The Investigators

18:21Harold Dow:A possible fingerprint. Oh, that's nice. That's the challenge that I would always bring in to a crime scene myself when I would go, I know there's evidence here and my job is to find it. The blood drops are concentrated on this panel. At the crime scene, the investigators are still at it, combing every inch of the house. I don't know if you can see all the tiny little dots. That's actually blood spatter. In real time, unlike prime time, it takes much more time than one hour to solve a crime. We've got spatter all along here. It's a painstakingly slow and meticulous process. We're sure that they weren't killed here, right?

18:59Harold Dow:Oh, they were most certainly not. And a long day of work. Okay, her throat is slit. Her throat is slit? Mm-hmm. is turning into what will be an even longer night. His throat appears cut pretty bad. In the real world, this is a very stressful job. You're dealing with a lot of trauma. You're dealing with innocent people who have been brutally murdered. You deal with the pressure of knowing that you only have one chance to process this scene. And once you've done, you can't go back. Seeing people in their own homes murdered, it's a harsh thing to get used to. For a long time, I would hardly ever look at the victims' faces.

19:38Why not? It made it too real.

19:41Harold Dow:Twelve hours after the investigation began, the bodies of the Ruiz family are finally removed from the house. But the investigation has barely begun. The mystery of why these four people were so brutally murdered. There is one piece of evidence still inside the crime scene that will break this case. and it's right under the investigators noses.

20:13We're just going to shut the scene down for the night, get some rest, kind of refresh, come back in in the morning. I read about it this morning. You read this article and it all just comes back.

20:23Harold Dow:Sunday morning's headlines are a chilling reminder for Liz Devine. It's tragic, you know, family wiped out. This is the world she left behind when she traded life as a real crime scene investigator. I did a lot of cases with multiple victims. And went Hollywood. Liz is one of the best crime scene investigators I've ever worked with. Sergeant Larry Mitchell and his team of investigators from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Crime Lab are now entering their second long day of work on this case. So it's a slow process. But they haven't made a dent in the mountain of evidence left behind by the killer of the Ruiz family.

21:03Harold Dow:Because one thing about a crime scene, you only have one time to get it right. There's a certain amount of adrenaline rush to that. It was invigorating, and so I do miss that. There's blood spatter from the door from the base all the way up to about six feet. The Ruiz house looks like something out of a horror movie at first. But a closer inspection reveals what appears to be blood on the walls is, in fact, something else entirely. Not your typical crime scene. There is pancake syrup, Italian dressing, barbecue sauce. There's a thing up here. All kinds of different food products spread all over this room.

21:41Harold Dow:It's a bizarre discovery. But Sergeant Mitchell thinks whoever did this had investigators like him in mind. That's something that you wouldn't normally see at a crime scene. It makes you stop and think. Now, maybe that was why these things were done, to disguise a motive. It's a battle of wits between the killer and the investigators. 27 and 40 inches. When I go into any scene, it's me versus the bad guy. And I know that I'm smarter, and I know that I'm better equipped. And it's just whether or not he's lucky enough that somehow I don't find the evidence. You ever met a smart killer? Not too many.

22:21Harold Dow:But this is a complicated crime scene. Investigators are working in teams. The identification team gathers fingerprint evidence and documents the scene. The biology team analyzes and interprets blood evidence. In the presence of blood, the clear solution turns purple. That's very impressive. 30 hours into the investigation, one tiny detail catches the eye of an investigator. There's a chair out of place. The chair was moved from the dining room into the bedroom. Did the killer move the chair? If so, did he leave some trace behind? To look for prints, investigators use a high-tech gadget called an electrostatic dust lifter.

23:10Harold Dow:Electric charge field will go on the opposite end. See how it's starting to suck down through electrostatic. And then all you just need to do is just kind of roll it out all the way through. Finally, investigators find what they're looking for. It's that needle in the haystack. Multiple prints. Not fingerprints, shoe prints. Best, highest quality one is here. Yeah, that's similar to the bloody shoe prints that are in the bathroom on the north side of the house. That shoe, if we find it, we can make a conclusive match with that, with those marks. This is, that's excellent. It's imperative to get it photographed as soon as you can.

23:56Harold Dow:With photos of the shoe prints in hand. We find shoes that match these footprints, and we got the killer. Detective Ray Peavy sends his homicide detectives to interview neighbors, including one person they know has had a run-in with the Ruiz family. As we speak, we've got investigators going out to a house nearby. In this house, just around the corner, they find their suspect wearing a pair of shoes with soles similar to the prints lifted from the chair. The shoes were taken to our crime lab. The shoes were brought in. Bob Kyle is, among other things, an expert in shoe prints. I have the actual evidence item here, and I turned it over, and almost immediately I could see that we had potential for the correct shoes.

