One of two officers fired fatal shot

Ed Koch, Jace Radke and Art Nadler

Monday, May 17, 1999 | 11:38 a.m.

Police say ex-felon trying to flee in stolen pickup

The police bullet that killed Donald Oswalt on Thursday came from the passenger side of the car, but Metro Police investigators have not said which officer fired the shot. That information is expected to come out during a coroner's inquest, which has not been scheduled.

Police say the bullet entered Oswalt's right arm and worked its way into his body as he tried to drive from the scene at 6200 S. Industrial Road. With one officer firing at the driver's side and the other hanging out the passenger side, the fatal bullet would have had to have come from the officer on the passenger side.

The plainclothes officers involved in the shooting were Clifford Mogg, 40, who has been with Metro for three years, and Gregory Ziel, 27, a four-year veteran of the department. Both are members of the Southeast Area Command's problem-solving unit.

Both officers have been placed on administrative leave with pay pending an investigation and coroner's inquest into the shooting at the Britcher Palms Business Center.

Police gave the following account of the events surrounding the shooting:

Mogg and Ziel arrived at the office buildings at 2 p.m. Thursday following an informant's tip that stolen construction equipment would be sold there.

The officers saw Howard Tony DiPietro, 34, of Las Vegas walking through a parking lot about 2:45 p.m., and tried to arrest him on warrants charging him with possession of stolen property and attempted burglary. When he was approached, DiPietro ran and the officers pursued him.

DiPietro, a three-time convicted felon, jumped into a stolen Ford F-150 pickup driven by Oswalt. One of the officers reached the truck before the men could drive away and began struggling with DiPietro through the truck's open passenger door.

Oswalt, a four-time convicted felon, then started to drive away and began slamming the passenger side door into parked vehicles.

Capt. Greg Jolley said the officer on the passenger side of the truck was caught between the door of the vehicle and the truck body, and that he feared for his life. The other officer was also trying to stop the driver.

Jolley would not say which officer was in which position.

Both officers fired one shot each, Jolley said, and the driver was struck in the right arm. The bullet passed through his arm and entered his chest, killing him, Jolley said.

A Metro Police officer at the scene applied cardio-pulmonary resuscitation to try to save Oswalt's life, but was unsuccessful, Jolley said.

DiPietro was booked on charges of battery on a police officer and resisting arrest. Another passenger in the truck, Joan Signorello, 23, was booked on a petty larceny warrant. Jolley said she hasn't been charged in the incident and is believed to have been the girlfriend of the driver.

A rifle was found in the cab of the pickup along with some construction equipment. The vehicle was stolen in April, Jolley said.

The death was the third time an officer was involved in a fatal shooting this year.

"I can remember when we've gone for months without a shooting," Jolley said. "You can't predict when they will occur. We are always concerned at the number of shootings we have, but we have to investigate them on an individual basis."

"No police officer ever wants to use deadly force," Metro spokesman Lt. Rick Alba said.

"Certainly we are trained to protect ourselves and the public, but anybody who has to take a life, it's extremely traumatic," he said, noting that the police department offers counseling to officers and other employees involved in such incidents.

"You know that a decision you make in a split second can affect the rest of your life."

Even when officers are found not liable in the coroner's inquest -- as 85 officers have been in the past 23 years -- "You still had to use deadly force, and no officer wants that," Alba said.