Alcohol, PTSD diagnosis cited in parallel reviews of off-duty LAPD campsite shooting
A Los Angeles police officer who was criminally charged with shooting a fellow cop at an Apple Valley campsite last year has avoided criminal conviction after entering into a diversion program for those with mental disorders, but still faces administrative sanctions and possible firing after LAPD overseers found his actions violated department policies.
The dual outcomes reflected two different assessments of the shooting, which a review of LAPD records and San Bernardino County court filings revealed was a harrowing ordeal around a campfire in the remote desert, where Officer Ismael Tamayo imagined phantom threats and unloaded a 9-millimeter Glock at his friends before they fled on foot in search of help.
According to police officials who reviewed the incident, the shooting was precipitated by the officers drinking beer and whiskey for hours, and ended in Tamayo breaking almost every conceivable LAPD standard for using deadly force — whether he meant to shoot his fellow officer or not.
Tamayo's attorney and a judge in the separate San Bernardino County criminal case, however, honed in on another factor that went entirely unmentioned in the police review: Tamayo's diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in overseas combat with the U.S. Army.
Greg Yacoubian, Tamayo's attorney, argued in court and in an interview with The Times that Tamayo was suffering from dissociation related to his PTSD, believed he was in a combat setting, and reverted to his military training. He never intended to shoot his friend, LAPD Officer Mark Mascareno, Yacoubian said.
According to court records, the presiding judge in Tamayo's criminal case agreed that Tamayo's PTSD "played a role in the commission of the offense," and that he met other eligibility criteria for the mental health diversion program, including that he did not pose an ongoing threat and would respond well to treatment.
The judge reached that conclusion despite opposition from San Bernardino County prosecutors, who objected to diversion in the case. Tamayo, who was released on bail in the matter, is now receiving treatment.
Mascareno sued Tamayo in a civil case that was later dismissed. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
Whether Tamayo's PTSD might impact the adjudication of the administrative case that LAPD officials are pursuing against him remains unclear.
A report by LAPD Chief Michel Moore that outlined an internal investigation into the incident and informed the Los Angeles Police Commission's vote earlier this month that Tamayo broke LAPD policies in the encounter and made no mention of the diagnosis, which Yacoubian called "outrageous."
"The commission's vote was made with critical information withheld," Yacoubian said. "The department was provided with documentation related to PTSD dissociation. All of that was ignored."
Capt. Stacy Spell, an LAPD spokesman, said the department "stands by the contents" of the report and its "rationale" for why Tamayo was out of policy, believed that "all relevant information was provided" to the commission, and would not comment on the case further.
According to the report, Tamayo, Mascareno and an unidentified LAPD sergeant had driven to the Stoddard Wells Off-Highway Vehicle Area on May 2, where there was a mountain they could shoot toward for target practice. In the evening, they cooked hamburgers, drank and listened to music, the beer making way for whiskey.
Mascareno told investigators that, about 1 a.m., Tamayo announced he had to urinate, got up and "stumbled" away. After a few moments, Mascareno looked in the direction Tamayo had gone and noticed his silhouette, "hunched over" in an odd way.
"Why are you being so creepy?" Mascareno recalled asking. Then, as he got up and moved toward one of the cots, he realized Tamayo was holding his Glock "in a double hand pose" with his arms extended over the bed of one of the trucks, aiming between Mascareno and the sergeant.
The sergeant recalled Mascareno saying, "Dude, what the f— are you doing with the gun?"
Tamayo then lowered the gun, but Mascareno said he got up again not long after to retrieve something from his truck and noticed Tamayo was again near the truck with his gun raised. Before he could say anything, he said, Tamayo fired multiple shots, striking him once in the left shoulder.
"Hey, you f—ing shot me bro. I love you. Why the f— you shoot me?" Mascareno said, according to Moore's report.
The sergeant said he saw Mascareno "go down" and immediately began moving toward Tamayo and demanding he drop the gun. He said Tamayo said "f— you" in response in "a threatening and uncharacteristic voice," the report said.
The sergeant then took cover, and lost sight of Tamayo. Mascareno pulled out his own pistol but said he couldn't hold it because of all the blood on his hands. Eventually he and the sergeant, unable to find keys to the trucks, fled on foot to find help at other campsites.
Mascareno managed to reach a nearby campsite, where he was picked up by ambulance, driven to a local airport and then flown to a hospital. The sergeant was not injured and eventually connected with San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies who responded to the scene.
According to Moore's report, other deputies arrived in a helicopter about 2 a.m. and began a search of the surrounding desert for Tamayo. They located him still armed and laying on his back about 500 yards from the group's campsite. Tamayo initially ignored commands from the helicopter unit to drop his weapon, but eventually complied and was taken into custody without further violence, Moore's report said.
The report said that, as Tamayo was being taken into custody, he said to a deputy, "What's going on? I was being shot at."
In his statement to investigators, Tamayo said he remembered getting up to urinate, and then hearing a threatening voice in the darkness that did not sound like either of his friends. He said he looked back to the campsite where he believed the others were and didn't see them. Then he said he heard a gunshot.
Tamayo said he believed he and his friends were being "ambushed," and that the other two had already been killed. He said he got down on one knee and fired three shots, then decided to walk up the nearby mountain for "higher ground" so he could "come up with a plan" for what to do next.
According to Moore's report, a Use of Force Review Board determined that Tamayo's recollections and perceptions of what occurred did not match reality, and that "a preponderance of evidence indicates that no threat existed."
Even if Tamayo had heard a voice or a gunshot as he described, none of his actions would have been appropriate, the board found. It noted officers "should abstain from consuming alcohol while maintaining control of firearms."
Tamayo's blood was not tested for alcohol until about nine hours after the shooting, Moore's report said, but even then his blood-alcohol content was at 0.085%, or slightly above the legal limit for driving a car in California.
Asked about the case this week, Spell said Moore will decide what punishment to recommend for Tamayo "in the next couple weeks." The penalty, if serious, would go before another administrative panel known as a Board of Rights for adjudication.
Tamayo had his police powers revoked after the shooting and remains assigned home pending the outcome of the administrative case, the LAPD said.
Yacoubian said Tamayo, a 14-year veteran of the LAPD who served multiple Army tours including in Iraq before leaving the service as a sergeant first-class in 2015, wants to continue serving the community and "doesn't have any intention of just throwing his hands up" in the face of the administrative charges against him.
Yacoubian acknowledged that alcohol may have played some role in the shooting, but only in concert with the dissociation Tamayo was experiencing.
A commission spokesman, in a statement, said the commission was legally precluded from commenting on Yacoubian's claims or whether it had considered Tamayo's PTSD diagnosis in determining he had broken LAPD policies.
Commissioner Steve Soboroff, in an interview, said he also could not comment on Tamayo's case but stressed that every LAPD officer is subject to the same standards and policies.
"If someone [enters the LAPD from the military] and has PTSD or depression or anything else, does that put them at another standard than any other officer?" Soboroff said. "The answer would be a resounding no."
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
