Police Chief: Autopsy Shows Doug Zerby's Arms Outstretched When Officers Fatally Shot Him

Long Beach Police Chief Jim McDonnell said Monday that the L.A. County Coroner's autopsy report--finished a month ago--showed Doug Zerby's arms were outstretched and close together when officers mistook a nozzle in his hands for a gun and fatally shot him in Belmont Shore Dec. 12.

Based on the autopsy's findings of the trajectory of the entry wounds--one on each forearm--McDonnell said that Coroner's investigators concluded that he was reaching out in front of him, which would be consistent with the officers' account. McDonnell said the gunshots entered "the front of the forearm and exited out the elbow."

The autopsy report on the Coroner's findings about the cause and circumstances of Zerby's death was sealed from the public three months ago at the police department's request for "security" to ensure details were not prematurely released before all toxicology tests were completed.

In all, McDonnell said Monday, Zerby had 12 entrance wounds in the chest, arms and lower legs from shotgun pellets and handgun bullets, three of which were graze wounds. An officer with a shotgun fired two rounds (total of 18 pellets, 8 of which struck Zerby). An officer with a handgun fired six rounds (two of which struck Zerby). A later arriving third officer had a rifle scope on Zerby from 56 feet away but did not discharge is gun.

On Dec. 12, at about 4:40 p.m.  a caller dialed 9-1-1 to report a man with a possible gun who appeared inebriated at the back of the property in the 5300 block of Ocean Boulevard.

The caller did not know Zerby, as some neighbors did, and that Zerby was waiting for his friend to come home from work. Zerby had been drinking heavily on Second Street, off the wagon from his sober times. McDonnell said Monday that the autopsy found Zerby had a blood alcohol content of .42 as well as Valium and marijuana in his system.

The first officer to the scene arrived about three minutes after the call, spoke to the 9-1-1 caller and took cover in the caller's residence. A few minutes later, the second officer was in the house and behind a kitchen window about 23 feet from Zerby, McDonnell said. He said the Coroner's findings support the version of events by officers: that Zerby raised his arms with the possible gun, pointed toward one of the officer's hiding spots, and both officers felt they were threatened and fired.

 A third officer arrived at the scene but did not fire his weapon. McDonnell said that officer was 56 feet away from Zerby with a telescopic rifle. After the shooting, other officers arrived. The officers have not been named, something Zerby's parents and siblings have demanded to learn. McDonnell said Monday that the officers involved in the shooting are back on the job and didn't elaborate how long they'd been off-duty after Zerby was shot.

Shootings in Belmont Shore are rare and the police chief introduced the press conference by acknowledging that the case had drawn significant community interest. Pictures of the nozzle actually made international news at the time.

After the press conference, Zerby's older sister, Eden Marie Biele, stood across the street from the city's emergency command center on Redondo Avenue, waiting for reporters to ask for her comment. She said that her family remains grief-stricken but steadfast in intending to file a lawsuit to compel information about the case.

Radio transmissions since the December press briefings set the time from call arrival to shooting at a bit more than seven minutes. McDonnell said officers on scene summoned back-up resources that included a special mental health team to arrive before calling out or contacting the man. They brought what's called a ballistic blanket, and requested the department's police helicopter, which was unavailable; the CHP's chopper was sent. But awaiting the mental health experts, the three officers never announced their presence out of concern that the man would bolt with the gun before they could properly seal off the apartment courtyard's exits.

As a result, whether or not Zerby saw the officers behind the windows or was drunkenly oblivious as he manipulated the metal nozzle, is a mystery.

"We will never be able to know what he saw, what he was aware of," McDonnell told reporters.

What the Coroner did conclude, McDonnell said, was that his wounds told investigators where he was sitting when the shooting occurred. Contrary to prior reports, Zerby was not sitting near the railing of stairs that lead to the landing of twin upstairs studio apartments; McDonnell said the autopsy report revealed that Zerby sat against a stucco wall to the back of the same halfway point of the stairway. He was facing the street, and toward one of the two officers who'd taken cover inside the 9-1-1 caller's residence.

It was not clear why McDonnell chose Monday to call a press conference. The autopsy report was completed, he said, Feb. 16, and the department spent a month going through the information. McDonnell simply said that he wanted to ''clarify'' details of the case. Beside him was a zoom-in photo of the hand-grip sprayer nozzle (he described it as ''pistol grip"); a blown-up overhead photo of the house between Pomona and Santa Ana where the shooting occurred in a courtyard; a drawing of a body outline, marked with holes where Zerby had been shot (blue) vs. grazed (orange). There was also a detailed timeline not previously shared and based on police radio calls.

It was the police department that had the Coroner withhold the autopsy results from the public after the shooting, despite the Zerby family's pleadings and multiple public rallies calling for its public release. The family also has sought to have the department identify the officers involved. The officers' names have not been formally released. Zerby's parents and siblings noted that McDonnell promised to meet with them after his first press conference in December.

That meeting came on Monday of this week, when the chief said that he met prior to the press conference with Zerby's mother, Pam Amici, and sister, Eden Marie Biele, who spoke with reporters afterward. Biele said that McDonnell expressed his condolences and shared with them the autopsy report findings. Biele said that her family appreciated the chief's sentiments, but when he called the case "a tragedy," she called it "an avoidable one."

Two investigations remain underway into the officer-involved shooting death: those of the Long Beach Police Department's homicide unit (Zerby's death is a homicide because it occurred at the hands of another) and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.