24:44Why?

24:44Harold Dow:What can you see here? I can see right away that there's a cut that runs across these three elements. And what does that correspond to in this photo? And that cut corresponds to this area on the shoe print. How certain are you? 100%. You're 100 % certain? Yes, there is no doubt in my mind that these prints came from this pair of shoes to the exclusion of all other shoes in the world. That was good enough for detectives. Less than 48 hours after the murders, they arrested 23-year-old Alfonso Morales. The footprint was crucial. It did make the hair stand on the back of my neck. I knew at that point I'm going to have a hand in this and this person is going to answer.

25:27Harold Dow:When the crime scene investigators searched Morales' house, they turned up even more evidence. We believe the contents inside this bin belong to the victims that were murdered. Morales, it turns out, not only lived nearby, he occasionally helped Miguel Ruiz with his computer business. Investigators think the two men had a falling out when Morales was told to stay away from Ruiz's daughters. CS1EE is an NEC flat screen monitor. Appears to be a number of small blood stains on the screen. A lot of stains here on the sides of the keys and on the side. In the midst of all the evidence... Reddish stains on the cord.

26:11Harold Dow:Only an expert can comprehend... Reddish stain on cord, KM positive for blood. There's one thing they found at the scene anyone can understand. A camera with photos of the Ruiz family taken just days before the murder. So in this one awful day, you lost your brother, your niece, your grandmother. And my sister-in-law. Miguel Ruiz's sister, Olga. How would you like them to be remembered? Just a typical family who loved each other very much. A crowd of their neighbors turned out to honor the Ruiz family and share their grief.

27:00Harold Dow:One neighbor was absent. Case of people versus Alfonso Ignacio Morales. Since we last brought you this story in October, Alfonso Morales pled not guilty at his preliminary hearing. He remains in jail waiting for his trial and could face the death penalty. Hey, man, you guys did a great job. So all you guys have got the weekend off. But even as they worked the Ruiz case, other work was already piling up. It was a bloody four days in L.A. We had 17 homicides. Even for us, that's quite a run in such a short amount of time. You know, when you see multiple people massacred like that, it's very difficult.

27:42And everybody has their own way to cope with it. and that's part of the skill of being an investigator. Everybody in this unit is here because they want to be here and this is what they want to do. They love the challenge, work in these difficult scenes. They love the opportunity to put their skills to work and we're fine. We're ready for the next one.

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29:38Harold Dow:Tucked away on a narrow street in the exclusive Benedict Canyon section of Los Angeles sits a slightly run-down mansion known locally as the Castle. It was here two years ago that a Halloween party suddenly turned deadly. A fatal shooting that still haunts people today who wonder how could this have happened. If you look outside at the position that someone would be firing a weapon, that's an awfully elevated angle. Tom Streed is here trying to figure that out. This is a crime scene photograph. A former homicide detective turned forensic investigator. You ever seen a shooting where the officers repaired all of the gunshot holes?

30:22Harold Dow:Streed specializes in crime scene reconstruction. With the track through the torso, you've got an entrance and an exit site. It's his job to put all the pieces of evidence together and come up with a theory of how this fatal shooting occurred. It's about getting to the truth of the matter. It could be Streed's biggest case. It's certainly the most publicized. Los Angeles officials are investigating a weekend shooting. The LAPD is under fire for the shooting death this past weekend. There was gunfire, bloodshed and death. The victim? A 39-year-old actor named Anthony Dwayne Lee. The shooter? A third-year Los Angeles police officer, Terrell Hopper.

31:00Harold Dow:The officer believes that he was in danger. The police quickly defended Hopper's actions, calling the shooting justified. But was it? The incident began innocently enough in the early morning hours of October 28, 2000. Hopper and his partner responded to a routine radio call. A neighbor's complaint about loud noise coming from the castle Halloween party. Upon arriving, the officers entered the house and began searching for the owner. They proceeded down some steps that they described into the bar room area. At this point, they turned to the right. They came up this series of three steps and then moved down this direction.

31:49The officer states that he shined a flashlight through a door pane. Witnesses on the inside said that they saw a light, but they couldn't determine who was shining the flashlight.

