August 21, 2012

San Diego police are under close scrutiny after accidentally shooting a homeowner who called 911 after allegedly seeing a man in a ski maskprowling the neighborhood.

While searching for the man, police entered the backyard of the woman’s home, San Diego County sheriff’s homicide Lt. Larry Nesbit explained.  There, they made contact with the homeowner and, horrifyingly, shot her.

While police say Jennifer Orey was struck in the arm, her family maintains otherwise.

“You know what, you guys need to get your story straight,” Dennis Morgan, the woman’s father, admonished. “She wasn’t shot in the arm she was shot in the chest.”

Her sister-in-law added: “Part of a bullet ricocheted off and hit her in the pinky, and they also had to do a little bit of repair to her pinky as well.”

Orey successfully underwent surgery Monday, and is expected to be okay.

[San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore] said the deputies thought Orey’s open gate looked suspicious, so they went into her backyard. The deputies ran into Orey, and one of them had a “spontaneous reaction.”

Authorities said they did not know exactly what prompted the shooting. They said the woman did not have anything in her hands and was not armed at the time.

Morgan said Orey told him she heard something in her backyard so she went to check it out.

“She saw a flashlight and identified herself as the homeowner and he shot her,” said Orey’s father, Dennis Morgan.

Orey told relatives the deputy told her to lay on her back until paramedics arrived.

Her father said Orey was the first woman accepted in the Navy’s Air and Sea Rescue team and she knew if she stayed on her back she would die, so she turned on her side and waited.

Morgan said he believes the sheriff’s department is downplaying the shooting. “I told them I’m really pissed off,” he said. “I’m pissed off as hell. A cop could have very easily killed my daughter.”

Before she was rushed to the hospital, Orey had one question for the deputy. “After he shot her, she looked at him and said, ‘Why did you shoot me?’” said Morgan. [Emphasis added]

Apparently the officers never responded, and the matter is under investigation.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/calif-police-respond-to-womans-911-...