts.
DPS has investigated and overseen Pinal County deputy-involved shootings since the 1970s. In this case, DPS detectives were asked to lead the investigation until Babeu told them to only process the crime scene. The failure of Babeu’s deputies to submit all of the evidence from the Puroll investigation to the crime lab for analysis was a bad decision. So was not using DPS detectives to conduct the investigation like they have for almost 40 years.
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Retired Mesa master police officer Bill Richardson lives in the East Valley and can be reached at bill.richardson@cox.net. He sometimes blogs for Phoenix New Times.
exit526 posted at 5:33 am on Fri, Oct 1, 2010.
Thanks, Bill. Babeu reopens the investigation after Rubin's article challenged the original determinations by PCSO and Babeu in turn continues to blame the rest of the world who are not his apologists.
Someone (besides Puroll) made some bad choices the night of the shooting and those choices seem to have developed this into an avoidable cluster.
A simple, but telling statement this week by DPS remains unchallenged by Babeu. DPS: “…the decision to call in DPS, then to call them off, was made by Babeu himself.”
Silence from Babeu and Gaffney.
billrichardson posted at 7:15 am on Fri, Oct 1, 2010.
I-526,
The public has to able to trust the law enforcement agencies and officers/deputies that serve them.
Bill
Santiagojjjr posted at 7:35 am on Fri, Oct 1, 2010.
Arizona Desert Shooting Missing Mystery Shirt. Where is the long sleeve shirt Deputy Puroll should have been wearing?
Watch to the end to see the potential smoking shirt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU3eOwDRDzY
The Pinal County Deputy Arizona Desert Shootout - The Truth Revealed!
See what really happened!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfce_aS1Am4
Imanoid posted at 9:32 am on Sat, Oct 2, 2010.
I agree with the above folks. We have to be able to trust our law enforcement folks. If not anarchy is the next step. As far as the shirt is concerned. Where is it? I am talking about his long sleeve outer uniform shirt. The one that establishes him as law enforcement. Not the grey rag they show in the pics. Unless we have an independent (of this state) review of the whole incident, I will not be able to believe any of these people. We need the FBI to interview Puroll and Baboo without lawyers. What a joke that initial investigation was.
forkedlift1 posted at 10:01 am on Sat, Oct 2, 2010.
There continues to be too many unanswered questions, and this case should be reopened. However, the other night when New Times writer Paul Rubin was interviewed on KAET's Horizon, he made a point of the fact that the case has NOT been reopened. Sending the T-shirt and possibly other of Puroll's clothing to DPS for lab testing is not a reopening of the case. And because of the nature of the reported crime, a shooting injury with attempt to kill, the case must remain open
Particularly peculiar and disturbing is Babeu's defensive posturing at being asked questions, his accusing the media or others of creating unfounded conspiracy theories when there are so many inconsistencies and contradictions, behavioral and otherwise, to Puroll's story.
Babeu himself, who made a point of getting much media mileage out of this incident when it was reported, is viewed as suspect from telling DPS (two hours after he put an investigation of the incident in their hands) to only do a "crime scene" investigation. In other words, to not question Puroll.
I just watched the YouTube Fox News video of the hundreds of law enforcement people, helicopters flying at the scene, etc. being reported the evening that it occurred on April 30, and clear as anything they were reporting that helicopters were being fired at. Did Fox just make that up on their own? Who told them that?
(It was later retracted.)
Babeu said they'd kept all Puroll's clothing, including boots. But according to Bill, they apparently still only submitted the T shirt, not the other evidence including Puroll's outer shirt, to DPS for analysis. Why?
Unless and until a thorough investigation (an obvious need for a polygraph here) is conducted by DPS or another qualified law enforcement agency, trust in law enforcement by the general public will have been damaged.
And people will continue to speculate about these reported events, about Babeu, about Puroll, and about the PCSO.
Not good.
KJDaVinci777 posted at 7:07 pm on Sun, Oct 3, 2010.
Bill...very informative article...What is sad about Babaloney is that he has been able to con Fox News, Sen. McChange,and most Pinal County voters. Question: Is it possible to merge Pinal county and Maricopa County sheriffs offices and appoint US Marshall D. Gonzalez to clean house and restore integrity back to those corrupt depts? I know that Gonzalez would not put up with the two cancers of corruption that has damaged Arizona law enforcement and continues to drain taxpayers relentlessly. Will the Marshall be able to order extra small pink underwear for these security guard impersonators...Will Arizona voters be able to accept the truth re the two clowns...? These two jokesters with the help of an established Senator and support from Fox News and none law enforcement types is the laughing stock of countries like Australia and Europe. Arizona please listen to Elvis and return the wannabees to sender.(Back East)