Parole firing upheld

Friday, July 19, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A state parole officer, who fired four shots to stop a 16-year-old boy suspected of shoplifting in Henderson, is not going to get his job back.

State Hearing Officer John J. Graves Jr. said parole officer Carl N. Little Sr. should have "backed off" instead of pursuing the suspect and firing the shots inside and at the fleeing car.

"The carrying of a loaded pistol in government service is not a carte blanche license to draw down on evildoers where you find them, and try to blast them to smithereens," Graves said in a decision released Thursday.

The incident, Graves said, showed "the panicked reaction of a rattled officer who forgot his training." Regulations of the parole division say a gun should be fired only to protect his or the life of another.

"To use deadly force on a misdemeanor suspect is unthinkable, and borders on a stark indifference to human life," the hearing officer wrote.

Little, a four-year employee of the Parole and Probation Division, was off-duty when he saw a confrontation between a young man and an employee of the Mega Food Store in Henderson on the night of Feb. 26, 1995.

The young man apparently was trying to steal a bottle of liquor which was hidden under his coat. Little identified himself and tried to intervene, but the young man bolted and jumped into a waiting car with two others. Little followed and reached inside the car with his left arm, apparently to pull the suspect out.

The boy grabbed Little's arm and the driver started to back up the car. Little pulled his pistol and fired the first round at the driver. Little's arm was released.

The car then pulled forward and Little fired three shots at the vehicle which drove away. Little said he feared for his life. He conceded at his appeals hearing in March this year that he had been trained not to shoot at a moving vehicle.

Little told the hearing officer that he was out of control due to adrenalin and his life was in imminent danger. He testified his training was that he was to be a crime fighter 24 hours a day and to react to a situation presented by these facts.

But Graves said Little assumed the "role of a police officer, but without the qualifications of that calling." He said Little fired the first shot to kill the driver. If the driver had been wounded or killed, the vehicle would have been out of control.

Witnesses said that after Little's arm was released by the suspect in the car, the parole officer went into a crouch position, with both hands holding the gun and snapped off three quick shots.

Graves said the vehicle was 40 to 50 feet away and the danger was clearly past when the shots were fired.

"The incident under review was not worth killing for, and the employee should have backed off," Graves said in finding that Little had violated division rules and deserved the dismissal.

"For employee to testify that he should have shot the passenger is astonishing," Graves said.

He said the dismissal in this case was more justified than any other case he has decided in 15 years.