32:01Harold Dow:One of the partygoers in that room, with his back turned towards Officer Hopper, was Anthony Lee. He looks around and spots the flashlight and sticks his hand into his waistband and starts to pull the weapon. And at this point, Officer Hopper drew his weapon and began firing. Within seconds, Officer Hopper, seen here in an LAPD recreation of the shooting, fired all nine rounds in his semi-automatic handgun. Four of the shots hit Lee, killing him on the spot. Then, a tragic discovery. The gun that Lee was allegedly pointing at the officer turned out to be a replica of a.357 Magnum. A movie prop worn by Lee as part of his Halloween costume.

32:49Having him gone, there's just a really big piece that's missing in my life.

32:53Harold Dow:Lee's younger sister, Tina. I remember that was the first thing I thought of when I realized he was dead was, oh God, who do I call now? There's no one I can call now. Lee was a hardworking actor whose career was beginning to heat up. He'd had a small role in Liar Liar with Jim Carrey. Miranda, I won't lie. Then we'll just have to find someone who will. And regularly appeared in television dramas. You think this family being black means I'm not interested in clearing this case? I think when it comes to black-owned black violence, people are all too ready to shake their heads and accept it. He was really talented, really smart, really ambitious.

33:33He was a very good, very, very good brother.

33:38Harold Dow:Tina has never been satisfied with the official police version of her brother's death. They've always made statements or claims that somehow my brother was to blame for this happening. Tina's doubts became even stronger after the autopsy. The autopsy report is probably the first time I really knew that he was shot in the back. Shot in the back four times? Yes. We're talking about four shots that struck this individual in the backside of his body. Three times in the upper portion of his back and one time in the back of the head. That's an awful long time presenting his back to the officer. It was presented by LAPD that the officer had to do it.

34:16The individual not only pulled the gun, but also pointed it directly at the officer. And then to hear that he was shot in the back really raised a lot of questions in my mind.

34:26Harold Dow:Questions which prompted Tina to hire a lawyer, and not just any lawyer. This is a case that cries out for some sort of justice, it seems to me. Johnny Cochran represents Tina in the multimillion-dollar wrongful death suit she's filed against the LAPD and Officer Hopper. Now, nobody's saying this particular Officer Hopper got up. Went to work that evening and said, I'm going to go out and shoot somebody. But he was negligent. He violated his own rules. And the thing that really probably troubles me as much as anything, the LAPD found the shooting within policy. In fact, separate investigations by the LAPD and the District Attorney's Office concluded that Officer Hopper was justified in his use of deadly force.

35:09Harold Dow:No criminal charges were filed against him. I think they said something, he may need a little more training. Well, he needs a lot more training. Succinctly stated, a man at a costume party inside of a room who can't see outside is shot by a person who doesn't identify himself. So what do we do? We shoot first and then ask questions later. That's what happened. This is not acceptable police work. What's amazing is how close they were to each other. These folks were separated by no more than five to six feet. And Streed points out something else the police will have to explain. The apparent contradiction between Officer Hopper's statement after the shooting and the coroner's report.

35:50Officer Hopper stated that the entire time that he fired at Mr. Lee, Mr. Lee was posing a threat. But the problem with that is that the gunshot wounds were in Mr. Lee's back.

36:01Harold Dow:He couldn't turn around and get his back to this officer by the time he shoots. That's ridiculous. So he's lying. He's lying. But is he? When the subject points a gun at the camera, you say bang. The LAPD has its own expert. Bang. With some surprising revelations.

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38:13I always loved this picture because this is when he was a little boy.

38:16Harold Dow:To this day, Tina Lee can't understand. Afro, big afro. And the powder blue suit, it was just so classic 70s. How her older brother Anthony, a successful character actor. It was so good and there was so much promise. Could end up dead.

38:35Harold Dow:Shot to death at a Halloween party by Los Angeles police officer Terrell Hopper, who thought a fake gun Lee pointed at him was real. It's Halloween. People are going to be dressed up. You're going to see things. Confusing situation at best. I just don't know what the officer was thinking. The officer believes that he was in danger and others were in danger and he had to take actions. The LAPD immediately came under pressure, which intensified after the autopsy revealed Lee was shot in the back four times. They came out strongly and said he was pointing a gun at the officer. You got something for me?

39:10Harold Dow:Tina's attorney, Johnny Cochran, blames the LAPD for Lee's death. If you were pointing a gun at the officer and the officer's firing at you, you'd expect the man would be hit in the face, in the torso, in the front. That wasn't the case. He was shot in the back. These projectiles travel anywhere between 900 and about 1 ,100 feet per second. Forensic investigator Tom Streed. Well, can you spin around at a rate of 1 ,100 feet per second? I don't think so. The Los Angeles Police Department turned down our request for an interview with them and Officer Hopper. Even so, there is an expert who thinks he can explain why Lee was shot in the back.

