Collection of Articles about Police Officers Killed by Semi- Automatic ...

As for the claim that the angle of the shot proved that it was fired from the house, there
would be no way of determining that fact since, as Deeley had already acknowledged, no
one had seen the officer get shot. Therefore, there was no way of knowing how the
officer's head was oriented when the fatal bullet struck him. The path that the bullet
traveled through his head was a function of both the angle of the shot and the
orientation of the target. Without knowing which direction he was looking, and whether
he had his head tilted either up or down or left or right, it is simply not possible to
determine where the shot originated from.
That didn't stop the L.A. Times from claiming that "A sheriff’s investigation found that
the bullet that struck Kuredjian in the head traveled in a ‘steep downward arc’ from the
second floor of Beck’s home," (10) again according to Lt. Deeley. Lt. Raymond Peavy, of
the Sheriff’s Homicide Division, added that “No other officers [other than Beck?] were at
that high of a level.” (10)
This was, it should be noted, a rather odd choice of words considering that Beck was
not, according to official reports, an officer. It should also be noted that even if the shot
had been fired from the second-story window of the home, it would have only placed the
shooter perhaps 15 feet above the target at a distance of 150 feet or more.
The angle of such a shot would hardly be a "steep downward arc," but would in fact be
so slight that it would be negated by even a slight tilt of the head. If, however,
Kuredjian had been crouching as some reports maintain, and he had been shot by
someone standing nearby, then the bullet would indeed have followed a steep path
downward.
As for the claims that the suspect took responsibility before being incinerated, no
evidence was produced to support that contention. The suspect, of course, was dead,
and so in no position to confirm or deny the claims. As these statements attributed to
Beck were made over the phone though, they would undoubtedly have been taped if
they had in fact been made. There is little doubt that if the Sheriff's office had such
statements on tape, they would have been quickly released to the news media.
The L.A. Times attempted to introduce yet one more piece of alleged evidence to
support the stance of the authorities: "About the time Kuredjian was shot, authorities
also reported hearing a boom louder than any of the previous rounds of gunfire and
seeing a puff of smoke coming from the second-floor window." (10) Perhaps that is
supposed to explain how the bullet got through a large vehicle and a helmet before
ripping into Kuredjian's brain.
As the evidence now stands, all indications are of a death by 'friendly fire' that wasn't all
that friendly. All that can be said for sure though at this point is that "Autopsy results
Saturday showed that Kuredjian died of a single gunshot wound to the head," and that
"Kuredjian arrived a few minutes after the shooting started and was hit almost
immediately." (15)
How did the fire start and why did it so quickly devour the house?
Initial reports held that: “sheriff's deputies blasted as many as 15 tear gas canisters into
the Beck home. Top-ranking sheriff's officials ordered the tear-gas barrage, aiming it at
the home's second story, after Beck allegedly shot Kuredjian from a second-floor
window.” (1)
This report is, we should note here, very deceptive. In truth, the barrage didn’t come
until several hours after Kuredjian was shot and killed, as the Daily News acknowledged:
“After a four-hour standoff, the man's house burst into flames – either from tear gas