PASADENA – A police report filed after the officer-involved shooting that killed Kendrec McDade lists the two officers as victims and McDade as a suspect, according to documents reviewed Thursday by this newspaper.

Pasadena police Officers Jeffrey Newlen and Matthew Griffin shot and killed McDade, 19, late Saturday after responding to a report – which police now say was false – of an armed robbery in Northwest Pasadena.

As victims, Griffin and Newlen, are eligible for the same monetary compensation available to all crime victims in California, officials said.

Police Lt. Phlunte Riddle said it’s a common practice in the department to list officers who shoot suspects as victims.

“In their minds,

(the officers) felt fear for their lives, and they become the victims in that case,” Riddle said.

Griffin and Newlen could be eligible for compensation such as medical expense reimbursement and psychological care, said Sandi Gibbons, a Los Angeles County district attorney’s spokeswoman.

Just before a candlelight vigil for McDade, a one-time Azusa High school football standout, community activist James Smith blasted the Police Department.

“They are playing semantics, and when it comes down to the real uncovering of the details, no one can qualify themselves as a victim when they are armed and they are in their car,” Smith said.

Classifying officers as victims seem peculiar to First Amendment Coalition

Executive Director Peter Scheer. He said he was not aware of any similar cases.

“They may have experienced fear to the point as to see themselves as victims,” Scheer said.

“But I still think it strikes me as odd to include that in a police report given that what they experienced is what they are trained to experience.”

Scheer questioned whether the fear felt by officers wasn’t to be expected as a part of routine police work.

“Isn’t that part of their job?”

Scheer said.

The department declined to release recording of the radio transmission from the evening of the shooting to this newspaper. A similar request was made by the Pasadena branch of the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Police have booked Oscar Carrillo, 26, of Pasadena on suspicion of manslaughter and alleged that he made a false 9-1-1 call indicating that McDade and an unidentified 17-year-old accomplice were armed. Carrillo was booked Wednesday afternoon.

The District Attorney’s Office hasn’t decided whether to charge Carrillo.

McDade family attorney Caree Harper remained critical Thursday of the time it took Pasadena police to arrest Carrillo.

Griffin

and Newlen aren’t the first Pasadena officers to be classified as victims after an officer-involved shooting.

The officers who shot Leroy Barnes were also listed as victims, Riddle said.

“Go back and look at the (Leroy) Barnes incident. That’s definitely the standard,” Riddle said.

“They were in the commission of their duties, and they are the victims in the case.”

Smith, the community activist, questioned the logic.

“If there was retaliation on the officers, and they were fired on, call them victims. But we all know now there was no gun,” Smith said.

McDade family attorney Harper said police departments often list officers as victims to shield law enforcement from civil suits.

“It makes it difficult, if not impossible, to sue in civil court,” Harper said.

Scheer said agencies could use the tactic to turn the tables on plaintiffs in a lawsuit.

“If (officers) are concerned about the possibility of lawsuit against them individually, the statement where they said they were also harmed could lay the groundwork for a counterclaim,” Scheer said.

frank.girardot@sgvn.com

626-578-6300, ext. 4478