39:52Okay, let's do it again, this time with a little resistance.

39:55Harold Dow:His name is Bill Lewinsky. Remember the temporal and integral angle? Lewinsky, who teaches law enforcement at Minnesota State University, has spent years doing time analysis research on the moves suspects make when they pull guns on cops. My goal was to understand how quickly the weapon could move forward and shoot at the officer. In other words, how much reaction time would the officer have? The LAPD heard about Lewinsky's research and contacted him. But why? The shooting fits very closely with one of the motions that I studied. It's called the 180-degree turn to square back position. We need to take a look at two things here, how long it takes to pull the trigger and how quickly someone can do that turn.

40:38Harold Dow:Ballistics tests conducted by the LAPD, similar to this one, which 48 hours arranged, estimated that it took Officer Hopper about two seconds to draw and fire all nine shots of his.45 caliber handgun. But keep in mind, only four of the nine shots hit Lee. Five shots missed. What do you make of that? I believe those five shots were the first five rounds that were fired. And the last four rounds were the ones that impacted on Mr. Lee. He had to have time to do the turn. But could Lee have made a 180-degree turn in the time it took Hopper to fire those first five rounds? About one second? Okay, if we look at this motion, you see how quick that rotation can occur.

41:27If we look at frames, we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven frames, eight, 24 one-hundredths of a second. And the average subject is almost half a second.

41:45Harold Dow:Half a second, giving Lee more than enough time, says Lewinsky, to have turned his back square to Officer Hopper. His conclusion? The first round's firing. caused Mr. Lee to realize this was for real, and he had to get out of there. And then he moved into the shots as he was turning. And that quick turn he made, you're saying, basically, it would appear as though the officer shot him in the back when there was no longer a threat. That's correct. To further prove his point, Lewinsky set up a simple demonstration. When the gun is pointed at you, you say, bang. That's all I got to do. That's all you got to do.

42:28Bang.

42:28Harold Dow:He shot me, but now I shot him in the back. You shot him in the back. Bang. And I shot him in the back? You shot him in the back. Bang. It's very quick. Bang, bang, bang, bang. I shot him square in the back. It's tough. Now, this is not a blanket excuse for cops shooting people in the back. But it does explain how an officer could see a situation justifiably, shoot at the subject that's presenting the threat, and yet have a vastly different outcome.

43:06The one factor that is etched in granite is that that person had their back to the shooter at the time they were shot. But when we measure this, it'll give us a deflection.

43:16Harold Dow:Streed's theory of the shooting, depicted in this forensic animation, is very different from Lewinsky's. He believes the first four shots fired by Hopper hit Lee in the back, spinning him around before he fell to the floor. But even if Lewinsky's theory is correct, it still doesn't explain why Officer Hopper fired all nine rounds from his handgun. These weapons are fired in bursts of two or three. And then you assess the necessity for additional shots. And the officer didn't do that. that he stood in the front of this glass doorway and fired nine shots. Firing through glass with a muzzle flash, that many rounds occurring so quickly, could he stop his action?

44:03Two seconds? We're expecting a lot from someone when they're facing their own death.

44:09Harold Dow:But as far apart as Streed and Lewinsky may be on what really happened the night Anthony Lee was shot, there is one thing they do agree on. I don't have any doubt in my mind that Anthony Lee thought the officer was somebody from the Halloween party. And that's why he did what he did. There's no reason that anyone would pull a fake weapon and point it at a police officer under these circumstances. What occurred was an absolute tragedy. It's a tragedy like so many officer-involved shootings are, a real tragedy. Tragedy for the officer. Tragedy for the department, the community. And most of all for Mr.

44:50Lee and his family. It's really hard when I look at my daughter because I just know he would have been just a wonderful uncle. And it's just so hard because I know that she'll never know how wonderful he was.

45:02Harold Dow:Tina's wrongful death suit against Hopper and the LAPD was settled in February, more than two years after Lee was killed. The agreed upon amount of$225 ,000 was far less than she had originally sued for. But for Tina, it's not the money, but the message that matters. I'm hoping somehow that, if nothing else, if it makes LAPD think a little bit more about their policies and how they train their officers, if it makes them hold their officers just a little bit more accountable, if they take more seriously investigating officer-involved shootings, then at least that's a step in the right direction.

45:39In 2005, Alfonso Morales was convicted of all four murders and sentenced to death. In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered a moratorium on executions in California. Amazon Music has everything you want to listen to. Music, podcasts, and now audiobooks. All in one app. Amazon Music Unlimited. Audiobooks included.