El Monte Police Department

The parents of a man who died in El Monte police custody after being chased down and struggling with officers have filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging deprivation of civil rights. Police said Frank Tranquilino, 31, fought with several officers on Oct. 21, then lost consciousness after he had been handcuffed. Officers said they had suspected he was carrying narcotics and chased him after he ran from them.

An El Monte police officer accused of pointing his service handgun at another motorist during a December 1998 road rage incident pleaded no contest Friday to a lesser charge of disturbing the peace. Officer Frank David Bullington, 33, was sentenced to six months' probation by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patty Schnegg for the misdemeanor offense. The judge also ordered Bullington to pay $250 in fines, plus penalty assessments, and to stay away from the victim.

A local police officer pleaded no contest Friday to a felony charge that she illegally fired another officer's gun behind a Diamond Bar tavern where officers were partying last summer. Pomona Superior Court Commissioner Wade Olson sentenced Officer Kerry Marie Shannon, 30, to three years' probation, ordered her to pay a $1,000 fine plus penalty assessments and perform 500 hours of community service. Although Shannon escaped a prison term, Deputy Dist. Atty.

A judge declared a mistrial Tuesday after the jury deadlocked in the case of an El Monte police officer accused of brandishing his service revolver at another driver on a freeway. The Los Angeles Superior Court jury deadlocked 6-6 after two days of deliberations on a misdemeanor charge against Frank Bullington of drawing or exhibiting a firearm, prosecutors said. Bullington, 32, of West Covina, was off duty when he allegedly waved his .

Hoping to counter public criticism, El Monte police officials Thursday presented evidence that they say supports their decision to conduct a drug raid in Compton last year that led to the fatal shooting of an unarmed grandfather. Relatives of the dead man, Mario Paz, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the cities of El Monte and Compton, alleging that police officers made a fatal error by shooting at Paz, then tried to cover up their mistake by intimidating witnesses.

The family of an unarmed grandfather shot in the back by El Monte police during a SWAT raid in Compton last August filed a wrongful death lawsuit Wednesday against those cities and the veteran officer who fired the deadly rounds. The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, also accuses police officers of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Mario Paz, 65, as well as compounding their fatal error with a cover-up and witness intimidation.

El Monte police officers are going back to high school--for at least three years. Police and school administrators in this San Gabriel Valley city will station four officers full time at each of the city's five high schools beginning Jan. 3. Many cities across the nation are putting police on campus to help ensure safety. El Monte police say they want to curb the number of gang fights and reduce juvenile crime. So they applied for a federal community policing grant and told the U.S.

An El Monte police officer was charged Thursday with illegally discharging a handgun during an off-duty incident outside a bar. Kerry Marie Shannon, 29, is accused of firing one round from a .45-caliber semiautomatic weapon that belonged to another officer, a prosecutor said. The incident occurred just after midnight July 21 in an alley behind Kick's Bar in Diamond Bar, where Shannon and several other rookie officers had been celebrating the end of their probationary periods, Deputy Dist. Atty.

The Police Department will hand out trigger locks to local gun owners for free on Saturday as it conducts its fifth gun buy-back program aimed at reducing the number of weapons in the community. The locks will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis, and the police will pay $50 for a handgun or rifle. "We are very serious about making El Monte a safe community.

Police Chief Wayne Clayton has announced that he will retire at the end of 2000, after 42 years on the force. Asst. Chief Bill Ankeny will become the new chief. Ironically, Ankeny had announced his own retirement just last month because he said there was no indication that Clayton was going to step down in the near future. Clayton, 66, is credited with creating a tough community policing program, which has helped keep crime down in one of the county's poorest cities.